Presents a detailed description of the study - The methodology which includes the setting, sampling procedure, data collection, and data analysis

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Writing assignment is one of useful learner – centered approaches. It has been applied in teaching writing skill, which helps close the gap between the teaching and assessment (White, 1985). Many researchers such as Belanoff and Elbow (1986), Fredman (1991), Simon (1990), and White (1985) pointed out that writing assignment have helped EFL students reinforce and improve their writing skills. Over the past years, English teachers at upper-secondary schools as a whole focused mainly on teaching students the accuracy of grammar. As a result, writing skill was taught and revised by doing many different kinds of exercises at sentence levels. Therefore, students rarely used cohesive devices when they wrote. In some recent years, the new national English textbook “Tieng Anh 11” has been taught in most of the upper-secondary schools all over the country. This book has attracted both teachers and students’ attention by introducing the communicative and learner-centered approaches. Lessons are expected to provide a genuine means of communication using the four skills. Consequently, English teaching methodology has been renovated. Writing skill has been taught as a means of communication not only at sentence level but also at paragraph level. Also, students have been taught how to use cohesive devices to link sentences so as to make a coherent paragraph. As an English teacher, I have particularly been interested in consolidating and developing my students’ writing skills since the new textbook “Tieng Anh 11” was taught at my school. Thus, I have used writing assignment as an outside–class-practice for my students. Every week, I tasked them with writing a short paragraph basing on the controlled and guided topic in the textbook for the purpose of revising and expanding recently learned sentence structures as well as cohesive devices. In class, I corrected the first draft thoroughly via the peer correction and then I required them to write the final draft at home. In the next writing period, they submitted their writing paper so that I could mark. By giving such writing assignment every week, I found my students more progressive in using sentences structures and cohesive devices. That was the reason why I decided to do this experiment. 2. Aim The study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effects of writing assignment on the writing skill development of the students in the 11th class, particularly their use of recently learned sentence structures and cohesive devices. Three research questions were posed as follows: What is the effect of writing assignment on the students’ use of sentences structures? What is the effect of writing assignment on the students’ use of cohesive devices? Is there a significant difference between the writing scores of the control class and those of the experimental class? These three questions were formulated as three research hypotheses: Students would be better at using sentences structures via writing assignment. Students would better at using cohesive devices via writing assignment. Students who took part in writing assignment would get better writing scores than those who did not participate in such a task. 3. Research methodology The main research method employed in this study was a quasi-experiment which included the three basic components of an experiment: the sample (students in the control and experimental classes), the treatment (writing assignment), and the measurement of the treatment (the pretest and posttest). Besides, the two tests were collected and analyzed in two ways: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using p-value approach to achieve a better understanding of the issue in consideration. 4. Scope of the study Due to the time constraint, this study was carried out on non-major English students in the 11th class at Thuan Thanh upper-secondary school where two classes 11A3 and 11A4 were chosen at random to be samples. Writing assignment was used for these students as a useful tool to develop their writing skills. Via writing assignment, the use of cohesive devices and sentence structures as well as the general quality of the two tests was mainly considered in this experiment. 5. Significance of the study The study is significant for the followings. First, the study will help the researcher suggest a better way to improve students’ writing skills in certain contexts. Second, the study will bring about possible insights into the writing skill development of the students in the 11th class at Thuan Thanh upper-secondary school in Bac Ninh. Third, the study will help increase the effectiveness of teaching writing skill which follows CLT approach and suggest ways for practicing reading, speaking and listening skill. Finally, the study will be initial considerations for future studies on the similar issues on both non-major English and major - English students at upper-secondary schools. 6. Organization The study is divided into five main chapters. Chapter one presents an overview of the study in which the rationale, the aim, the research questions, the research method, the significance, the scope as well as the organization are shortly expressed. Chapter two reviews the literature relevant to the study which consists of teaching writing approaches, cohesive devices, writing assignment, and writing assessment based on theoretical and practical evidence. Chapter three presents a detailed description of the study - the methodology which includes the setting, sampling procedure, data collection, and data analysis. Chapter four presents the findings and discussions of the study. Chapter five ends with the implications, limitations, suggestions, and conclusions. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Conceptions of writing and teaching writing under different LTA In recent decades, together with the development of various language teaching approaches, different views of writing and teaching writing have been attained. Grammar-Translation regarded writing as a means of reinforcing language that had already been dealt with in spoken form. In other words, writing was often revised by writing sentences, paragraphs or longer compositions using recently learned grammar. The drilling of writing thus took much time and effort as Harmer (2004, p.137) wrote: “Writing is a craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in it like anything else”. Besides, in favor of Audiolinguilism, Byrne (1991, p.1) considered writing as a way to produce a sequence of sentences, which were arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain ways. Favoring Communicative Approach, cited in Hoang Van Van (2007, p.52), Adewuminu Oluwadiya stated: “writing is basically a process of communicating something (content) on paper to an audience. If the writer has nothing to say, writing will not occur”. Looking from the viewpoint of the product approach, White (1991, p.1) thought of writing as “a permanent record, a form of expression, and a means of communication”. The provision of a model was indeed seen as being very important. The teacher or the textbook was the source of language, and a good model was crucial. In view of the process approach, White (1990, p.4) saw writing as “an act of discovery’ and “a potentially powerful educational tool. It is with these thoughts in mind that both of us, reader and writer, may know embark upon our journey of discovery”. By engaging in the process of writing itself writers ultimately discover what it is that they want to say. In short, each approach has its own view of writing, which has reflected that approaches to teaching writing have been improved and gradually met writers’ preferences and purposes. Below is a brief description of common approaches to teaching writing among which the product and process approach are applied in this study. Approach Grammar-Translation Audio - Lingualism C. L. T Eclectic Teaching Task -based Teaching Language View Structural structural structural functional interactional structural functional structural functional interactional Learning Theory Behaviorism behaviorism cognitivism constructivism constructivism cognitivism constructivism Writing Purposes Enhance students grammar and vocabulary accuracy encourage students to reinforce structures, vocabulary learned orally help students write purposefully, meaningfully, communicatively enhance student’s grammar and vocabulary fluency enhance students purposeful interaction and communication in writing Writing Skill Development Accurate control of basic sentences patterns and combination copy out sentences, write out variations of structural sentences. develop fluency accuracy, awareness of sentences patterns, sentence combination in paragraphs or essays sentence patterns and sentence combination in paragraphs or essays accurate and fluent sentence patterns and sentence combination in grammar Teaching approach Product product process and product process process and product Teaching Techniques tasks given in situations drills and tasks given in variant situations authentic and meaningful tasks use of various tasks tasks emphasize communication and meaning Assessment Method Analytic and Holistic analytic and holistic analytic and holistic analytic and holistic analytic and holistic Table 2.1.Common approaches to teaching writing (Synthesized from Richards & Rodgers, 2001 and Canh, 2004) 2.1.1. Product approach Product approach or “text-based approach” (Hedge 2000, p.321) encourages students to mimic a model text, which is usually presented and analyzed at an early stage. This approach focuses the students’ attention on the form and content of the finished product like an essay or composition, involves formal practice, and requires writers to create an excellent text. A model suggested by Steele (2005, p.36) for such an approach is summarized in the table below: Stages Content Example 1 Model text Formal letter-paragraph-formal request 2 Controlled practice Formal structure “I would be grateful if you would…” 3 An organization of ideas A form of a formal letter 4 The end result of the learning process Students’ fluency and competence of language through the end-product (skills, structures, vocabulary …) Table 2.1.1.Product approach 2.1.2. Process approach Basing on the communicative approach, the process viewed writing as “thinking” and “discovery” (Hedge, 2000, p.302). Thus, this approach tends to focus more on the varied classroom activities which promote the development of language use like brainstorming, class discussion, rewriting, etc. Many researchers have agreed that writing is a process and consists of some stages and activities such as generating, focusing, structuring, drafting, evaluating, and reviewing (White, 1991); composing, communicating, crafting, improving, and evaluating (Hedge, 2000). The author of this study tends to follow Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc’s view towards the writing process which is shortened as follows: Stages Activities Pre-writing Reading (extensively) a passage Skimming or scanning a passage Brainstorming Discussing a topic or questions Model analysis Clustering with a key word, free association While - writing Controlled writing: Gap-filling sentences/paragraphs Sequencing jumbled words Transformation writing Completing sentences Parallel sentences Guided writing: Questions & answers Writing based on cued words Writing based on provided information Free writing: Writing about pictures Writing in response to a situation Post-writing Feedback & correction Revising Editing Evaluating Table 2.1.2.Process approach (Bang, Nguyen & Ngoc, Nguyen Ba, 2001) 2.1.3. Product vs. process approach Steele (2005, p.37) shortened differences of the two approaches in the following table. Product writing Process writing Imitate model text Organization of ideas more important than ideas themselves One draft Features highlighted including controlled practice of those features Individual Emphasis on end-product Text as a resource for comparison Ideas as starting point More than one draft More global, focus on purpose, theme, text type, i.e., reader is emphasized. Collaborative Emphasis on creative process Table 2.1.3.The differences between product and process approach Obviously, the two approaches are not necessarily “incompatible”. The two approaches can be integrated with each other in the classroom. To put it another way, teacher intervention through the model text can aid the learning process. Thanks to this, students can be aware of producing something to be read by someone else. 2.2. Cohesive devices in writing 2.2.1. Definition of cohesive devices Cohesion is understood in terms of the grammatical or lexical relationship between the different elements of a text. It refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text (Halliday, 2002). Cohesive devices in a text or a language are the tools, means, words that are in sentences as the link between one part and other part of sentences in the text (McCarthy, 1991). In other words, cohesive devices are the tools to show the relationship between parts of a text or sentences in a text, so it deals with grammar and vocabulary. 2.2.2. Types of cohesive devices Halliday (2002) divided cohesive devices into two main types: grammatical and lexical cohesive devices. Grammatical cohesive devices are the grammatical items that are used in a text to connect sentences within it. These grammatical links can be classified into reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction. Lexical cohesive device is the exact repetition of words and the role played by certain basic semantic relations between words in creating textuality. It can be divided into reiteration and collocation. 2.2.3. Cohesive devices in writing In teaching writing, cohesive device is used as a very useful tool to create meaningful and communicative texts because when sentences, ideas, and details fit together, readers can follow along easily, and the writing is coherent. The ideas tie together smoothly and clearly (McCarthy, 1991). Besides, many studies have shown that cohesive ties, which involve the use of repetition, synonymy, reference, antonym, superordinate, substitution, conjunction, and among other tools, are essential cohesive devices in writing (Halliday and Hasan, 1976; Halliday, 1994; McCarthy, 1991; Salkie, 1995; Winter, 1977, 1978). However, a lack of using cohesion in writing is a problem that plagues many EFL students. How to help students overcome the problem has long been a challenge to EFL teachers and researchers alike. 2.3. Writing tasks and their use in foreign language teaching 2.3.1. Definition of task and writing assignment A task was defined as “a duty given to learners to do (or choose to do) in the language classroom to further the process of language learning” (Nguyen Bang, 2001, p. 68). Among many writing tasks, writing assignment is an effective means for students to learn. “Assignment” was also defined as “a task or duty that is assigned to somebody” (Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1995, p.61). In this sense, writing assignment is an act of assigning or an undertaking that students are assigned to write by a teacher. In foreign language teaching, writing assignment is often used to consolidate what students have learned in the spoken form. Thus, in this experiment, writing assignment was known as paragraphs which were written by the students in the 11th class. Every week, individual student had to write a short paragraph about the topic suggested in the textbook for the purpose of reinforcing what they have been taught in the class. Moreover, since the development of writing skills was the goal of the course, writing assignment was particularly provided to help students improve their use of sentence structures and cohesive devices. 2.3.2. Challenges of writing assignment It is not actually easy for both the teachers and students to carry out writing assignment for the following reasons. First, most of the students are at low and uneven level of English proficiency. Second, the students do not write regularly due to a lack of learning motivation. Third, because this is the first time writing assignment have been made, in the implementation of it, the teacher encountered a large number of problems such as time allocation, preparation, management, and assessment of students’ progress. 2.3.3. Procedure of writing assignment Basing on Baker and Westrup’ view towards the project work (2000, p.94), writing assignment was carried out via three steps: planning, implementation, and assessment. First of all, writing assignment was carefully planned. The teacher thought about the topic, the end-product, organization, participants, stages, work, constraints, and assessment. Because students had little experience on making writing assignment, the teacher had to explain the purpose and method of writing assignment. She also supplied students with a list of sample writing tasks. Furthermore, she met students in class to negotiate about the topic, the length of each paragraph, the deadline and the evaluation. The next step was the implementation of writing assignment. This step went through several stages: choose and develop the topic; identify the audience; research; organize and prewrite; draft and write; check and revise; proofread and post write (Joe, 1996). These steps took place both in class and at home with the help of the teacher. The final step was the assessment of writing assignment. The assessment of writing assignment related primarily to content, but necessarily to form as well. Therefore, the teacher considered carefully all related factors: well-written, proofread, and grammatical sound. A poorly written paper which was distracting and difficult to read got a bad mark. Following Haines’ views (1989) and Joe’s views (1996) toward making writing assignment, the researcher made a thorough plan for her students as follows: 1 Basis expectation Organization: individual writing assignment. The end-product: weekly paragraph Content: nature in danger, source of energy, Asian Games, hobbies, recreations, space conquest, the world wonders. Paragraph length: from 100 to 120 words on an A4 page by hand. Assignment time: Every week Due date: week 18 of the second semester. Penalties: hand in late and plagiarism: zero 2 Optional information Source: textbook, exercise book, school library, etc. Writing style: descriptive, argumentative, narrative, story. 3 Purposes Audience Purpose of the course: improve students’ writing skills. Teachers and classmates. 4 Assessment Single mark for weekly paragraph 5 8 stages Stages Activities Topic development Class discussion Identify the audience Class plan/class discussion Research Individual/class note information Organize - prewrite Map, outline – brainstorm Draft First draft of guide Check – revise Individual or peer correct mistakes Proofread Final text/agreed format/teacher feedback Final product Hand in 6 Location Stage 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8: in class and stage 3, 7: in class or at home Table 2.3.3.Writing assignment plan. (Adapted from Haines, 1989 & Joe, 1996) 2.4. Approaches to writing assessment 2.4.1. The purposes of writing assessment Teachers assess students’ writing for different purposes. Brian (2005, p.39) viewed the main purpose of writing assessment was “to provide opportunities for learning both for students and for teachers”. In addition, Raimes (1987, as cited in Cohen, 1994, p.404) offered instructional purposes for teachers to assign writing tasks: “to have learners imitate some model writing; to train learners in the use and manipulation