(Luận văn thạc sĩ) a study on brainstorming and its effects on freshmen at tay ha polytechnic college to improve their performance in practicing english skills

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

------  ------

NGUYỄN THỊ LỢI

A STUDY ON BRAINSTORMING AND ITS EFFECTS ON
FRESHMEN AT TAY HA POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE TO IMPROVE
THEIR PERFORMANCE IN PRACTICING ENGLISH SKILLS
(Nghiên cứu về hoạt động động não và hiệu quả của nó đối với sinh viên năm thứ nhất
trường CĐ Bách Nghệ Tây Hà trong việc nâng cao hiệu quả thực hành các kỹ năng
tiếng Anh.)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology
Code: 601410

Hanoi – 2010


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

------  ------

NGUYỄN THỊ LỢI

A STUDY ON BRAINSTORMING AND ITS EFFECTS ON
FRESHMEN AT TAY HA POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE TO IMPROVE
THEIR PERFORMANCE IN PRACTICING ENGLISH SKILLS
(Nghiên cứu về hoạt động động não và hiệu quả của nó đối với sinh viên năm thứ nhất
trường CĐ Bách Nghệ Tây Hà trong việc nâng cao hiệu quả thực hành các kỹ năng
tiếng Anh.)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: ĐINH HẢI YẾN, M.Ed.

Hanoi – 2010


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ........................................................................................ viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1
1.

Rationale ...................................................................................................................... 1

2.

Aims of the study ......................................................................................................... 1

3.

Research questions....................................................................................................... 2

4.

Scope of the study ........................................................................................................ 2

5.

Method of the study ..................................................................................................... 2

6.

Design of the study ...................................................................................................... 3

7.

Summary ...................................................................................................................... 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 5
1.

Generating ideas in writing .......................................................................................... 5

2.

Some typical ways of generating ideas in writing ....................................................... 5
2.1 Using questions ......................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Making notes ............................................................................................................. 6
2.3 Using visuals ............................................................................................................. 6
2.4 Using role play/ simulation ....................................................................................... 6


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2.5 Brainstorming ............................................................................................................ 7
2.5.1 Definition ............................................................................................................ 7
2.5.2 Rules of brainstorming ....................................................................................... 8
2.5.3 Popular variations of brainstorming ................................................................... 9
2.5.3.1 Individual brainstorming .............................................................................. 9
2.5.3.2 Nominal group technique ........................................................................... 9
2.5.3.3 Roundrobin Brainstorming ........................................................................ 10
2.5.3.4 Brainwriting ............................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................ 12
1.

The context of the study ............................................................................................ 12

2.

Participants ................................................................................................................ 13

3.

The experimental program ......................................................................................... 13
3.1 Syllabus of writing lessons ...................................................................................... 13
3.2 Activities.................................................................................................................. 14
3.3 Role of the teacher and the students ........................................................................ 15

4.

Data collection instruments ....................................................................................... 15
4.1 Pre- test and post- test.............................................................................................. 15
4.2 Pre and post questionnaires ..................................................................................... 16
4.3 Observation.............................................................................................................. 16

5.

Data collection procedures......................................................................................... 16

6.

Methods of data analysis ............................................................................................ 18
6.1 Data Analysis of Pre- test and Post- test.................................................................. 18
6.2 Analysis of questionnaires ....................................................................................... 18

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................................ 20
1. The findings of the study ............................................................................................... 20
1.1.2 The results of post-tests scores of the two groups ............................................ 21


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1.1.3 The results of the experimental group‘s writing performance after the
experiment ................................................................................................................. 23
1.2. The results of Questionnaires ................................................................................. 25
1.2.1
Comparison of students‘ attitudes towards writing before and after the
experiment ................................................................................................................. 25
1.2.2
1.3

Comparison of students‘ participation before and after the program ......... 28

Result of Observation Analysis .......................................................................... 31

2. Discussions on the study results .................................................................................... 32
2.1 Effects of brainstorming on the students‘ writing proficiency ................................ 32
2.2 Effects of brainstorming on students‘ attitude towards writing and their
participation in the writing lessons. ............................................................................... 33
2.3 Students‘ opinions about brainstorming .................................................................. 33
3. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 34
PART C: CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 35
1.

Summary of the main findings and conclusion ......................................................... 35

2.

Pedagogical implications ........................................................................................... 35
2.1 Preparation and experience in brainstorming are essential ..................................... 35
2.2 Using brainstorming in cooperation with other idea-generating tools .................... 36
2.3 Reinforce both individual and group brainstorming................................................ 36

2.4 Process for an effective brainstorming session........................................................ 36

3.

Limitations and suggestions for further research ....................................................... 39

REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 40
APPENDIXES ............................................................................................................................. I
APPENDIX I: PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................................. I
APPENDIX 2: POST-QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................................... III
APPENDIX 3: CRITERIA FOR STUDENTS‘ WRITING ASSESSMENT ........................ V


vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Df:

Degree of freedom

T:

Obtained value

Tcrit:

Critical value

P value: Probability value
P:

Alpha level (probability level)


viii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Page
Figure 1: Pre-test results of both groups .......................................................................... 20
Table 1: Pre-test descriptive statistics .............................................................................. 21
Figure 2: Post-test results of both groups......................................................................... 22
Table 2: Post-test descriptive statistics ............................................................................ 22
Figure 3: Pre-test and Post-test results of the experimental group .................................... 24
Table 3: Pre-test and post-test descriptive statistics of the experimental group................. 24
Table 4: Students‘ interest in writing skill ....................................................................... 26
Table 5: Students‘ opinions of writing in English ............................................................ 27
Table 6: Students‘ preferences for form of activities........................................................ 28
Table 7: Students‘ participation in writing lessons........................................................... 29
Table 8: Students‘ opinions about brainstorming ............................................................. 30


1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The world is developing rapidly and becomes smaller and smaller thanks to the
exchange of culture and economy with English being an important international
communicative tool. Therefore, in Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject at
schools and colleges.
At Tay Ha Polytechnic College, a non- English major institution, the Managing Board

and English teachers are aware of English‘s importance and try their best to help the
students get a good achievement in English skills. As a teacher in Tay Ha Polytechnic
College, I often receive the complaints from the students, especially the first year students
that English is too difficult for them to learn and although they tried their best, their
English performance was still poor. The reasons lie in students‘ limited background
knowledge, poor pronunciation, poor vocabulary and poor use of grammatical structures.
Most typical of all is students‘ lack of ideas in both oral and written presentation. This fact
inspired me to investigate the way to help my students whose English efficiency is low
overcome difficulties in generating ideas when practicing English skills. In this regard,
brainstorming is possibly an effective activity which might be used to generate ideas in
small groups within a specified period of time. That is the reason why I wish to conduct
the research on brainstorming and its effects on freshmen at Tay Ha Polytechnic College
with a hope to help them improve their performance in practicing English skills.
2. Aims of the study
This study is primarily targeted at examining the effects of brainstorming on
improving the students‘ performance in English skills, especially writing skill, so as to
change their attitude to writing as well as to enhance the students‘ participation in English
writing classes at Tay Ha Polytechnic College.
Furthermore, it is expected to give some implications for improvement of the teaching
and learning of English skills, particularly writing skill for teachers and students at Tay Ha
Polytechnic College.


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3. Research questions
To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, this study was designed to test the
following hypothesis:
- H1: Students who take part in the experimental brainstorming activities will make more
improvement in writing performance than those who do not.

- H0: There is no difference in writing performance between students who take part in the
experimental brainstorming activities and those who do not.
In order to draw the conclusion on which hypothesis would be accepted, the following
research questions are raised:
1) How does brainstorming affect the first-year students’ writing skill at Tay Ha
Polytechnic College?
2) What are the effects of brainstorming on the students’ attitude towards writing and
the participation in in-class writing lessons?
3) What are the students’ opinions about brainstorming?
4. Scope of the study
Writing is one of the popular ways for people to communicate with each other.
Moreover, writing can help our students to learn the language better as it gives them the
chances to make use of grammatical structures and vocabulary they have learned.
Although writing plays such an important role, I realized that my students did not actively
take part in the writing lessons and their writing skill is much far from satisfaction. Thus,
writing seems to be the most challenging skill for most students. Due to the constraint of
time and the page limit of a minor thesis, in this study I just focus on studying the effects
of brainstorming on writing skill of the first year students of Tay Ha Polytechnic College
in the second term. The syllabus was based on the writing task in course book material
―New Cutting Edge- Elementary‖ by Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor (2005).
5. Method of the study


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The main research method employed in this study to find out the answers to the
proposed research questions within the scope of the study is a quasi- experimental design
which involves the three basic components of experiments according to Seliger and
Shohamy (1989:136): the population (the first year students at Ta Ha Polytechnic
College), the treatment (brainstorming) and the measurement of the treatment (t-test).

Besides, the pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire were also delivered to the
students taking part in the experiment as a complementary tool to obtain their opinion
about changes in their attitude towards writing. In addition, observation was employed
during the teaching time to recognize the difference in participation between the control
group and experimental group.
6.

Design of the study

The study is composed of three main parts: Introduction, Development with three
chapters, and Conclusion.
The introduction presents an overview of the study with the rationale for the research, the
aims and the research questions of the study. It also narrows the scope, presents the
research method and outlines the content of the study.
The development includes three chapters:
Chapter 1 presents the literature review that is relevant to the study.
Chapter 2 describes the research methods used in the study with the necessary
components before supplying the information about the procedures of collecting the data
in details.
Chapter 3 displays the findings and discussions from the collected data analysis.
The Conclusion presents a summary of major findings from which some pedagogical
implications were derived. It also provides some limitations and suggestions for further
study.


4

7.

Summary

The first part has given an overview of study including the rationale, the aims as well
as the research hypothesis and questions of the study. Besides, the research method
employed and the design of the study have been presented. In chapter 1 of the next part, a
theoretical framework for the study will be discussed.


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Generating ideas in writing
Since writing is primarily about organizing information and communicating
meaning, generating ideas is clearly a crucial part of the writing process. Because actually
getting started is one of the most difficult steps in writing, idea- generating is particularly
important as an initiating process (White & Arndt, 1991).
To assist in generating ideas, at this initial stage, there are two main kinds of
discovery techniques: ‗guided‘ and ‗unguided‘. Guided techniques are those in which a
range of prompts - usually questions - is provided to enable writers to discover ideas. The
answers which the writer produces are determined by the prompts. Unguided techniques
are those in which writers do not rely on external prompts, but generate ideas themselves.
2. Some typical ways of generating ideas in writing
A part from brainstorming, White & Arndt (1991) suggested some ways of generating
ideas as follows:
2.1 Using questions
Questions are an important prompt for writers. This technique stimulates creativity
and promotes everyone's participation because no one has to come up with answers. The
answers to the questions form the framework for constructing future action plans. Once
the list of questions is set, it may be necessary to prioritize them to reach to the best
solution in an orderly way. Indeed, one of the skills of a good writer is to think of

interesting questions to ask because these yield interesting answers. This technique is
probably used in pair work or group work.
As with brainstorming, a topic can be given to writers who then use a series of
questions to stimulate thinking, to draw on their experience and to develop and shape their
ideas. It is important to realize that the aim is not to stifle creativity and individualism but
to promote both.


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2.2 Making notes
Making notes is rather like brainstorming on paper with headings which are
designated (either by the students or the teacher) to provide a basis for organizing ideas
when drafting. Note making may be structured or unstructured. In structured note-making,
the teacher or the students themselves nominate headings or categories, and then supply
information under each heading. Unstructured note making is more open-ended approach
in which students are called on to write down any ideas that come to mind on the topic
concerned, without attempting at this stage to organize them. Some familiar note making
schemes are spider-gram, mind-mapping or network.
2.3 Using visuals
Using visuals is an enormously ―fruitful‖ way for idea and vocabulary generation
and a wide range of visually-based material can be used in the teaching of writing. Visual
material can be classified into such types as representational material (photographs,
pictures), realia (physical objects) and symbolic material (charts, diagram, and maps).
Each type of visual has its own particular characteristics appropriate to different kinds of
use. In general, the more detailed and explicit the material, the less room for the writers to
use their imagination. Material which is vague, ambiguous and open to numerous
interpretations provides writers to exercise their creativity, and is specially useful for
stimulating divergent and original writing within a group.
2.4 Using role play/ simulation

Role play and simulations are widely used techniques in which students assume
roles within a context. In role play, students use their own experience and creativity to
imitate a real life situation. Students act out what they would say or do in a given situation.
The acting can last from 5 to 10 minutes. Other students watch and listen carefully. After
the role play, they discuss the performance. When done well, role play increases students‘
confidence, gives them the opportunity to understand or feel empathy for other people‘s
view points or roles, and usually encourages them to come up with practical answers,
solutions or guidelines on various issues.
Role play and simulations have the advantage of stimulating behavior, language
and ideas in a context rather than that of the classroom. For writing, students have a rich


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source of ideas to draw up, and since more than one person is involved, there are different
viewpoints which can be exploited in a subsequent writing task. Also, role play and
simulations can be used as stimuli for many different types of writing (White & Arndt
1991: 42-43).
2.5 Brainstorming
2.5.1 Definition
In the book Total Quality Management (2003:119), Poornima M. Charantimath quoted
the Alex Osborn‘s definition of brainstorming that it is "a conference technique by which a
group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas
spontaneously by its members". In 1953, brainstorming was popularized by Osborn in a
book called Applied Imagination. It is probably one of the most well-known tools of
creative problem solving and has a wide range of applications (Fernald & Nickolenko,
1993; Lecelef, 1994; Stein, 1975, cited in Isaksen, S.G. (1998)). Since 1930, it has been
used successfully in business for invention and innovation (VanGundy, 1981). In the
language classroom, brainstorming is often used in teaching writing. Activities such as
free-association and word-mapping are often included as part of the pre-writing or warmup phase (Richards, 1990:112, cited in Brian Cullen (1998)). Rodriques and Raymond in

―Tools for Developing Prewriting Skills,‖ The English Journal 72, No. 2 (February 1983:
58-60) asserts that prewriting activities, including group brainstorming, are the most
important part of the writing process.
White & Arndt (1991: 18) also assert that brainstorming is a widely used and effective
way of getting ideas flowing. These ideas may be ideas for actual content, or ideas for
organizing the content. Carried out individually, or better still, among a group of people,
brainstorming involves thinking quickly and without inhibition so as to produce as many
ideas as possible in a given area or on a given topic or problem. It is an especially fertile
means of generating ideas, including unique or unorthodox ones, which can ultimately
lead to an interesting piece of writing. Brainstorming can be used to choose a topic,
identify a reason or purpose of writing, find an appropriate form in which to write, develop
a topic, work out a plot, or develop the organization of ideas.


8

Some studies were supportive of brainstorming. Meadow and Parnes (1959) compared
trained subjects working in real groups using brainstorming to an alternative group
approach calling for critical evaluation. Significantly more high-quality solutions were
produced in the brainstorming condition. A number of other scholars have confirmed these
results (Gerlach, Schutz, Baker, & Mazer, 1964; Parloff & Handlon, 1964; Price, 1985;
Weisskopf-Joelson & Eliseo, 1961). Recently, Zhenhui Rao (2007) in the study of
―Training in brainstorming and developing writing skills‖ stated that explicit instruction of
brainstorming strategy had a measurable influence on writing performance and the
students felt positive about the brainstorming strategy. Brainstorming was also proved by
Brian Cullen (1998) to be a very useful activity that can be easily introduced into language
classes where it helps our students to become better learners.
2.5.2 Rules of brainstorming
According to Osborn (1957), brainstorming is an intervention in which individuals,
groups, and organizations adhere to a set of four rules while working in sessions

designated to generate ideas. The rules are:
a) Banish criticism. Negative comments can have an inhibiting effect on an otherwise
fruitful brainstorming session. Criticism can be offered at the end of a brainstorming
session if necessary.
b) Quantity is wanted. Participants in a brainstorming session should aim to produce
as many ideas as possible. The more ideas participants have, the better the chances
they will have good ideas.
c) Freewheeling is welcomed— because it is easier to tame down ideas, participants
are encouraged to share their wild ideas.
d) Combination and improvement are sought. Participants in the brainstorming
session can borrow and expand on others‘ ideas. This is known as piggybacking or
hitchhiking. It suggests that may good ideas can be found by building on or combining
previous ideas.
Osborn (1957) believed that working in groups is more effective than working
individually when using these rules. The participants given brainstorming rules generate


9

more ideas than participants not given the rules (Parnes & Meadow, 1959). Theoretically,
group brainstorming should be advantageous because it allows members to share ideas
(Paulus, 2000). The larger the group, the more domains related to the problem should be
accessed. Furthermore, each member will have a unique cognitive architecture and will
synthesize ideas differently (Stasson & Bradshaw, 1995).
2.5.3 Popular variations of brainstorming
There are numerous variations of brainstorming that can be effective under varied
circumstances. However, in this study I would like to mention four variations of
brainstorming which are highly popular and suitable for language learning.
2.5.3.1 Individual brainstorming
Individual brainstorming is the use of brainstorming on a solitary basis. It typically

includes such techniques as free writing, free speaking, word association, and drawing a
mind map, which is a visual note taking technique in which people diagram their thoughts
(Ravindar Tomar, 2009:85-86). Individual brainstorming is a useful method in creative
writing and has been shown to be superior to traditional group brainstorming. (Furnham,
A. & Yazdanpanahi, T. ,1995)
Although individual brainstorming may not take advantage of the accumulated
experience of other members as in the group, it provides each individual with the freedom
to express his or her ideas without fear of ridicule or rejection. An idea that may have been
hesitant to bring up in a group brainstorming session may come to fruition during the
individual brainstorming process.
In addition to providing personal freedom, individual brainstorming also forces the
brainstormers to dig into the brainstorming process. When an individual brainstorms with
a group of people, he or she may be inclined to allow others to lead the process. When
individual brainstorming is being conducted, there is no one else to rely on, which
motivates the brainstormers to generate ideas and concepts on their own.
2.5.3.2 Nominal group technique


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The nominal group technique is a structured method for group brainstorming that
encourages contributions from everyone (Nancy R. Tague, 2004:364). It is also used to
generate a lot of ideas to assure that all members participate freely without influence from
other participants, identify priorities or select a few alternatives for further examination.
Participants are asked to write their ideas anonymously. Then the moderator collects the
ideas and each is voted on by the group. This process is called distillation. After
distillation, the top ranked ideas may be sent back to the group or to subgroups for further
brainstorming. According to Ravindar Tomar in the book Commercial Operations
Management: Process and Technology to Support Commercial Activities (2009:85), it is
important that the facilitator be trained in this process before attempting to facilitate this

technique. The group should be primed and encouraged to embrace the process. Like all
team efforts, it may take a few practice sessions to train the team in the method before
tackling the important ideas.
2.5.3.3 Roundrobin Brainstorming
Roundrobin brainstorming is a structured form of brainstorming. According to Bruce
Barkley in his book Integrated Project Management (2006:155), during the roundrobin
brainstorming, each participant in turn launches one idea as it relates to the purpose of the
discussion. Every idea is recorded on flip chart or board. When a group participant has
nothing to contribute, he or she can says ―pass‖. The next time around, this person may
offer an idea if he or she wishes or passes again. Ideas are solicited until no one has
anything to add or a fixed period of time has clasped. This is an ideal technique in
providing every participant, including those less expressive, with an equal chance to
contribute. It greatly slows down the more dominant individuals.
2.5.3.4 Brainwriting
Brainwriting is a nonverbal form of brainstorming and is used when ideas are needed
on controversial or emotionally charged topics (L. David Weller, 2004: 435-436). Also
known as the ―group passing technique‖, brainwriting is an approach that stimulates a
group of reticent individuals to contribute to the brainstorming process (Donald E. Lighter,
2009:54). According to Ravindar Tomar in the book Commercial Operations Management


11

(2009:85-86), in the ―group passing technique‖ (brainwriting), each person in a circular
group writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person in a
clockwise direction, who adds some thoughts. This continues until everybody gets his or
her original piece of paper back or the distribution list is exhausted. Advantage of this
method is that generation of ideas is not disturbed by group process. The paper is
anonymous so no one is hindered; ideas can be sketched, and become more detailed and
qualified than in brainstorming (Gijsbert Korevaar, 2004: 137)

In summary, this chapter has presented the literature review relevant to the study
including theoretical background of generating ideas and brainstorming. In the next
chapter, the research methods will be described in detail.


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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
1. The context of the study
The study was conducted at Tay Ha Polytechnic College, a newly founded college
which is located at Tan Lap, Dan Phuong, Ha Noi. The college trains students of such
majors as Accounting, Business Management, Hotel Management and Hospitability,
Finance and Banking, Electronics and Telecommunication, and Information Technology.
Each class has around 50 students.
The students of the college come from many different provinces. They were
accepted to the college through consideration of their national university entrance exam
scores. However, the entrance quality in general is not very high, especially in English
proficiency.
In terms of English learning experiences, the students are classified into two
categories: The first are those that had never learned English at schools; the second are
those that had opportunity to learn English at schools, but just took half-way learning. The
second category makes up a great proportion, about 90 percent. Those belonging to the
first category are not many, basically they are pupils in far-flung and remote areas or
where there is lack of English teachers or due to policy changes. According to the result of
English entry test at the beginning of the first term, the level of most students is just
beginner. Most students show their fear of learning English. It means that most of them
have very little knowledge of English and restart learning English as beginners of English.
Being aware of the importance of English and the need from students, the college
arranged a syllabus of English including 300 periods divided into 5 terms. In the first three
terms, students are taught general English based on the material ―New Cutting Edge‖ by

Sarah Cunningham, Peter Moor (2005), Elementary and Pre-intermediate level. This is a
popular course book that focuses on 4 skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Grammar is also presented clearly in ―Language Focus‖ of each module. The aim of the
first three terms is to provide students with a basic knowledge of English that enables them
to continue with English for Special Purposes in the last two terms. Besides, the college


13

also provides adequate teaching tools such as laboratory, cassettes, projector to support
teaching and learning.
2. Participants
The students taking part in this study were 95 first year students in two accountingmajor classes, KTB and KTC whose age range from 18 to 22. The female students
outnumber the male students in both classes. KTB has 47 students including 8 boys and 39
girls. KTC consists of 11 boys and 37 girls. I decided to choose these two groups for my
study because they had a lot of common features in terms of size, gender, age, English
level as well as motivation to learn. The students in KTB belonged to the control group
and KTC in experimental one.
The study was conducted in their second term, school year 2009-2010, after they
finished the first term with 7 first modules of the textbook ―New Cutting EdgeElementary‖ by Sarah Cunningham, Peter Moor. At that time, the students in both groups
had some first basic knowledge of English and partly familiar to the new learning
environment. However, their proficiency of English in general is still low. Most students
still lacked self-confidence in practicing English in class and were inactive in learning
English. By judging their English result of the first term, the overall English proficiency
for four skills of the students was roughly at the beginning of elementary.
3. The experimental program
The experimental program was aimed at helping the students generate ideas that
contributed to the improvement in their performance in English writing. In addition, it was
also supposed to motivate the students to learn and stimulate their participation in in-class
activities. Following is a detailed description of syllabus of writing lessons, activities and

roles of teacher and students in the experimental program.
3.1 Syllabus of writing lessons
According to the college‘s scheme for English, in the second term, the students learn 8
modules from module 8 to module 15 of ―New Cutting Edge- Elementary‖ by Sarah
Cunningham, Peter Moor (2005) in 10 weeks, the first and the last of which are spent on


14

general revision. Each module is planned for 6 teaching periods a week, divided into 2
class meetings. Every writing lesson lasts 45 minutes. Based on this scheme, the college‘s
English Group discuss and agree on the following syllabus for writing lessons:
Week

Module

Content of writing lesson

1

Revision

Test

2

Module 8: Fact or Fiction?

A Dairy

3

Module 9: Buying and selling

Describing a place

4

Module 10: Street life

Describing people

5

Module 11:The world around you

Improve your writing: Punctuation

6

Module 12: A weekend away

Writing about a holiday place

7

Module 13: Learning for the future

Writing about your future plan

8

Module 14: Keeping in touch

Writing a note

9

Module 15: Going places

Test

10

Revision

Revision

The experimental program of this study was implemented based on the above
schedule.
3.2 Activities
The brainstorming activities were introduced and implemented in the stage of prewriting. Individual brainstorming, group brainstorming, round robin brainstorming,
brainwriting were usually used with the help of many brainstorming techniques such as
free writing, listing, free speaking, word-mapping and similes, etc. During the
brainstorming session, the four brainstorming rules invented by Osborn (1953,1963)
which were (a) criticism is ruled out; (b) freewheeling is welcomed; (c) quantity is
wanted; and (d) combination and improvement are sought were followed to guarantee the
effectiveness of brainstorming. Time for brainstorming was also limited within 7 to 10
minutes.

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3.3 Role of the teacher and the students
In the experimental program, the researcher, also working as teacher, acted as an
instructor who introduced the topics, organized groups, stated the rules and guaranteed
that all students understand their tasks. Then, she played the role of a facilitator to praise
and encourage the students so that they could extend their participation in activities.
Besides, she also worked as an observer to take notes about the participation and
motivation to learn of the students.
The students, on the other hand, were much more active in learning both individually
and in groups. When the students worked in group, group roles may be assigned, rotated,
or shared so they might be in the role of team leader (organize and present), secretary
(note down the group members‘ ideas) and supporter (support all members), etc.
4. Data collection instruments
4.1 Pre- test and post- test
The pre-test was designed to access the writing abilities of the students in both groups.
The students in two groups were asked to write a paragraph of 100 - 120 words on the
same topic of ―Your reasons to learn English‖ in 30 minutes. The pre-test was carried out
in the first week of the second term after students were guided to review the knowledge of
the first term. No guidance or help was given during the test.
The Post-test was conducted after the program to find out how the students in two
groups had made improvements in writing. The same topic of ―Your reasons to learn
English‖ was given to the students to write a paragraph of 100-120 words in 30 minutes.
The topic and the requirement of the task were the same as the pre-test so that the
improvement in students‘ writing could be measured and judged exactly.
The scoring criteria (see appendix 3: Criteria for students‘ writing assessment) was
designed to evaluate the results of two tests. The students‘ performance in content,
organization and language was examined. Especially in the focus of this program, the
students‘ performance in content was paid attention most.

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4.2 Pre and post questionnaires
Pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire were delivered to 47 students of the
experimental group only to find out their changes in the attitude towards writing.
The pre-questionnaire was given to the students in the first week of the second term.
Beside the students‘ general information, the pre-questionnaire contained 10 items related
to their opinions towards writing in English and 5 items concerning their participation in
writing lessons. The students were instructed and asked to complete the questionnaire in
20 minutes.
In the ninth week of the program, the students were delivered the post-questionnaire
and were required to complete it in 20 minutes. The post- questionnaire was designed in 3
parts, two of which were the same as the pre-questionnaire. They were about the students‘
opinions towards writing and their participation in writing lessons. Another part added to
the questionnaire was to ask the students‘ opinions about brainstorming. The postquestionnaire was administered in the same way as the pre- questionnaire.
4.3 Observation
Observation was implemented throughout the teaching time because the researcher
was also the teacher of the two groups. This helped the researcher have more evidence
about the motivation and participation of these two groups‘ students in in-class activities.
Besides, the researcher also observed the students‘ pre-test and post-test performance to
access their writing speed.
5. Data collection procedures
The data collection was carried out in the second term of the school year 2008-2009 at
the two classes, KTB and KTC, of Tay Ha Polytechnic College. The procedures are
follows:


Before the experimental treatment

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The students in both groups had just finished the first term with 60 periods of English.
They had gained some basic knowledge of English and partly been familiar to learning
and practicing four skills of English. In the first week of the second term, the teacher
helped students revise generally what they had learned in the first term. In the writing
lesson, the students of both groups were asked to write a paragraph on the topic of ―your
reasons to learn English‖ in their class. These writings were served as documents for pretest because after this test each group would be taught with different methods. The pre-test
were scored by the teacher- researcher based on the scoring criteria shown in appendix 3.
Besides, a pre- questionnaire was administered in the experimental group and collected
after 20 minutes.


During the experimental treatment

The teacher – researcher applied different teaching methods in writing lesson for the
two groups. In the control group, the teacher applied the product-oriented approach with
some techniques including expanding an outline or summary provided, supplying models
which the learner imitated, made minor changes or substitutions, and constructing
paragraphs from given words or by answering a set of question. In addition, I applied the
process–based approach in which a two-month program using brainstorming in the prewriting stage was designed and implemented for the students in the experimental group.
During the teaching time, I always paid attention to the students‘ participation and their
interest in in-class activities in both groups. I not only observed but also took notes of the
participation and interaction taking place between and among the members in both classes.


After the experimental treatment

On week 9, one week before the term ended, all the students in both classes took a test
called post- test with the same topic as the pre-test. After 30 minutes, the teacher collected
the writings. The results from the teacher‘s judgments for these writings were compared
with the results of the pre- test to investigate the improvement the students made in their
writing in general and in terms of content in particular. In addition, the post-questionnaire
was delivered to the experimental group. The teacher then collected the information from


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this questionnaire and compared with the result of the pre-questionnaire to find out the
change in the students‘ attitude to writing as well as their opinions about brainstorming.
6. Methods of data analysis
6.1 Data Analysis of Pre- test and Post- test
The test scores were analyzed and interpreted using the independent t-test and the
dependent t-test. The independent t-test was employed to make a comparison of writing
performance between the two independent samples (the control group and the
experimental group) before and after the experiment, meanwhile, the dependent t-test was
used for pre-test and post-test comparisons when these tests were taken on the same group
of subjects (experimental group). The descriptive statistics were calculated thanks to the
online

statistics

calculation

programs

on

3

websites:

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and

An alpha level of 0.05 (p=
0.05) and a critical value of 1.988 (tcrit = 1.989) were used for the two tests.
6.2 Analysis of questionnaires
The questionnaire results were collected and analyzed part by part to investigate the
effects of brainstorming on the students‘ attitude towards writing, on students‘
participation in writing lessons and to find out the students‘ opinions on brainstorming
after the experiment. All questionnaire items were calculated in percentage. Especially, for
the 5- scale items, data were reduced to three categories for clearer presentation: i.e.,
strongly agree/ agree and strongly disagree/ disagree were combined. The results of the
pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire filled out by students in the experimental group
were compared to find out the increase (+) or decrease (-) in the percentage of students
who strongly agreed or agreed to the statements in the post-questionnaire in comparison
with those in the pre-questionnaire.
7. Summary