An investigation on difficulties in writing skill of english majored freshmen at thu dau mot university

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES


GRADUATE PAPER

TOPIC: AN INVESTIGATION ON DIFFICULTIES IN
WRITING SKILL OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN
AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

Student name

: NGUYEN THI THUY LINH

Student code

: 1722202010168

Class

: D17AVGD02

Course

: 2017 – 2021

Major

: English Language

Lecturer

: CAO XUAN THO

Binh Duong, December 2020


THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES


GRADUATE PAPER

TOPIC: AN INVESTIGATION ON DIFFICULTIES IN
WRITING SKILL OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN
AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

Student name

: NGUYEN THI THUY LINH

Student code

: 1722202010168

Class

: D17AVGD02

Course

: 2017 – 2021

Major

: English Language

Lecturer

: CAO XUAN THO

Binh Duong, December 2020

i


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
Student’s full name: Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh

Student’s ID: 1722202010168

Title of paper: An investigation on difficulties in writing skill of English
majored
freshmen at Thu Dau Mot University

I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented.
Where the work of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in
the paper’s bibliography. I have also not consulted any other unnamed
online sources. All verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the
bibliography has been specifically indicated in the text.

Binh Duong, November 30th, 2020
Sign

Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I want to send my thanks to all my teacher, my friend and
supporter at Thu Dau Mot university. Secondly, I would like to express my
deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Cao Xuan Tho who has been very helpful
to me and my team during the writing of this report. Finally, I am extremely
greatful to my parents for their love, prayers, caring and specifices for
educating and preparing me for my future. Thanks all!

iii


ABSTRACT
Today, English is a global language. It becomes closely with people all over
the world such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,
New Zealand and various other countries. The same familiarity also applies to
Vietnam. Therefore, English skills are very essential to students, including
listening, speaking, reading and writing. In particular, writing skill is a skill that
makes many students faced many difficulties in the process of studying as well
as writing essays. In this research, with my own experiences, I will find the
cause of difficulties the English majored freshmen at Thu Dau Mot University.
Through these surveys, I will come up with a number of measures to encourage

students to improve their writing skills. I conducted the research by presenting
survey questionnaires and surveyed 50 freshmen of the English department of
Thu Dau Mot University.

iv


TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
1.1. Why is the topic important? ....................................................................... 1
1.2. The significance of the study .................................................................... 1
1.3. Research questions ..................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 3
2.1. Term difinitions .......................................................................................... 3
2. 1.1. Definition of writing .............................................................................. 3
2.1.2. Types of writing ...................................................................................... 3
2.1.2.1 Expository writing ................................................................................ 3
2.1.2.2 Descriptive writing ................................................................................ 3
2.1.2.3 Persuasive writing ................................................................................. 4
2.1.2.4 Narrative writing ................................................................................... 4
2. 1. 2. Definition of grammar........................................................................... 4
2.2. Recent research on writing skill ................................................................. 4
2.3.. Aims of investigation ................................................................................ 5
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH ............................... 6
3.1. Instruments ................................................................................................ 6
3. 2. Participants ............................................................................................... 6
3.3. Limitations of the investigation ................................................................. 6
CHAPTER 4. FINDING AND DISCUSSION ................................................. 7
4.1. Finding ....................................................................................................... 7
4.2. Discussion ................................................................................................ 13

4.2.1. Common problems in writing skill of English students ....................... 13

v


4.2.2. The cause of difficulty in writing English. ........................................... 14
4.3. Some solutions to solve the difficulties in writing skill ........................... 15
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 17
5.1. Conclusion................................................................................................ 17
5.2. Recommendation...................................................................................... 17
REFERENCE

vi


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure1. Student judgment about the importance of writing skill ................ 7
Figure 2: The assessment of the difficulty of writing skill ............................ 8
Figure 3: Their thoughts about grammatical errors .................................... 9
Figure 4: Their thoughts about word order errors ..................................... 10
Figure 5: Their thoughts about prepositions errors ................................... 11
Figure 6: Their thoughts about tenses errors ............................................. 12
Figure 7: Their thoughts about articles errors ........................................... 13

vii


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Number of participants ................................................................... 6
Table 2. Student's agreement level on some solutions to difficult writing skills.

..................................................................................................................... 15

viii


CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Why is the topic important?
Today, English is becoming more and more popular by nearly 1 billion
people around the world. This number is still increasing day by day showing
the importance of English compared to other languages. Besides, writing is one
of the important skill of the improvement of English. Writing skills are
important because they allow people to get a point across without being
physically present. Many employers get their first impression of future
employees through the writing skills they display in their resume, cover letter
and email communications. Writing skills influence the quality of your work
and how others perceive your professionalism, which can have a direct effect
on your ability to get an interview and excel at work. This is the difficult skills
in learning English. Many students have encountered many difficulties in using
words and grammar to write complete sentences or paragraphs. This is what
promotes my research to find and analyze problem the students faced in writing
skill. For the reasons above, I have chosen this subject for my graduation paper.
Hopefully, it can help me come up with a clear and effective improvement
strategy.
1.2. The significance of the study
As you known, we live in a truly global society where English is spoken almost
in the world. English is the most important language in the whole world.
Through the study is expected to be able :
1. For students, the writer hopes to contribute fully to providing students with
the difficulties faced when writing the passage and the factors that influence

the writing process. To motivate students to develop their writing skills.
2. For the lecturer, to give useful method for teaching English to help students
develop their writing skill.
3. For the researcher, will be another reference for other writers who are
interested in conducting this researcher with a different subject.

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1.3. Research questions
This study is an attempt to find appropriate answers to questions such as the
following:
1. Why do students have poor writing skills?
2. What are the factors that affect the use of English in writing skill?

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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Term difinitions
2. 1.1. Definition of writing
The definitions of writing are variously stated by some experts. Rivers (1981,
p. 294) define “writing is conveying information or expression of original ideas
in a consecutive way in the new language”. Brown, (2001, p. 336) also claimed
that “writing is a thinking process”. Furthermore, he states that writing can be
planned and given with an unlimited number of revisions before its release.
According to Gaith (2002,p.1), "writing is a complex process that allows
writers to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete.
Writing is a way of thinking and learning". It gives an excellent opportunity to

explore ideas and acquire information.
2.1.2. Types of writing
According to Robin Jeffrey (2016), there are four main types of writing:
expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative. Each of these writing styles
is used for a specific purpose. A single text may include more than one writing
style.
2.1.2.1 Expository writing
Expository writing is one of the most common types of writing. When an author
writes in an expository style, all they are trying to do is explain a concept,
imparting information from themselves to a wider audience. Expository writing
does not include the author’s opinions, but focuses on accepted facts about a
topic, including statistics or other evidence.
2.1.2.2 Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing is often found in fiction, though it can make an appearance
in nonfiction as well (for example, memoirs, first-hand accounts of events, or
travel guides). When an author writes in a descriptive style, they are painting a
picture in words of a person, place, or thing for their audience. The author might
employ metaphor or other literary devices in order to describe the author’s
impressions via their five senses (what they hear, see, smell, taste, or touch).
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But the author is not trying to convince the audience of anything or explain the
scene – merely describe things as they are.
2.1.2.3 Persuasive writing
Persuasive writing is the main style of writing you will use in academic papers.
When an author writes in a persuasive style, they are trying to convince the
audience of a position or belief. Persuasive writing contains the author’s
opinions and biases, as well as justifications and reasons given by the author as
evidence of the correctness of their position. Any “argumentative” essay you

write in school should be in the persuasive style of writing.
2.1.2.4 Narrative writing
Narrative writing is used in almost every longer piece of writing, whether
fiction or nonfiction. When an author writes in a narrative style, they are not
just trying to impart information, they are trying to construct and communicate
a story, complete with characters, conflict, and settings.
2. 1. 2. Definition of grammar
Grammar is also one of English language component that must be learnt and
understood by students. According to Nunan (2003), Grammar is generally
thought to be a set of rules specifying the correct ordering of words at the
sentence level. It is a very basic knowledge and an important tool for students
to master English. It is a science that teaches students how to speak, to read,
and to write English correctly. Besides, by learning grammar the students will
know about system of language so they will be able to compose words into
meaningful sentences.
2.2. Recent research on writing skill
Mousavi & KashefianNaeeini(2011) refer writing thesis is not an easy task for
many students. Most of them faced with challenges. This is a big problem with
the students faced in writing skill. Writing is also a skill that it is difficult to
learn from other skills because writing has many important aspects that can be
studied such as ideas, grammar, topic sentences, vocabulary, punctuation.
Meanwhile, the ability to compile ideas in written communication is something
that must be mastered, and therefore it can be concluded that writing is
something that is not easily mastered. Learning to write is a difficulty faced by
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everyone, and is added with many complex components that must be mastered.
Based on cases above, it can be concluded that writing is a complete process of
a skill mastered by students. Nowadays, writing as media communication that

represents ideas and can give information to others. Likewise, writing can also
be an excellent object to know about how they think, and therefore, writing is
one very important aspect of writing.
2.3.. Aims of investigation
This survey was conducted to determine the difficulties students faced when
using English writing skills. From there, knowing your own strengths and
weaknesses so that you can outline some specific measures to overcome these
difficulties.

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CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH
For the purposes of this research, the writer has decided to use a combination
of two of the classic social sciences research tools including questionnaires and
qualitative research method Sarantakos (2013) to evaluate exactly the problems
that the students faced in writing skill.
3.1. Instruments
According to Cambridge dictionary "questionaire is a list of questions that
several people are asked so that information can be collected about something".
A questionnaire was sent to students through the survey link. This is a useful
tool to help the writer to survey the right subject in a certain period of time. In
the questionnaire, a number of questions are used to evaluate the degree of
difficulty that students faced in the writing process.
3. 2. Participants
For this investigation, the writer conducted with 50 first - year students
majoring in English at Thu Dau Mot University (28% female, 72 % male).
Number of participants

Males

Females

36

14

72%

28%

50

Table 1. Number of participants
3.3. Limitations of the investigation
(1) Limitations of time: The study was carried out and applied from September
to November, 2020. We have two reports (graduate and internship report).
(2) Limitations of place: The investigation was carried out and applied at Thu
Dau Mot University.

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CHAPTER FOUR
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Finding
Question 1: English writing skill is important to me?

Figure1. Student judgment about the importance of writing skill

Through the results seen from chart 1, we can see that writing skills for
English students are very essential. All of them agree and strong agree.
Meanwhile, no one said that writing skills did not matter. Specific, 27 people
strong agree that writing skill is “important”, accounting for 54% of the total.
The remaining 22 people agree it is “important”, accounting for 44% of the
total. Through the survey, we can see that, in 4 skills including listening,
speaking, reading and writing, writing skills are one of the very important and
necessary skills for an English student.

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Question 2: How do you think about the difficulty of writing skills?

Figure 2: The assessment of the difficulty of writing skill
The first question related to the difficulty of writing skill. Through the figure
2, part of it tells us about the difficulty of writing skill for students today.
Specifically, with 25 people said that writing skill is “very difficult”,
accounting for 50% of the total. 21 people said that their speaking skills were
at a "difficult" level, accounting for 42% of the total. And the remaining 8%
thought it was "normal". No one says that writing skill is "easy".

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Question 3: When writing in English, I make grammatical errors
Strongly
Disagree
0%

Disagree
8% Neutral
10%
Agree
20%

Strongly
Agree
62%

Figure 3: Their thoughts about grammatical errors
Grammar is also one of the components of the English language that students
must learn and understand. According to Nunan (2003), Grammar is often
thought of as a set of rules that determine the exact order of words at the
sentence level. This is a very basic knowledge and an important tool for
students to become proficient in English. This is a science that teaches students
how to speak, read, and write English correctly. In addition, by learning
grammar, students will know about the system of language so they will be able
to write words into meaningful sentences. Based on the results of the survey,
we can assume that the survey respondents have the highest relative ratio of
grammar error when writing. With a total of 31 votes and accounting for 62%
of the total with question about "When writing English, I make a grammar
error" shown in chart 2. In the survey, 10 votes and accounting for 20%, they
agree about the grammar error, 5 votes and accounting for 10%, they think the
grammar error is neutral and 4 votes and accounting for 8% they don’t agree
with the grammar error. Nobody strong disagree with the questionnaire.
Through the survey, we see that this is the error that students find most difficult
in the writing process. Perhaps there are many grammatical structures in
English and students are not sure how to use it. Most of you memorize the
formulas, so you cannot apply them practically in the writing process. Example

1: There has some books on the desk. It is true but it is grammatically wrong.
The correct structure is There + be + Noun ( There are some books on the
desk).
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Question 4: When writing in English, I face problems with word order
60%
50%
40%
30%

52%

20%
26%

10%

18%

4%

0%
Strong Agree

Agree

Neutral

Strong
Disagree

0%
Disagree

Word order errors
Figure 4: Their thoughts about word order errors
The word order with 26 votes accounting for 52% strong agree, 13 votes
accounting for 26% agree, 9 votes accounting for 18% neutral, 2 votes
accounting for 4% and nobody is strong disagree thatthey faced the problems
with word order. If you have learned the sentence structure, you will easily
realize that it is similar. Most of the students will mistake the placement of
words in sentences. For example in spoken language you can say. "She is a girl
beautiful". But in writing you have to write. You must remember adjective +
noun so you must write "She is a beautiful girl". This is a big difference in
spoken and written literature. In the process of speaking, if you do not follow
the correct order in the sentence, but the listener can understand enough, but in
writing, it is a huge mistake. Students should learn the types of words in English
and remember commonly forms. And learn the rules of word placement in
English. For example, before the noun is the adjective, after the preposition is
Ving, and some special formulas about the word arrangement to avoid making
mistakes in the word arrangement during sentence writing.

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Question 5: When writing in English, it is difficult for me to use correct
prepositions

Prepositions
50%
40%

30%
20%

Prepositions

10%
0%
Strong
Agree

Agree

Neutral

Strong Disagree
Disagree

Figure 5: Their thoughts about prepositions errors
Prepositions are words used to describe the relationship of the cluster behind it
with the different components in a sentence. For example, the cat is lying on
the bed. The preposition "on" describes "bed" is where the act of "lying" takes
place. Through the example, we can see that after the preposition comes with
the noun. And you will have difficulty with prepositions if you do not
remember the rules when using prepositions such as the preposition after the
noun to modify the noun, the preposition after the tobe. If you are not sure about
prepositions, you will repeat the error of word ordering in the sentence. Based

on the results of the survey, we see 10% (5 votes) they think prepositions is
difficult.

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Question 6: When writing in English, it is difficult for me to use correct tense

Tense
60%
50%
40%
30%
Tense
20%
10%
0%
Strong Agree

Agree

Neutral

Strong
Disagree

Disagree

Figure 6: Their thoughts about tenses errors
The results illustrated that most students encounter is tense with 48% strong

agree. To get a perfect score for the part, students need to be clear about
formulas, usage, identifiers and examples of suitable contexts. Students often
forget the context and when it happened so they always use the wrong tense in
a sentence. The simple past and the present perfect both describe actions that
happened in the past. Students need to be aware that the simple past is an action
that takes place at a specified time in the past and the present complete is of
unknown time. Only with how to use it makes it difficult for students if they do
not clearly define the situation occurring.

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Question 7: When writing in English, it is difficult for me to use correct tense

Articles
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Strong Agree

Agree

Neutral

Strong Disagree

Disagree

Figure 7: Their thoughts about articles errors
Articles are words that precede a noun, so that readers know if it is an identified
or undefined noun. In English, articles are divided into 2 categories: definite
article "The" and Indefinite article including "a, an". The defining article comes
before the definite noun, that is, the noun that was mentioned in the sentence.
The unknown particle is preceded by the unknown noun, that is, the noun is
mentioned for the first time in context. In English, an indefinite article consists
of two words, a and an. In addition to the basics there are many exceptions.
Students who fail to learn the exceptions will lead to confusion in the use of
articles. For example, when objects or groups of objects are unique or
considered unique we would use the: The sun (sun, the world), the earth (earth).
4.2. Discussion
4.2.1. Common problems in writing skill of English students
Lack of vocabulary and structure is the first problem you encounter when
learning to write English. The English vocabulary database is extremely large.
To learn, understand the meaning of words and application is quite difficult.
Many Vietnamese people have a habit of using synonyms when writing, but
this easily makes readers misunderstand or even misinterpret what the writer
wants to convey. You learn a lot of words and sentences in a structured way
but ineffective because they don't remember and don't know what context to
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use. The discrete and patterned vocabulary confuses you, confusing one word
with another or a vocabulary because there are no specific groups or topics
when you are learning English vocabulary. Therefore, you should understand

the use of the word in each context.
The second problem is the grammatical structure error in the sentence. You
can't remember the correct grammar structure will make it easier for you to
create grammatical mistakes during English writing practice. It makes you are
difficult to express ideas. For example, you might say I ate rice yesterday. You
should have used the simple past tense, but you mistakenly used the present
continuous. This makes the meaning of the sentence change and not correct in
comparison with reality.
The next problem is about error repeating too many words in a short paragraph.
This is also a common mistake among students. Repeating too many words in
a sentence in a short text will make the reader feel uncomfortable. Using too
many single sentences can prevent you from getting the word out enough,
which can make the reader not fully understand the writer's intentions.
The last problem is not matching the topic. Usually, when practicing writing
English on a topic, learners often make this mistake. The reason is because
learners have a limited vocabulary; do not understand the exact meaning of the
word. Another reason for this error is the learner translating word for word on
dictionary then put them together. They often have the habit of using google
when writing. They wrote the article in Vietnamese then they copied the
English text translated by google.
4.2.2. The cause of difficulty in writing English.
As I mentioned in the previous section. There are many problems that English
students encounter when using writing skills in study, in work and in everyday
life. At the same time, there are many reasons that lead to these problems that
make it difficult for students to write in English. Through the survey, the big
problem about the grammar and word order. They need time to improve their
vocabulary and use them properly.

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4.3. Some solutions to solve the difficulties in writing skill

Responses
Levels
Themes

Strong Agree
agree

Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

9
1. Define the purpose of 8
the essay
(16%) (18%)

24

4

5

(48%)

(8%)

(10%)

2. Practice reading more

4

6

6

(8%)

(12%)

(12%)

7

4

1

(14%)

(8%)

(2%)

21

13

(42%) (26%)
3. Use the words you just
14
24
learned right away
(28%) (48%)

4. Make a detailed outline

5. Write things you like

4

8

10

17

11

(8%)

(16%)

(20%)

(34%)

(22%)

4

16

13

13

4

(8%)

(32%)

(26%)

(26%)

(8%)

6

19

5

(12%)

(38%)

(10%)

13
6. Learn to use contextual 7
words
(14%) (26%)

Table 2. Student's agreement level on some solutions to difficult writing skills.
This section will provide some solutions to help overcome students' difficulties
in writing skills. A number of solutions have been raised and require D20
students to set out levels of assessment of their agreement or disagreement with
the solutions. This can help students to apply and improve their writing skills
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through the solutions that the researchers have listed. The material was
collected through a survey of 50 students in grades D20 and clearly stated in
integer and percent form.
The majority of students "strongly agree" with the solutions to overcome the
difficulties that students face in writing skills. The above statistics table clearly
indicates that. Specifically, the choices for “strongly agree” accounted for a
very high percentage of the total votes including “Practice reading more”
accounting for 42%, “Use the words you just learned right away” accounted for
28%. , " Define the purpose of the essay " accounted for 16%, " Learn to use
contextual words" accounted for 14%, " Make a detailed outline " and " Write
things you like " the same accounted for 8%. Among them, all of students think
that they should practice reading more if they want to improve writing skill
with 21 votes. From there, we can see the importance of practicing in student’s
writing skills.

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