Action research on students’ inactiveness in pre-writing group discussion of an essay-writing essay practice lesson at hong duc university,thanh hoa

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. RATIONALE
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 7
th
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.
Since the Communicative Language Teaching was applied widely, groupwork has
had its actual and important roles in helping students to practice their four language skills
(speaking, listening, reading and writing) in integration.
When teaching writing essays to the third-year Major English College students at
Hong Duc University I found out that in practice writing lessons very few students took
part in groupwork actively. I saw that students sat in groups saying nothing or very little
mainly in their mother tongue or having private talks. When they were encouraged to work
in groups they reluctantly spoke.
I decided to carry out the action research to find out the causes of students' inactive
participation in groupwork. Based on the results of this action research, some changes and
improvements could be applied in my lessons, and some appropriate strategies needed to
be designed to enable all group members to discuss actively in groups. I hoped the results
of my study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone
who was interested in this study.
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2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. Participants
The subjects of my research were 36 third-year major English college students in
Class K12A (Academic Course: 2005-2008) of Foreign Language Department at Hong

Duc University, Thanh Hoa province. The class was divided into 6 groups with six students
in each. The research was carried out during the second term of the academic year
2006-2007 at Hong Duc University.
2.2. Research procedure

My action research consisted of three main stages: Pre-Improvement stage, Trying-
Out stage and Post-Improvement stage.
Stage 1: Pre-Improvement:
Step 1. Identifying the problem which was wished to solve or an area which was wished to
improve by:
i. Observing a lesson that illustrated the problem
ii. Conducting a survey to get information from students
Step 2. Finding causes of the problem by:
i. Consulting with colleagues: a number of colleagues were asked to answer three
questions about groupwork on a piece of paper.
ii. Reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions
Stage 2: Trying-Out
Step 3. Designing strategies for improvements (plan for action)
Step 4. Trying out the strategies (action) and making records of what happened in class.
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Stage 3: Post-Improvement
Step 5. Evaluating the try-out by:
i. Observing a lesson (Focusing on the students’ turns of speaking in groupwork in an
essay-writing practice lesson at the end of the try-out period) that illustrated the changes
that have been made;
ii. Reflecting on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that had been
improved or that had been gotten worse)
iii. Carrying out a survey to get information from my students.
iv. Giving comments and conclusions.
3. Scope of the study

This study was carried out in an English class with 36 3
rd
year college students in the
Foreign Language Department at Hong Duc University in Thanh Hoa province. The
research focused on the problem of “inactiveness” in group discussion in pre-writing stage
of essay-writing practice lessons.
4. Design of the study
My research consists of three main parts with: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion. Part 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the method of study, the scope of
the study, the subject of the study, the significance of the study and the design of the study.
Part 2: Development consists of Section A ‘ Literature Review’ and Section B
‘Action Research Procedure’. In Section A, there are three chapters with different focuses.
Chapter One focuses on action research: its definition, three reasons to use it, and ways to
carry out it. Chapter Two introduces the concepts of writing, academic writing, writing
essays, types of essays, the process of writing essays. It also discusses the teaching of
writing and the teaching of writing essays, some approaches to teaching writing. The last
chapter (Chapter Three) focuses on groupwork in teaching foreign languages in general
and in teaching writing essays; some advantages and problems of groupwork. Section B
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namely “Action Research Procedure” describes the procedure of my action research with
the following main steps: defining the problem, observing class, conducting a survey using
questionnaires, collecting data and analyzing data, and giving out conclusions from
findings.
Part 3: Conclusion is the last part which offered a summary and suggestions for
solving the problem of inactiveness of groupwork in teaching writing essays and some
implications for the teachers who uses groupwork in teaching writing essays.
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
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A. LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 1: ACTION RESEARCH
1. What is action research?

According to Jerry G. Grebhard (1999), the concept of action research originated in
the work of Kurt Lewin (1948, 1952). He was a social psychologist who brought together
experimental approaches to social-science research and the idea of “social action” to
address social issues. Stephen Corey (1952, 1953), a Columbia University professor, was
among the first to use action research in the field of education. He argued that formal
research following a scientific method had little impact on educational practice. Through
action research, he argued, changes in educational practice were possible.
In terms of what action research was, having considered what it was not, action
research had been defined in many different ways. In Stephen Corey’s definition “(Action
research is) a way in which teachers try to study their own problems scientifically, in an
effort to evaluate, guide and correct their procedures”. Tsui’s definition was more detailed
and simpler: "Action research is a very effective way of helping teachers to reflect on their
teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice.” (Tsui, 1993)
In another way, action research was mentioned at two levels by Grebhard and Oprandy:
“At one level, action research is about teachers identifying and posing problems, as
well as addressing issues and concerns related to the problem. It is about working toward
understanding and possibly resolving these problems by setting goals and creating and
initiating a plan of action, as well as reflecting on the degree to which the plan works.
… At another level, it can be about addressing educational practices that go beyond
each teacher’s classroom” (Grebhard and Oprandy, 1999).
In the “Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics”
Richards, J.C and Platt, J. H. gave the following definitions of action research:
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In the general meaning, it is “… research which has the primary goal of finding ways
of solving problems, bringing about social change or practical action, in comparison with
research which seeks to discover scientific principles or develop general laws and
theories”.

In teacher education, it is “ … teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to
increase the teacher’s understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bring about
improvements in classroom practices.”.
In brief, action research is a kind of scientific study which is often carried out by a
teacher or an educator in order to solve a practical problem in a classroom. As it was
named, it focuses mainly on the actions of both students and teachers. So, it can solve the
problems which are related to all actions and activities in a classroom. The problems which
are solved by action research are often practical and useful for teachers.
2. Why does a teacher need action research?

Action research in schools, colleges or universities solves everyday practical problems
experienced by teachers, rather than the ‘theoretical problems’ defined by non-teaching
researchers. It should be carried out by the teachers themselves or by someone they
commission to carry out for them.
Action research in education focuses on the three related stages of action:
“1. Initiating action, such as, adopting a text, choosing an alternative assessment strategy.
2. Monitoring and adjusting, such as, seeing how a pilot project is proceeding, assessing
the early progress of new programme, improving a current practice.
3. Evaluating action, such as, preparing a final report on a completed project”
(Sagor, 1992)
If the teacher was trained to conduct action research he could solve his problems on
his own or in collaboration with other teachers. Anders (1988), Curtis (1988) and Tsui
(1993) gave three reasons why a teacher needed action research:
- to solve own problems in a scientific process and improve own practice
- to adapt theory (findings of conventional research) to practice (own problems)
- to share the results of action research with other teachers
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Moreover, action research was also for a teacher’s professional developments. He
would become a better teacher because he knew how to find out and solve his problems in
teaching scientifically on his own. This also showed his dynamic, activeness and

imagination in his teaching job.
3. How does a teacher carry out action research in a language
classroom?
Tsui (1993) suggested 5 steps in conducting action research:
Step 1. Identifying problems you wish to solve or an area you wish to improve by:
+ reviewing an audio- or a video-taped lesson and the transcription of a segment of the
lesson that illustrates the problem.
+ conducting a survey to hear from your students
Step 2. Finding causes of the problem by:
+ consulting with your colleagues, trainers
+ reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions
Step 3. Designing strategies for improvement (plan for action) and writing a proposal for
action research
Step 4. Trying out the strategies (action) and keeping a diary of what happened in the
class.
Step 5. Evaluating the try-out by:
+ reviewing a lesson (taped at the end of the try-out period) that illustrated the changes
that have been made; and
+ reflecting on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that have been
improved or that have been gotten worse)
+ carrying out a survey to get information from students.
Other authors such as Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988), Andy Curtis (1988) and
Nunan (1989) also recommended the similar steps in doing action research in a classroom.
Different from Tsui, in the step of “Collecting data and identifying the problem’, Nunan
(1992) suggested that teachers should observe and make notes on what their learners and
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themselves said and did in class, and then, based on these observations, identified positive
ways to bring about this change.
In my opinion, observing the class and making notes are feasible for a teacher to
implement his/her action research where cassette recorders or camcorders are not

available.
A necessary component of action research is collaboration among different people.
They are teachers, their colleagues and students, who should be willing to talk with each
other about the problems and find out the solutions together, as well as help each other in
implementing classroom-centered action research projects. It also needs the collaborative
efforts of students who participate in the action research project. Students’ collaboration
plays an important role in the success of the action research project.
4. Summary
Action research is a kind of scientific study carried out by a teacher which solves
the practical problems in a classroom. The teacher needs action research to adapt theory
(findings of conventional research) to practice (his/her own problems). Action research
consists of three stages:
1. Pre-Improvement: Firstly, the teacher identifies the problem in his teaching job in
class. He/she observes by himself/herself or asks somebody to observe or has his/her
lessons video-taped in class to get data to prove the problem. He/she also proves the
problem by conducting a survey to get information from his/her students. Secondly, the
teacher tries to find out the causes of the problem from professional books or journals,
colleagues and students.
2. Try-Out: The teacher designs the strategies for improvement and tries them out in some
following lessons. Next, a lesson is observed or video-taped to get data to illustrate the
changes and improvements.
3. Post-Improvement: The teacher reflects on the reasons for the changes and
improvements. To ensure the success of the applied strategies in action research a survey is
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necessary to get the evaluation from students. From the results of the action research some
conclusions and comments will be made.
Action research can be carried out in collaboration with other teachers or educators and
it needs the supports from both students and education administrators. Its results should be
popularized and shared with anybody who is interested in.

CHAPTER 2: WRITING
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
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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,
punctuating and the second ones were high-level cognitive skills such as gathering ideas,
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 according to
certain conventions, to form words, and words 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. WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITING?
Academic writing is part of the writing skills that is taught in schools, colleges or
universities. “Academic writing, as the name implies, is kind of writing that you are
required to do in college or university. It differs from other kinds of writing (personal,
literary, journalistic, business, etc) ways. Its differences can be explained in part by its
special audience, tone, and purpose” (Oshima and Hogue, 1991). In more details, Oshima

and Hogue gave some clear explanations to some terms in their definition of academic
writing. “Audience” meant the people who would read what the author had written.
Knowing audience helped the writer reach his/her goal of communicating clearly and
effectively. In academic writing, the audience was primarily his/her professors, teachers.
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“Tone” revealed writer’s attitude towards his/her subject by his /her choice of words,
grammatical structures, and even the length of his or her sentences. The tone of a piece of
writing was determined more by its intended audience than its subject matter. Academic
writing was always formal in tone. No matter what kind of writing the writer did, he/she
should have a special and clear purpose. In academic writing, the author’s purpose would
most often be too explained. It might also be to persuade or to convince his/her audience of
the correctness of his/her point of view on a particular issue. The purpose of a piece of
writing determined the organizational form and style chosen for it.
3. APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING
Nowadays there are many different approaches to teaching writing. In this part
only four main approaches to teaching writing were mentioned.
According to Byrne (1988) there were four approaches to teaching writing with
different focuses: Controlled-to-Free Approach, Free-Writing Approach, Paragraph-
Pattern Approach and Communicative Approach.
3.1. Controlled-to-Free Approach
According to this approach mistakes shown up in written work was regarded as a
major problem. The teacher assumed that students made mistakes because they wrote what
they wanted freely. This approach stressed the importance of control in teaching writing
skills to students in early stages. Students were taught how to write and combine various
sentence types and manipulation exercises were used to give students the experience of
writing connected sentences.
The amount of control would be reduced gradually and students were asked to
exercise meaningful choice. At the next stages, students might be given a good deal of
guidance and content, but allowed some opportunities for self-expression. This approach
also emphasized step-by-step learning and formal correction.

3.2. Free-Writing Approach
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This Free-Writing encouraged students to write as much as possible and as quickly
as possible-without paying attention to mistakes. The important thing students did was to
get their ideas down on a paper. The drawbacks of this approach were that many students
wrote badly because they did not write enough and for the same reason they felt inhibited
when they picked up a pen to write. This approach might be useful when writing a journal
or a diary.
3.3. Paragraph-Pattern Approach

This Paragraph-Pattern Approach stressed the importance of paragraph as the basic unit
of written expression. Students were taught how to construct and organize paragraphs.
This approach helped students express themselves effectively at a level beyond the
sentence.
3.4. Communicative Approach.
This Communicative Approach emphasized the communicative role of writing.
Students should have a reason for writing and think about whom they wrote to or for. This
approach required situations which allowed them to write purposefully. This approach
motivated students to write and showed how writing was a form of communication.
Apart from those above-mentioned approaches to teaching writing, Raimes (1983)
mentioned another approach to teaching writing: The Process Approach. In this approach,
students did not write on a given topic in a restricted time and gave their writing
assignments to their teachers to correct. They explored a topic through writing in an
unrestricted time, showing their teachers and each other their drafts, and using what they
wrote to read over, think about, and moved them on to a new ones. Teachers could give
their feedbacks on the content of what students have written in their drafts. The writing
process became a process of discovery. That was the discovery of new ideas and new
language forms to express those ideas.
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To sum up, we may have two main types of approaches according to two above -

mentioned authors: Product Approach (consists of four approaches given by Byrne (1988).
This approach is so-called because it focuses on the product of the writing process) and
Process Approach by Raimes (1983) focuses on the process of the writing activity.
4. WHAT IS WRITING ESSAY?
4.1. The definition of an essay
An essay, also called composition, is ‘a longer piece of writing, particularly one that is
written by a student as part of a course of study or by a writer writing for publication
which expresses the writer’s viewpoint on a topic’ (Richards and Platts, 1992); ‘The essay
is a group of paragraphs about one subject’ (Fawcett and Sandberg, 1992 ) or in other
words ‘An essay is a group of paragraphs that develops one central idea’ by Smalley and
Ruetten (1986). Oshima and Hogue (1991) gave a similar definition of an essay: ‘An essay
is a piece of writing several paragraphs long instead of just one or two. It is written about
one topic, just as a paragraph’.
4.2. Language requirements for learning to write an essay
According to Fawcett & Sandberg (1992), Smalley & Ruetten (1986) and Oshima
& Hogue (1991) essay writing was for intermediate and advanced students of English as a
second language. The reason was that ‘Essays should not be given early in the language
learning. It is far better to follow the logical sequence: that is, get sentences right first, then
work on short paragraphs, and only later write essays’ (Barry, 1997).
An essay is also used to assess an English learners’ writing ability in some
international testing systems such as IELTS and TOEFL. As stated by Sharpe (2001)
writing essays is an opportunity for a student to demonstrate his/her ability to write in
English. This includes the ability to generate and organize ideas, to support those ideas
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with examples or evidence, and to compose in standard written English in response to an
assigned topic. ‘Good writing in English requires good grammar and good organization’
(Oshima and Hogue.1991). That means the essay should be written in correct standard
grammar of English and the writer must know how to organize his/her thoughts in writing
logically, clearly and effectively. As for ESL students, they must have a vocabulary which
is enough for them to express their ideas. Moreover, in my opinion, the writer should have

good background knowledge about the topic he/she is going to write about. If he/she has no
information or knowledge about the topic he/she can not start to write the essay. Group
work is a better way for them to share and get ideas from other students to write their own
essays.
4.3. Structure of an essay.
According to Oshima and Hogue (1991) and the above - mentioned authors, an
essay always has three main parts: an introductory paragraph (or introduction), a body (or
developmental paragraphs) and a concluding paragraph (or conclusion). The introductory
paragraph consists of two parts: a few general statements about the subject to attract
reader’s attention and a thesis statement to state the specific subdivision of the topic. The
body consists of one or more paragraphs. Each of them develops a subdivision of the topic.
The conclusion is a summary or review of the main points discussed by the body.
How many paragraphs an essay should consist of depends entirely on the
complexity of the topic. However, the essays written in class or in an exam paper in a
school or college should contains from four to six paragraphs, with the most common
number of five: one paragraph for introduction, three ones for the body and the last one for
the conclusion. The number of words in an essay of this kind (also named short essay)
should be ranged from 150 words to 250 words for the time allowance of 45 minutes.
4.4. Types of essays
Essays can be classified by their aims. According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992)
there were 8 types of essays: Illustration, Narrative, Descriptive, Process, Definition,
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Comparison or Contrast, Classification and Persuasive. In Illustration essays the writer
used specific examples to support a thesis or to prove a statement. Narrative essays
required the writer to retell a meaningful incident, an event or personal experience. The
writer had to describe something such as a place, a product, a piece of equipment or cells
under a microscope, etc in a Descriptive essay. Describing a process or steps in the
procedure of doing something was the aim of a Process essay. In Definition essays
students had to define a scientific term such as Disk Operating System in computer studies
or DNA in biology etc. When writing a Comparison or Contrast essay, students might be

asked to compare to find the similarities and differences between two things or two people.
They could also use some criteria to contrast two things or two people to discover which
features this person or a thing had but the other one did not have. Differing from the
above-mentioned types of essays, Classification essays required the writer to use some
criteria to classify some things or people or divide them into groups under some standards.
In a Persuasive essay the writer had to take a stand on an issue and tried to convince others
to agree with him or her. In the Persuasive essay the writer was often asked a question like
this “Do you agree or disagree?” He had to choose to agree or disagree with the given
topic.
Differing from Fawcett and Sandberg, Smalley and Ruetten (1986) gave out only 5
types of essays with different names: Example Essay, Comparison and Contrast Essay,
Classification Essay, Process Analysis Essay, Cause-and-Effect Analysis Essay and
Argumentative Essay. Among those, a Cause-and-Effect essay was not mentioned by
Fawcett and Sandberg. In Cause-and-Effect essay the writer identified the causes of a
phenomenon, a problem or something or predicts its good or bad effects. However, in
some cases the writer did both of these actions.
These five types of essays given by Smalley and Ruetten (1986) are the most
common types of essays which were taught to ESL students as the authors stated in their
book. They are also chosen to teach to Major English students in Hong Duc University,
Thanh Hoa because of their suitability for ESL students.

4.5. Essay writing process
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According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were four main steps in the essay-
writing process: writing the thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, ordering and
linking paragraphs in the essay, writing and revising short essays.
Step 1: Writing the thesis statement.
In this step there are two sub-steps: Narrowing the topic and Writing the thesis
statement. These are the first important sub-steps before writing an essay.
1. Narrowing the Topic:

The essay writer often starts with a broad subject and then he narrows it to a
suitable scale. Due to the limitation of the time for writing in class or the length of the
essay, the writer should list possible narrowed subjects (sub-topics) of the given topic on a
paper. Any one of these sub-topics is narrow enough and specific enough to be the subject
of a short essay. Then he will consider each of them to choose one he could best develop
into a good essay.
2. Writing the thesis statement
The thesis statement further focuses the subject because it must clearly state, in a
full sentence, the writer’s central point: the main idea or opinion that the essay will support
and discuss. The thesis statement should be as specific as possible. By writing a specific
thesis statement, the writer focuses on his/her subject and give himself/herself and his /her
reader a clearer idea of what will follow in the body of the essay.
Step 2: Gathering Ideas for the Body
This step also consists of two sub-steps: brainstorming ideas and then find
paragraph groups and write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs. Now the writer
should make a plan that includes the following things:
- Two to four main ideas to support the thesis statement
- Two to four topic sentences stating these above ideas
- A plan for each paragraph in the body
- A logical order in which to present these paragraphs
1. Brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups.
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The essay writer should try to jot down any ideas that develop the thesis statement,
including main ideas, specific details, and examples, all jumbled together. Only after
creating a long list do they go back over it, drop any ideas that do not support the thesis
statement, and then plan paragraphs.
2. Write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs
Sometimes a writer can compose his/her topic sentences directly from the thesis
statement without extensive jotting first if the thesis statement itself shows how the body
will be divided or organized. Such a thesis statement makes the work of planning

paragraphs easy because the writer has already broken down the subject into supporting
ideas or parts. The order of paragraphs should logically follow the order in the thesis
statement, discussing first the problem and then the solution.
Step 3: Ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay
1. Ordering paragraphs
An essay should have coherence. That is, the paragraphs in an essay should be
arranged in a clear, logical order and should follow one another like links in a chain. In
order to keep the paragraphs in the essay in a logical order the writer has to use his/her
common sense and plan ahead. He/she should not order his paragraphs randomly.
Types of order such as time order, space order, and order of climax can sometimes
be used to arrange paragraphs within an essay. Essays about subjects that can be broken
into stages or steps, which each step discussed in one paragraph, should be arranged
according to time. Space order is used occasionally in descriptive essays. A writer who
wants to save the most important or convincing paragraph for last would use order of
climax.
2. Linking paragraphs
There are four ways to links paragraphs:
- Repeat key words or ideas from the thesis statement.
- Refer to words or ideas from the preceding paragraph.
- Use transitional expressions.
- Use transitional sentences.
Step 4: Writing and revising short essays.
1. Writing the first draft
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The writer should make sure that he/she has a clear plan or an outline from which to
write the first draft. This plan should contain his/her thesis statement, two to four topic
sentences that support it, details and facts to develop each paragraph, and a logical order.
When writing the first draft he should leave room for later corrections.
2. Revising
The essay writer reads the first draft slowly and carefully to himself and underlines

trouble spots, draws arrows and writes in the margins or corrects directly any kinds of
errors in the essay draft on his paper. He may ask a trusted classmate or a friend to read his
paper and give feedbacks.
3. Proof reading and writing final draft.
The writer should proof read the draft for grammar and spelling errors and try to
correct them. Finally, he types or writes the final draft to hand in.
5. TEACHING WRITING ESSAYS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
DEPARTMENT AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY, THANH HOA PROVINCE

5.1. Teaching writing skills to Major English College students.
According to the Programme of Training English Teachers for Junior High Schools,
writing skills is taught in 5 terms of the whole training course:
Table 1: Teaching writing skills to Major English College Students
Terms TERM 1 TERM 2 TERM 3 TERM 4 TERM 5
Time 45 periods 60 periods 60 periods
60 periods 30 periods
Contents
Sentences and
writing sentences
Authentic-Task
Writing
Writing
paragraphs Writing essays Writing essays
(continued)
+ Sentence + Writing notes + How to write + How to write + Revision of
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