vii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
DECLARATION …………………………………………………………………
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………
ii
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………
iii
APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………
iv
ABBREVIATION…………………………………………………………………
v
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES………………………………………………
vi
TABLES OF CONTENT……………………………………………………………
vii
PART I: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale………………………………………………………………………….
1
2. Aims of the study…………………………………………………………………
2
3. Research questions………………………………………………………………
2
4. Scopes of the study……………………………………………………………….
2
5. Significance of the study…………………………………………………………

1.2.3 Approaches of teaching writing skills……………………………………………
14
1.2.4 Marking scheme of test………………………………………………………………
16
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Setting of the study……………………………………………………………
21
2.2 Subjects………………………………………………………………………….
23
2.3 Data collection…………………………………………………………………
23
2.3.1 Questionnaire …………………………………………………………………………
23
2.3.2 Pre test………………………………………………………………………………….
23
2.3.3 Post test………………………………………………………………………………
24
2.3.4 Interview………………………………………………………………………………
24
ix CHAPTER III: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Data analysis……………………………………………………………………
25
3.1.1 Data analysis of students’ and teachers’ survey questionnaire………………
25
3.1.1.1 Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire………………………………

4.1 Summary of the study………………………………………………………….
43
x 4.2 Limitation and suggestion(s) for further research………………………………
44
4.2.1 Limitation of the research……………………………………………………………
44
4.2.2 Suggestions for further research……………………………………………………
44
REFERENCES
45
APPENDIX
1

PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The general goal of teaching a foreign language is to train students‟ communicative
abilities. English writing is one of the most communicative abilities among others such as
listening, speaking and reading and it is also one of the most difficult skills that students get
at school. According to David Nunan (1979:35) “Writing can be a tough activity for
students, even though the writing activity is in their first language. Learning to write
fluently and expressively is the most difficult of the four macro skills for all language users

writing to the 8
th
students at Quang Vinh secondary school which is recognized to be able
to adapt this approach. Task based approach has been widely used since the 1980s,
emphasizing “learning while doing” and regards students themselves as the center of
teaching. Writing lessons in the textbook 8 are mainly based on the tasks, but teaching
methods doesn‟t bring effectiveness. On contrary, it causes students tiredness, boredom and
laziness when learning writing skill. The author carried out an action research on the
subjects of 8
th
students at Quang Vinh secondary school to find out how effective this
approach can bring. After a two- week period of practice, students‟ writing is significantly
improved and they become more interested in writing class as well as have more
confidence in writing something in English.
2. Aims of the study
The study is expected to get the following aims:
– - to find out the difficulties in the learning of writing skills that are facing 8
th
graded
students and teachers at Quang Vinh secondary school after 3 first writing lessons?.
– - to explore how the task based language teaching is implemented in classroom to
improve the 8
th
graded students‟ writing.
3. Research questions
To achieve the above aims, the following questions should be answered in the study:
- What are the difficulties in teaching and learning the writing skills of teachers and 8
th

graded students at Quang Vinh secondary school after 3 first writing lessons?


To cover the scopes of the study, a survey questionnaire was distributed to the number of
120 8
th
- graded students selected randomly from three classes and 3 English teachers,
aiming to collect their difficulties, opinion, attitude and suggestions on learning to write
English. Moreover, an interview is also conducted with the participation of 9 students
selected upon their result of post- test and one, those who helped to observe the class to
investigate what the author has actually done during the program. The practice of task
based writing teaching was done on during two weeks.
5. Significance of the study
Firstly, the study was conducted to investigate how the task based language teaching has
effect on the 8
th
students‟ writing skills. Through action research applying the task based
approach, student‟s writing skills at the Quang Vinh secondary school improve after the
program.
Secondly, the study matches the modern approaches to language learning with the
application of the task based approach. The study will be the first in finding out some
activities to support the tasks in the English textbook 8 at the Quang Vinh secondary
school.
6. Methodology
The study was designed to use an action reseach which the collection and analysis of data
related to the author‟s teaching practice. According to Michael J. Wallace the aim of the
action research is “not to turn the teacher into a researcher, but to help him or her to
continue to develop as a teacher, using action research as a tool in this process” (p.18).
Firstly, the author observed the class to see the problem during first three weeks. Then,
based on books, journals, newspapers and some sources on the internet she read, the author
carried out the collection of the data and practicing her teaching. Finally, she summerized


emphasizes some suggestions for further research.

5

PART II. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Theoretical background of task based approach
1.1.1 Definition of tasks
The term “task” appeared since the twentieth century. Since its birth until now, there exist
a lot of different definitions about “task”. Brabhu, an Indian linguist, is the first person who
raised the definition of “task”. He defines a task as "an activity which required learners to
arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which
allowed teachers to control and regulate that process" (p.24). In the other word, tasks are
carried out as a result of processing and understanding language like a response in which
teachers play role in introducing a variety of tasks, evaluating to what extent their students
complete them.
Whereas Nunan (1989) defines a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves
learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language
while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form" (p.10). In his
opinion tasks is the outcome of the process to understand, solve the problem and use
language for communicative purpose. It is the completeness with focusing on meaning
rather than form. It means that meaning is paid more attedtion to; however it cannot be
separated from form. In contrast, meaning always goes with form to express
communicative ideas, thought and attitude.

reported by learners …
1.1.2 Types of tasks within Task-based language teaching
Ellis (2003) classified tasks into the following types:
a. Unfocused Tasks
An unfocused task is one that encourages learners to use English freely without
concentrating on just one or two specific forms (i.e., a replication activity).
b. Pedagogic (rehearsal, activation)
Pedagogical tasks are the tasks which occur in classroom rather than outside the world.
Pedagogic tasks can be:
Rehearsal tasks
Example:
You are an airline employee. Use the information sheet (provided separately) to answer
your partner's questions.
Activation tasks
7

The teacher gives pairs of student two different pictures, and then asks each one to talk to
their partner about the differences between the pictures.
Real-world tasks
Tasks are everywhere in everyday life. Washing our face is a task, as is preparing
breakfast, going to work by car, etc. Tasks are a part of our lives to such an extent that
there is hardly any activity that cannot be called a task.
c. Focused Tasks
A focused task is a consciousness-raising activity that focuses on examining samples of
language to explore particular features. These are sometimes called "meta-cognitive"
activities. Examples of this are classifying the uses of a verb plus – "ing" forms that appear
in a reading text or identifying phrases from a spoken transcript containing the preposition

situations (Willis, 1996: 149).

1.1.3 The principles of Task-based language teaching (TBLT)
Ellis (2003) stated that task based language teaching is considered as a form to treat
language as tool to communicate rather than a subject for study. It is the fact that if learners
want to develop their competence, they need to use a target language easily and effectively
in all situations outside the class. They need to see and experience how language used in
real world. For this reason, tasks are served as the most effective means to organize
teaching in line with the lines.
TBLT is based on a theory of language learning rather than a theory of language structure.
Richards and Rodgers (2001: 228) suggest that because the reason for this is that "tasks are
believed to foster processes of negotiation, modification, rephrasing, and experimentation
that are at the heart of second language learning".
Whereas, according to Shehadeh (2005), the use of tasks as a central component in
language classroom because it provides better contexts for activating learner acquisition
processes and promoting L2 learning.
Feez (1998: 17) summarizes the following basic assumptions of TBLT:
- The focus of instruction is on process rather than product.
- Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication and
meaning.
- Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully while engaged
in meaningful activities and tasks.
- Activities and tasks can be either those that learners might need to achieve in real life, or
those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom.
- Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus can be sequenced according to difficulty.
9 10

 Students' Role
In the pre-task, students should:
- Write down useful words and phrases from the pre-task activities and/or the recording.
- Spend a few minutes preparing for the task individually.
In the task cycle, the students should:
- Perform the task in pairs or small groups.
- Prepare to report how they performed the task and what they discovered to the class.
- Rehearse what they will present to the entire class.
- Present their spoken reports to the class.
In the post-task (language focus), the student should:
- Perform consciousness-raising activities to identify and process specific language
features from the task and transcript.
- Ask about other features they noticed.
- Practice words, phrases and patterns from the analysis activities.
- Enter useful language items in their language notebooks.
1.1.5 The performance of task
There are various views on the stages or components of a lesson in which task is applied in
the language. However, all of them have in common three principal phases. These phases
reflect the chronology of a task-based lesson. The first phase is 'pre-task' and concerns the
various activities that teachers and students can undertake before they start the task. The
second phase, the 'during task' phase or “task cycle”, focuses on the task itself and involves
activities that teachers and students can do under certain time. The final 'post-task' phase is
following-up procedures on the task performance.
The pre-task phase
The purpose of the pre-task phase is to prepare students to perform the task in ways that

b. Planning
- Planning prepares students for the next stage, when they are asked to report briefly to the
whole class how they performed the task and what the outcome was.
- Students draft and rehearse what they want to say or write.
- The teacher circulates among the students; offering them advice about language,
suggesting phrases and helping them polish and correct their language.
- Emphasis is placed on clarity, organization, and accuracy, as appropriate for an open
representation.
- Individual students often take the opportunity to ask questions about specific language
items.
c. Report
- The teacher asks some pairs or groups of students to report briefly to the entire class so
that every student can compare findings, or begin a survey.
12

- The teacher runs the discussion, comments on the content of the students' reports,
rephrase, but does not make corrections in public.
Post-task
- The students listen to an authentic recording of fluent speakers performing the same task,
and compare it to the ways in which they performed the task.
1.2 Theoretical background of writing skills
1.2.1 Definitions and roles of writing
Over many years ago, human beings used the different forms of writing to record history
and communicate various types of information. At that time, the earliest and simplest form
of writing was the pictogram which was used to communicate about crops and taxes. Then,
the signs developed into the scripts when the society outgrew the power of man‟s memory.
Writing became a reliable means to transfer information, maintain financial accounts, keep

11).
When making a piece of writing, writer implies a message or a certain purpose. In modern
world, writing serves some following functions:
1. Primarily for action: public signs, e.g. on roads and stations; product labels and
instructions, e.g. on food, tools or toy purchased; recipes; maps; television and radio
guides; bills; menus; telephone directories, etc.
For social contact: personal correspondence; letters, postcards; greeting cards.
2. Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non-fiction books including
textbooks; public notices; advertisement; guidebooks and travel literature, etc.
3. Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic strips; fiction books; poetry and
drama; film subtitles; games including computer games.
(Nunan, 1991:84)
In summary, writing is the expression of language in the letter, words, numbers or
symbols. The primary purpose is to communicate between a person or a group of people
and audiences/readers by a variety of ways such as letters, postcards, books, public notices,
advertisement and so on…Man is not born to have the ability of writing. Writing needs to
be taught through a period of time patiently and carefully. Through the mastery of writing,
writer will become more effective in intellectual organization, in the expression of ideas,
thought and attitudes, in the solution of problems.
14

1.2.2 Types of writing
- Journal/Personal writing
Something that a person writes in everyday such as personal thoughts, ideas, attitudes…
- Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing, sometimes called "showing writing" is writing that describes a
particular person, place or event in great detail. Descriptive writing uses a lot of flowery

or the product that student produce in target language using their linguistic knowledge.

In process approach, the teaching of writing has begun to move from the concentration on
written products to the emphasis on the process of writing. In this approach, writing is to do
with language skills such planning, drafting, not focusing much on linguistic knowledge
such grammar or text structure. It concentrates on writing as a recursive process in which
writers have the opportunity to plan, draft, edit, and revise their work (Hillocks, 1987;
Murray, 1982). The writer is taught to review and revise several drafts, which enables and
encourages new ideas. Grammatical changes and conventional editing occur during the
revision or editing stage (Ballator, Farnum, & Kaplan, 1999; Flower & Hayes, 1981).
Students to produce a piece of writing often go through four stages: prewriting;
composing/drafting; revising; and editing (Tribble 1996: 39).
The recent approach is the writing based on genre. It can be regarded as the extension of
product approach. The genre-based approach is based on a systemic functional theory of
language developed by Halliday (1978, 1994), and elaborated by Martin (1992), Christie
(1999) and Macken-Horarik (2001) among others. The goals and objectives of genre-based
approach are to enable learners to use genres which are important for them to be able to
participate in, and have access to. The view of language that underlies a genre-based
approach is that language is functional; that is, it is through language that things got done
and certain goals are achieved. Writers, thus, use particular genres in order to fulfill certain
social functions and to achieve certain goals within particular social and cultural contexts.
It emphasizes the various kinds of writing or genres such as: articles, reports, letters…
Each genre has different ways or forms to write… According to Painter (1986) The
learning-teaching cycle, involves three stages:
- Modelling a text
- Joint construction of a text
- independent construction of a text
Teaching can start at any one of these stages, and whichever stage is introduced first the
teacher should offer maximum assistance to the students. The aim is that there is a shift of
responsibility from teacher support to learners taking responsibility for their own learning.


Grammatical
Range and

9
 Fully satisfies all
the requirements
of the task.
 Clearly presents
a fully developed
response.
 Uses cohesion in
such a way that it
attracts no
attention
 Skillfully manages
paragraphing
 Uses a wide range
of vocabulary with
very natural and
sophisticated
control of lexical
features; rare
minor errors occur
only as „slips‟
 Uses a wide range
of structures with
full flexibility and
accuracy; rare
minor errors occur

may be occasional
inaccuracies in
word choice and
collocation
 The majority of
sentences are error-
free
 Makes only very
occasional errors or
inappropriacies
7
 Covers the
requirements of the
task
 Clearly presents
and highlights key
features / bullet
points but could be
more fully extended
 Logically organises
information and
ideas; there is clear
progression
throughout
 Uses a range of
cohesive devices
appropriately
although there may
be some under-/over-
use

6
 Addresses the
requirements of
the task
 Presents a purpose
that is generally
clear; there may be
inconsistencies in
tone
 Presents and
adequately
highlights key
features / bullet
points but details
may be irrelevant,
inappropriate or
inaccurate
 Arranges
information and
ideas coherently
and there is a clear
overall
progression
 uses cohesive
devices
effectively, but
cohesion within
and/or between
sentences may be
faulty or

 Generally
addresses the task;
the format may be
inappropriate in
places
 May present a
purpose for the
letter that is unclear
at times; the tone
may be variable
and sometimes
inappropriate
 Presents
information with
some organisation
but there may be a
lack of overall
progression
 Makes inadequate,
inaccurate or over-
use of cohesive
devices
 May be repetitive
because of lack of
 Uses a limited
range of
vocabulary, but
this is minimally
adequate for the
task.

substitution
the reader
cause some difficulty
for the reader
4
 Attempts to
address the task but
does not cover all
key features / bullet
points; the format
may be
inappropriate
 Fails to clearly
explain the purpose
of the letter; the
tone may be
inappropriate
 Parts may be
unclear, irrelevant,
repetitive or
inaccurate
 Presents
information and
ideas but these are
not arranged
coherently and there
is no clear
progression in the
response
 Uses some basic

the task, which may
have been
completely
misunderstood
 Presents limited
ideas which may be
 Does not organize
ideas logically
 May use a very
limited range of
cohesive devices,
and those used may
not indicate a
 Uses only a
very limited range
of words and
expressions with
very limited
control of word
formation and/or
 Attempts sentence
forms but errors in
grammar and
punctuation
predominate and
distort the meaning
20

any message
 Can only use a
few isolated words
 Cannot use
sentence forms at
all

Table 1: Marking scheme of test
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
21
about other people
2
Unit 2: Make arrangements
11
1
- Write a message
3
Unit 3: At home
16
1
- Write a description of a
room
4
Unit 4: Our past
25
1
- Write a short imaginary
story
5
Unit 5: Study habits
29
1
- Write a letter to a friend
6
Unit 6: The young pioneers
club
34
1
- Write a letter telling
about a future plan