Thai Nguyen University Batangas State University
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Republic of Philippines

VU KIEU HANH

ORAL AND WRITTEN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN THE
PREPARATION OF INTEGRATIVE ACTIVITIES
FOR BASIC ENGLISH COURSE AT
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Specialty: English Language and Literature
Ph.D DISSERTATION SUMARY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
THAI NGUYEN, 2014
The Dissertation was completed in:
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Advisor: Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano
Discourse analysis is defined as the analysis of language beyond
the sentence. This type of analysis is different from those done by
modern linguistics, which mainly involves the study of grammar: the
study of smaller bits of language, such as sounds which include
phonetics and phonology, parts of words or morphology, meaning or
semantics, and the order of words in sentences or syntax. Discourse
analysis is concerned with larger chunks of language as they flow
together. This is exemplified by two sentences that when taken
together as a single discourse can convey meaning quite different
from the meaning conveyed by each sentence taken separately. The
difference in meaning arises from the context they were considered,
such that a frame analysis is a type of discourse analysis that would
be able to shed light on context that mediate this change in meaning.
Discourse analysis is important for various reasons. For the
linguists, it helps to find out how language works, to improve their
understanding of this important human activity; for the educators in
finding out how good texts work, so that they can focus on teaching
the students these writing and speaking strategies; and for the critical
analysts, to discover meanings in the text which are not obvious on 2
the surface such as analyzing a politician’s speech to see their
preconceptions.
Considering the need of the students for a quality English
education, and evaluating the current curriculum for College English,
it would seem reasonable to evaluate and analyze the oral and written
discourse among the College students. These two aspects are
important to the development of oral and writing skills, one aimed at
developing the sentence to sub-sentence level of knowledge and

written discourse competencies and the teacher’s assessment in the
same areas?
6. What integrative activities may be proposed to enhance students in
oral and written discourse competencies?
1.3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will be useful to different individuals, administrator
and policy makers.
Students. They will benefit from the results of the study
particularly, the teaching learning materials that will be developed.
The students participating in this survey will have a chance to try the
test and assessment schemes.
Teachers. This will be significant to the teachers not only
because they will be participants of the study but they will also learn
something from the results and will have a chance to utilize the
developed teaching/learning material to their students.
Administrator. The administrators will benefit from this study
through insights gathered as this will guide them in what decisions
they will make regarding the student’ skills assessment. The
administrators also will benefit from the teaching learning materials 4
that will be developed as they can implement them in the classes of
their schools.
Policy-makers. The policymakers will be benefited from the
knowledge gathered in this study. This will aid them in formulating
policy/ specific and relevant laws that could influence the current
educational system as they will have a concrete basis for doing so.
1.4. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study analysed the responses of 200 first year English

output as presented in Figure 1.
INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT Figure 1
Conceptual Paradigm of the study

Proposed
Integrative
English
Activities
Assessment
made through:
Teacher
Made Test

Survey
Questionnaire

A.
Demographic

behaviour or characteristics of a particular population where the data
are collected to describe persons, organizations, settings, or
phenomena. Descriptive-comparative method was also used in the
study to predict the significance and difference of the two variables
as well as to identify, analyse and explain their similarities and
differences.
This study made use of two types of questionnaires, the survey
questionnaire and teacher -made test. The subjects’ responses to the
questionnaire served as data subjected to statistical analysis.
SUBJECTS OF THE STUDY
The subjects of this study were the 200 first year English
students and at least 30 first year English teachers from tertiary
schools in an urbanized area. The students were enrolled in a first
year English
course and demonstrate willingness to share their demographic
profiles.
DATA GATHERING INSTRUMENT
The study made used of the following research instrument: 7
Teacher- made Test. This test was designed to assess the level of
oral and written discourse competencies of college freshman
students.
Survey Questionnaire. This instrument was designed to assess
teachers’ perceptions as to the level of students’ oral and written
discourse competencies.
DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE
Two sets of questionnaire the teacher made test for the student
respondents and survey questionnaire for teacher respondents were

soon as the conduct of the test and survey questionnaire was
accomplished, the test items for students were checked and both the
scores of the students and the items in the survey questionnaires were
tallied for analysis and interpretation.
STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF DATA
The data were subjected to the following statistical tools for
meaningful interpretation and analysis of the study:
Data were analyzed using the SSPS software.
Cronbach alpha. This was used to measure internal consistency
of the scores of the respondents.
Correlation. This was performed to determine the relationship
of the teachers’ assessment scores and the students’ skills.
Mean. This was used to determine the average score of the
students in the teacher -made- test
Percentage. This was used to determine the magnitude of the
frequency in relation to the whole responses.
Ranking. This was used to determine the positional
importance of responses. 9
Standard Deviation. This was used to determine the variation
of scores of students in the teacher made-test results with respect to
the mean score.
T- test. This was used to find out the significant mean
difference of the treatment being compared.
10

public high schools are the main institutions catering to the students.
This could be because public high school is free in Vietnam and
supported by the government.
As to exposure to English media out of 200 students, 190 or 95
percent have had exposure to the English media. While the high
percentage of media exposure is good, it remains surprising that 5
percent remained unexposed to foreign media in spite of all the
advancement in technology such as the internet, the foreign movies
and television and considering the length in years of study as these
students have had post-secondary and early tertiary, specifically
freshmen students.
2. Level of Oral and Written Discourse Competencies of
Students
In the evaluation of the oral discourse competencies, the average
score of correct items for pronunciation and fluency is 2.77 with a
mean % score equivalent of 55.3 percent which is above 50 percent.
This value has a percentile rank of 43.6 percent and a verbal
description of average. This indicates that the level of pronunciation
and fluency competence of the students is average for this set of
student population.
For comprehension and vocabulary, the average score of correct
items is 2.76 with a mean % score equivalent of 55.2 percent and
above 50 percent. This value has a percentile rank of 41.6 percent
with a verbal description of average. This indicates that the level of
comprehension and vocabulary competence of the students is
average 12
In terms of grammatical accuracy, the average score of correct

50 percent and has a percentile rank of 62.7 percent corresponding to
a verbal description of average. This indicates that in terms of
completeness of written paragraph, the students’ performance was
average for this given population
In the aspect of logical order, the result shows a mean score of
2.93 with a corresponding mean % score of 58.6 percent which is
above 50 percent. This value has a percentile rank of 40.7 percent
and a verbal description of average. This indicates that the
performance of the students in insuring logical order of a written
paragraph is average for this population.
For unity and coherence, the mean score obtained was 2.96 and
a mean % score of 59.1 percent. This value is above 50 percent and
has a percentile rank of 34.3 percent corresponding to a verbal
description of average. This indicates that the ability of the students
to achieve unity and coherence in their written paragraph is average.
In terms of the total performance of the students in written discourse,
the mean score obtained was 3.06 with a mean % score of 51.8
percent. This value has a percentile rank of 57.3 percent and a
corresponding verbal description of average. This indicates that in
general, the written discourse performance of the student respondents
is average.
3. Significant Differences between the Students’ Competencies
and Characteristics.
Among the 64 mean combinations being compared, 30 mean
combinations showed significant differences. These mean 14
combinations with significant differences involved the competency
items of the written discourse namely: cohesion and coherence,

5. Significant Difference between the Students’ Oral and Written
Communication and the Teachers’ Assessment on the same
Areas
The p-values of the majority of the different mean
combinations were less than or equal to 0.05 that is 142
combinations out of 152, indicating these means as significantly
different. This implies that these mean combinations such as oral and
written discourse performance of students x frequency of student
skill as perceived by the teachers are not statistically related.
Ten mean combinations have p-values above 0.05, indicating these
means are not significantly different indicating that these are statistically
related to each other. The ten items that show this pattern belong to the
written discourse classification particularly the student written
paragraph competency items namely: completeness, order, and unity
and coherence and their counterpart written discourse student skill
items.
6. Integral Activities that may be Proposed to Improve the
Students’ Oral and Written Discourse.
A criterion was set in designing the appropriate integral
activities to improve the students’ oral and written discourse
especially for this population of Vietnamese students. These include
oral and discourse competency skills where the students showed poor
performance; and must have statistically significant relationship with
skills perceived by teachers to be frequently used by the students.
These integral activities are composed of exercises for students to 16
practice to achieve proficiency on the least rated areas in discourse
competencies.

the same areas?
6. What integrative activities may be proposed to enhance
students in oral and written discourse competencies?
The study made used of the descriptive method of research to
determine “Oral and Written Discourse Analysis in the Preparation of
Integrative Activities for Basic Course at Thai Nguyen University” There
were 200 students and 30 teachers who were the respondents of
the study. The statistical tools used were: Cronbach alpha,
Correlation, Mean, Percentage, Ranking, Standard Deviation and
T- test.
Conclusions
Based from the findings of the study, the following conclusions
are drawn:
1. Majority of the student respondents are females, come from
different places in Vietnam, studied in the public school, with high
percentage or 95 percent media exposure and whose parents’
educational attainment are higher than the tertiary level.
2. The level of oral and written discourse competencies of students
are all average.
3. There exist significant differences between the student’s
competencies and characteristics.
4. Majority of the oral and written competencies were oftenly
practiced by students.
5. There is significant difference between the students’ oral and
written communication and the teachers’ assessment on the same
areas. 18
6. Proposed integral activities are comprised of exercises designed