Hanoi National University-College of Foreign Languages
Post- graduate studies department
Bïi ThÞ Ph¬ng Lan
The first year – language students’ difficulties in paragraph
Writing and some appropriate strategies to solve these
problems at the National Economics University
M.A minor Thesis
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology.
Course: 13
Supervisor: Lª ThÕ NghiÖp, MA

Hanoi, 2007
Abstract
Writing is a very important skill in teaching and learning English especially
paragraph writing. But for the first – year language students at National Economics
University (NEU), they still get many difficulties in paragraph writing. Understanding their
problems, I decided to do a research on teaching paragraph writing with the hope that I can
provide the teachers of English at NEW with the real situation about their students’
difficulties.
In the study, I try to find out the students’ common errors in language, idea
organization, and content. With these findings, I will recommend the best teaching
methodology to help teachers of English deal with their students’ problems like using
pictures and using readings with various activities such as working with the text using
copying, working with the text to examine cohesive links, working with the text to combine
sentence, etc. Moreover, I will mentions to teachers’ correction. How to deal with students’
errors? Which errors teachers should correct? When to correct? I myself also will design a
check - list of paragraph writing for students can check by themselves or check for their
partners.
With my findings and my suggestions for teaching paragraph writing for the first year
language students at NEW, I hope that the teachers of English at NEW will have a basic
background of students to apply a suitable way of teaching in order help them to overcome

III.1.1. Students’ background and attitude 27
III.1.2. General Expectation of the course 29
III.1.3. The Choice on teaching methodology 32
III.2. Errors analysis of writing samples
III.2.1. Errors in the paragraph content 38
III.2.2. Errors in ideas organization 40
III.2.3. Errors in language 41
Chapter IV: Implications for teaching strategies and some
suggested activities and exercises
IV.1. Using pictures to teach paragraph writing 45
(Reasons, strategies for using pictures, suggested activities and exercises)
IV.2. Using readings to teach paragraph writing 53
(Reasons, strategies for using pictures, suggested activities and exercises)
IV.3. Correcting errors 57
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Conclusions
Summary of the study 62
Recommendations for further research 63
Bibliography 64
Appendices
Appendix1: Questionnaires for students 66
Appendix 2: Error analysis in students’ writing papers 69
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Mr. Le The Nghiep who
has enthusiastically helped and encouraged me during the period of writing this research
paper. Without his experienced guidance, valuable comments and tireless help, I cannot
complete the study on time.
My gratitude also go to all of the instructors in my MA. course at the Post-Graduate
Studies, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University. With their precious and
professional lectures and tutoring, I can understand difficult basic concepts related to English

writing and thinking makes writing a valuable part of any language courses” (Raimes, 1938:
3).
Due to the importance of productive skills, the course for the students at NEU pays
much attention to writing.
At NEU, paragraph writing is conducted for the first-year language students because
it is one of the fundamental and basic writing skills. Paragraph writing is the background for
students to learn other writing skills in the next terms. For example, they will learn to write
business letters, business e-mails, and contracts.
1.2. NEU students’ difficulties in paragraph writing
It is the fact that students at NEU in general and the first-year language students in
particular are very weak at paragraph writing. There are some reasons why English major
students face a number of problems when studying paragraph writing. First, most students
were not familiar with paragraph writing. When they were at high school, they only practiced
writing at a very low level like sentence-building, sentence-rewriting. Second, they just got
acquainted with very informal writing styles like close-letters and close-e-mails, in the first
semester. So when they write a paragraph, they make many mistakes of vocabulary,
grammar, organization as well as the way of idea expression.
As revealed in the questionnaire, each student has his own difficulties. But the most
serious ones are limitations of English vocabulary and grammar, weakness in expressing
ideas and using linking words.
The students’ paragraph writing revealed that students always make vocabulary and
grammatical mistakes. They use the wrong words when they write a paragraph because of
their misunderstanding the meaning of words so they face a lot of confusion in vocabulary
use. A student wrote: “My most difficulty in paragraph writing is to choose the right words”.
Obviously, mastering the usage of English vocabulary and structures is very difficult for
every student, so a new and appropriate teaching strategy needs applying soon in order to
help students enhance their knowledge of language.
Weakness in expressing ideas is also a big problem for the students. Students get
accustomed to the way of Vietnamese thought, so their ideas come out indirectly and
lengthily. They do not focus on the main point of the problem, they write a lot but the

students’ background and students’ recommendations though the students’ compositions and
the questionnaires. Secondly, based on data analysis and the students’ background some
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appropriate strategies in teaching paragraph writing and some kinds of exercises are
recommended in order to help the students overcome their difficulties in paragraph writing.
And research questions of the study are:
- How important is the paragraph writing for students at NEU?
- What are common errors made by students in writing English paragraphs?
- What are the causes of the common errors?
- What are effective strategies for teaching writing English paragraphs?
3. Scope of The study
The study is about teaching paragraph writing for students at NEU, but due to the
limited scope and time, it is confined to finding out the students’ errors in paragraph writing
and suggesting some new teaching strategies to solve the students’ problems.
In the study, the author tries to find out the errors derived from writing tasks of the
first year language students at NEU. From these errors, the writer investigates the causes of
those problems before giving solutions to them as well. The focus will be placed on the form
of English such as grammatical, lexical errors and other errors related to paragraph writing in
order to help students learn how to write a paragraph well.
4. Method of the study
In this study, the writer chooses the quantitative research by using the students’
compositions as a technique of eliciting data for the analysis and statistical counting. The
writer will collect the students’ writing tasks to analyze the most typical errors that students
make. And the analysis of questionnaires information is also conducted to seek students’
background information, their difficulties, and their evaluation of effectiveness when the
teacher applies different teaching methods. On the basis of the data analysis, the writer will
has the right view on the students’ difficulties in writing paragraph and basing on their
difficulties provide some appropriate teaching strategies and exercises.
5. Contents of the study
There are three main parts in the study. The first one is introduction, the second is the

Besides, Sokolik (2003:88) defined writing as a physical and mental act. It means that
writing requires writers to commit words or ideas and to convent ideas, think about how to
express them, and organize them into statements and paragraphs. She also considers writing
is a process and product, and writing aims at expressing and impressing. The writers have to
generate ideas, organize, draft, edit, read, re-read to produce a product-a paragraph, an essay
or a report and writers try to express their ideas, feeling to impress their readers in certain
ways
Writing involves many different aspects. According to Roger, G, D. Phillips, and S.
Walters (1995: 113), writing involves seven aspects. They are handwriting, spelling,
punctuation, sentence construction, organizing a text and paragraphing, text cohesion and
style. All aspects are carefully considered by any writers.
I.1.2. The reason for teaching writing
According to Harmer, J, (1998: 79), teaching writing to students of English include
some reasons as follows.
Firstly, it is reinforcement. Most of students gain great benefits from seeing the
written language especially the visual demonstration of language construction is valuable for
both their understanding and committing the new language to their memory. So it is very
useful for them to write sentences using new language after they have just studied it.
Secondly, language development is also a reason for teaching writing. It seems that
the actual process of writing helps students to learn language better. The highest level of
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writing skill involves critical thinking. To deal with their mental activities, students have to
construct proper written texts using all their learning experience.
Thirdly, the most important reason for teaching writing is that it is a basic productive
language skill. Obviously, students need to know how to write a letter, how to write a report,
etc. Therefore, they need to know some writings’ conventions such as punctuation, paragraph
construction, forms of paragraph.
I.1.3. Approaches to writing teaching
In the field of writing, product and process approaches are the most popular.
I.1.3.1. Product approach .

approach encourages the development of critical thinking skills, which help them to have
chances to challenge their social reality (Nunan, D, 1991: 87).
Roger, G, D. Phillips, and S. Walters (1995: 115) provide some guidelines for a process
writing activity.
Introduction: Teachers create a piece of writing for students to write by the way of
stimulating students’ interests through listening, speaking or reading activity. Then teacher
asks students to discuss the text type, definite the readers who are they and definite the
content that the writer is going to inform, etc.
Working with ideas: Using maps, picture or sketch, etc. to ask students brainstorm in
order to get ideas. After noting down, students need to decide which ideas can be kept and
which ones should be rejected and develop them before ordering them logically.
Planning: Teachers ask students to remind the typical feature and structure of the text
type they are writing, for example of paragraph: introduction to the topic with a topic
sentence, the supporting ideas for the topic sentence and the writer’s conclusion.
Drafting: The students start to write the first paragraph from their plans. They may
use dictionary to find words, grammatical structures if they need.
Editing: With the teacher comments, students correct and improve their first
paragraph by looking at content, language accuracy, organization, etc.
Re-writing: Students write out the final version and teachers have to decide to give
the final correction and responses to the students’ writings.
I.1.4 Principles of teaching writing
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There are several principles of writing. But according to Huong, T.T, Minh
N.T.T.etal, 2007: 58), teachers should consider some following principles when teaching
writing.
First of all, teachers should provide many opportunities for students to write.
Students’ writing skills just improve when they practice writing a lot. So, just asking students
to practice in writing lesson is not enough. Teacher can create writing tasks from listening,
reading and speaking lesions with different style of writing such as letter writing, e-mail
writing, etc.

our reader. If you think about paragraph writing as a step-by-step process, it will help you
sort through the confusion. The first step of the writing process is to gather your ideas and
facts”.
In fact, besides elements of unity and coherence, a paragraph should have three main
parts. They are the topic sentence, supporting sentences and the concluding sentence.
What is a topic sentence? A topic sentence is usually the first sentence that
summarizes the main idea of a paragraph. It states the most important thing that you want to
say about your topic. In the other words, a topic sentence must be the controlling idea of the
paragraph (Feist, 1996: 17). To write a good topic sentence, writer should put it in a complete
sentence.
What are supporting sentences? They are the sentences those include the ideas related
to the topic (Feist, 1996: 23). Supporting sentences may develop various aspects of the topic
such as causes, effects, reasons, example, etc. All the supporting sentences are connected
together by cohesive devices. What is a concluding sentence? It is usually a single sentence.
But some paragraphs may require more than one concluding sentence. The conclusion is
usually placed at the end of paragraph. It summarizes or restates the main point you made.
I.2.2. Classifications of paragraph
According to Feist, there are four main kinds of paragraph: informative, descriptive,
narrative and persuasive.
I.2.2.1. Informative paragraph
An informative paragraph is a paragraph that informs information. For example,
“Write a paragraph to inform your friend about your missing a date” To write a good
informative paragraph, writers need to ask themselves three questions:
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1 What do I want to explain? (The answer is also the topic sentence)
2. What steps are needed to do this activity?
3. Who is my audience?
After determining the topic sentence by answering the question 1, students continue
with the answer to question 2 to give the support sentence in chronological order using signal
words such as: first, then, etc. in order to complement the topic sentence

reader to act.
I.2.3. Writing process of paragraph
To perfectly complete a paragraph, the writer needs to conduct four main stages. The
first is prewriting, the second is draft writing, the third is revising drafts and proofreading is
the last one.
There are different tables, charts or articles showing the paragraph writing process
like Ann Raimes, Alice & H. Ann. But in general, when a paragraph is written, the writer
needs to concern about some main steps that cannot be lacked. They are shown by the
following chart.

Start Here X
The graph of writing process
Proofreading
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In the pre-writing stage, writers need to choose and narrow a topic to a specific focus
then they generate ideas. That is called brainstorming. This process can get them to start the
writing more easily and quickly. It means that if they conduct the stage, it helps them save
time in later stages of the writing process.
After brainstorming, listing step is conducted. Students think about their topics and
make a list of any words and phrases coming into their mind on a paper. They think of as
many ideas as possible in a very short time. “Don’t stop free flow of ideas by judging or
editing them before you write them down” (Alice & H. Ann. 1996:5).
The next step is free writing. Students can write any ideas about their topics to find
out a specific focus. While students are writing, their minds will come out other related ideas
from the ones that they have. Writers should write the ideas down as many as possible
without worrying about any mistakes. When they run out of ideas, they need to reread their
paper and underline the main ideas that they think will develop. All of these activities are to
ensure that whether writers are looking for a narrow topic or not because to find out a narrow
topic is very important. It helps them to choose an appropriate and adequate idea to develop.
Draft writing stage is the actual writing stage. It is just an extension of the pre-

Languages was established in 1956. It used to open language program for non- major
students of English. But in 2006, a part from non-major programs, it started opening
language programs for major students of English. It means that the students in the study are
of the first course of major language program.
This is term 2 of the four- term- writing courses designed for the major students of the
Faculty of the Foreign Languages for Economics, whose level of English is intermediate.
They have completed period 1. In period 1, students learned sentence writing. The course in
period 2 takes students through the process of writing a paragraph, a group of sentences that
develop one central idea.
Learning writing a paragraph plays an essential part in writing task in general and is
an important step in writing an essay, which students will learn in the following section of
their major writing course. The course is fulfilled within in fifteen weeks. Each week,
students have three 45 minute writing periods. In total, the course of paragraph writing takes
45 periods.
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In 45 periods, the course covers all the parts of paragraph writing, including
brainstorming a topic, narrowing the topic, writing a simple paragraph outline, writing a
proper topic sentence, writing supporting sentences, writing concluding sentence, developing
the topic in logical order, unity, coherence, using writing facilities like logical order,
transition signals, etc.
Besides, Portfolio method is also used in the course. Teachers always let students
practice writing in context and guide them step by step through the writing process. They
provide students with abundant opportunities for writing practice and review.
II.3. Data collection procedures
The collection of data was carried out through the following stages.
Stage 1: Choosing 45 language students who are in the first year at NEU randomly to
conduct the survey of the study.
Stage 2: Asking the subjects to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire content
is divided into three parts. The first one is about background information of the respondent’s
English study. The second one includes questions about the respondents’ general

help students avoid them.
The errors analysis of the students’ writings samples, together with the survey will
build up the data necessary for the study so that the writer can suggest certain strategies for
teaching paragraph writing. The analysis of these data will be presented in the following
chapter.
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Chapter III
Data analysis and discussions
III.1.The Analysis Questionnaire Survey
III.1.1. Students’ background and attitude
There are 12 questions in the questionnaire (see a Appendix 1) being answered by 43
respondents; of which 4 respondents are male and 39 the others are female. The average of
years that they have been learning English is 10.2 years, ranging from 6 years to 14 years.
The figure in Chart 1 shows that most of them started learning English since they were at
lower secondary school but some started learning English sooner, from primary school.
During a long time of learning English, most students (90%) have finished the course
of sentence writing and letter writing, 69% students have learned e-mail writing and even
27% students have finished an essay writing-course. Besides, there are 20% students who
have taken the course of memos writing, report writing, and note taking, among which there
are 5% for memos writing, 8% for note taking and 7% for report writing. Remarkably, 60%
students have learned paragraph writing. But students revealed that it was not a course, it is
just some instructions of paragraph writing given by teacher.
Chart 1: Percentage of students having taken different
Writing courses
With a large number of students who have already learn some basic writing courses
(sentence writing, letter and email writing). Students are not likely to have many difficulties
in writing a paragraph.
There are some students who did not answer the question of their motivation in
learning English. But in general, the language students have high motivation of learning
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Chart 4 presents the necessity of the paragraph writing contents. In general, students
highly appreciate the elements in the given course contents. Most elements get more rates 4
or 5 (high scale) than 1 or 2 (low scale). There are 38 out of 43 (88.3%) students who think
they really need to improve their vocabulary and grammar after finishing the paragraph
writing course. The proportion of students who are aware of high necessity of the paragraph
writing process account for 62.7%, and only 4.6% think it is low-necessary. For idea
organization, 62.7% students choose highly necessary scale but no one chooses low
necessary scale. Besides, ESP knowledge also plays an important role in their writings with
69.7% students who choose highly-necessary scale and 51% others choose necessary-scale.
But there are only 23.2% students highly appreciate the using visual-aids while 51.1% think
it is necessary for paragraph writing.
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Chart 4: The necessity of the paragraph writing contents
In summary, most students highly appreciate the necessity of vocabulary, grammar
and ESP knowledge gaining after the paragraph writing course. It is understandable because
most of them revealed that they learn English for their future jobs.
III.1.2.3. Students’ difficulties
Although some of students have learned paragraph writing, most of them still face
many difficulties. All these difficulties are shown in Chart 5.
Chart 5: The students’ difficulties
It can be seen that the number of students who have difficulty in vocabulary and
grammar is the highest, accounting for 60.4%. Then, the difficulty in idea expressing is
48.8%. A part from that, using linking word is also difficult for the students in paragraph
writing. It accounts for 46.6%. While there is 18.6% students who feel it difficult to write a
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