VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
********************* ĐÀM THỊ THÚY DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT KIEN THO
SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGH FAIRY TALES

Phát triển kỹ năng viết cho học sinh trƣờng THCS Kiên Thọ
qua các câu chuyện cổ tích M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been submitted for any
degree at any other universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my
paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and
research.
Signature

Đàm Thị Thúy

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Kieu Thi
Thu Huong, for her valuable advice, reliable comments, patient support and
encouragement in the completion of this M.A thesis.
My deep appreciation also gives to all staff, teachers and members at Faculty of
Post-Graduate Studies of University of Languages and International Studies -
Vietnam National University for their instruction and enthusiastic.
I especially thank many other writers who have shared their ideas or opinions in this
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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: Difference between product and process approach 9
Table 2: Process approach 10
Table 3.1: Students’ degree of preference to fairy tales in writing lesson. 23
Table 3.2: Topics students like to study 24
Table 3.3: Factors cause difficulties to writing process 24
Table 3.4: Beneficial elements of fairy tales 25
Table 4.1: Students’ activities during learning writing with fairy tales 26
Table 4.2: Students’ reactions after learning with fairy tales 26

Chart 1: Students’ writing proficiency level 21
Chart 2: Students’ responses to writing skills 22
Chart 3: Level of frequency students spends on fairy tales 22
Chart 4: Students’ score progress in comparison between the pre-test and

6. Significance of the research 3
7. Design of the study 3
PART II.DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1. Overviews of writing and teaching writing 5
1.1. Writing and teaching writing 5
1.2. The difficulties of teaching and learning writing 6
1.3. The purposes for teaching writing 7
1.4. The approaches in teaching English writing 9
2. Overviews of fairy tales 11
2.1. Definition of fairy tales 11
2.2. The elements of fairy tales 12
2.3. The advantages of fairy tales 13
2.4. The role of fairy tales in teaching and learning English 14
2.5. The role of fairy tales to writing process 15

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3. Previous works review 16
CHAPTER 2:METHODOLOGY 18
1. The setting of the study 18
2. The subjects 18
3. Data collection instruments 19
4. Procedure 20
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 21
I. The effectiveness of using fairy tales in learning writing 21
1. Background information .21
1.1. Students’ background information 21
1.2. Teachers’ background information .23
2. Students’ attitudes and viewpoints toward fairy tales 23
3. The effectiveness of fairy tales to learning writing 26

techniques is reflected in learners’ competence. The competence of learners is their
abilities to master four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, among
which writing seems to be the most difficult due to its requirements of the variety of
vocabulary, good knowledge of grammar, etc. It is fact that the question of teaching
writing well and effectively has been the concern of textbook writers and teachers.
Being a secondary school teacher, the researcher realizes that most of her
students face many problems in learning writing. This is due to the fact that writing
lessons are so boring and difficult that students often feel tired and stressed.
Therefore, it is essential for the teacher to find out effective teaching methods to
make the lessons more interesting and understandable so that s/he can attract
students’ attention and help improve their writing proficiency as well.
2. Statements of the problem
Many language teachers have difficulties to find good ways which are not
only interesting but also challenging enough to encourage students to learn writing.
Most of the learners consider that they usually meet troubles in mastering writing
skills. Normally, they feel writing lessons create a boring and monotonous
classroom atmosphere which can discourage language learners from participating
actively during the teaching-learning process. Moreover, students of Kien Tho
Secondary School mainly come from countryside, thus the learning environment is
not beneficial for them to practice their language skills. This has a great influence
on students’ competence. In order to actively engage language learners in the
learning process, teachers should provide a supportive environment in which
students can learn language skills in a meaningful context. Giving students real-life
situations in which the language is used naturally will stimulate them to express

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their ideas and raise their motivation in learning. In other words, “their critical
thinking and participation will entually increase” (Tedjaatmadja and Wijaya, 2009:
2). These goals can be achieved by teaching fairy tales in the language classroom
Once, when teaching the fairy tales “The lost shoe” and “How the tiger got his

1. What is the effectiveness of using fairy tales in learning writing?
2. How should fairy tales be used in teaching writing?
5. Scope of the study
Because of the limitation of a minor study, the research was only conducted
on the eighth-grade students at Kien Tho Secondary School in Thanh Hoa. The
study mainly aims at the effectiveness that fairy tales bring to students in learning
writing and how activities help students improve their writing skills.
6. Significance of the research
Although fairy tales are not widely used in the English curriculum in
secondary schools, they are very interesting, understandable and useful in
developing students’ language skills in class. The results of the study will bring in
practical benefits to teaching English, especially teaching writing. Firstly, the study
will bring insights into the writing skill development of students in the 8
th
class at
Kien Tho Secondary School in Ngoc Lac. Secondly, the study will help the
researcher suggests a better way to improve students’ writing skills in certain
contexts. Thirdly, the study will prove that fairy tales as aid to increase the
effectiveness of teaching writing skill for students. Finally, the study will be a
helpful suggestion to make students keen on learning and the writing lessons will be
more interesting and effective.
7. Design of the study
* Part I is the introduction which presents the rationale of the study, the
objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study, the
significance and the design of the study.
* Part II is the development which concludes three chapters
- Chapter one is the literature review which copes with the notions of writing,
teaching writing, fairy tales and issues related to using fairy tales in teaching writing
skills.
- Chapter two is the methodology which deals with detailed description of

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Overviews of writing and teaching writing
1.1. Writing and teaching writing
Writing process is always a challenging to not only students and teachers but
also many language researchers. The word “writing” itself may imply an act, a
process or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop. It requires both
physical and mental powers from the writers. Thus, many different views of writing
and teaching writing have been attained.
According to Sapkota (2012: 71), writing is a complex process with a lot of
requirements of grammatical features.
[W]riting is the system of written symbols which represents the sounds,
syllables or words of language. Writing skill requires different mechanisms as
capitalization, spelling and punctuation, word form and function. It helps to
convey the meaning clearly. So, writing is an activity to improve our
understanding of any subject. Writing is the ability not only to put ideas from
mind to paper but also to generate more meaning and make ideas clear.
In view of the process approach, White (1990: 4) also sees writing as “an act
of discovery’ and “a potentially powerful educational tool. It is with these thoughts
in mind that both of us, readers and writers, 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.
Grammar-Translation regards writing as a means of reinforcing language that
has already been dealt with in the spoken form. In other words, writing is often
revised by writing sentences, paragraphs or longer compositions using recently
learned grammar. Thus, it takes writers much time and effort to practice writing
skills.
Jordan (1999: 41) considers writing “the method of human inter-
communication by means of conventionally visible marks”. Similarly, White and
Arndt (1991: 3) say:

organizing a text and paragraphing, text cohesion and style.
In general, each view has its own strengths and weaknesses that motivate
teaching writing process to improve and meet writers’ preferences and purposes
gradually.
1.2. The difficulties in teaching and learning writing
Writing may be the most difficult language skill for not only many students
but language teachers as well. There are so many factors cause difficulties for
learners in writing such as the inadequacy of vocabulary, grammar rules, the

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weakness in generating ideas, etc. Besides, as cited in Adas and Bakir (2013: 255),
Gomaa (2010) also indicates that “students’ first language affects learning the target
language” as one of the other important factors. This is why students make certain
mistakes and repeat them. There some factors cause difficulties in writing as
follows:
a. The teaching method and the environment are the main causes of students’
weaknesses in English (Al-Khsawneh, 2010 cited in Adas and Bakir (2013:
254). In fact, teachers’ weak qualification in English has a great influence in
students’ results. An inappropriate method will lose learners’ motivation and
interest in the lesson.
b. The limitation of vocabulary. Vocabulary plays an important role in
generating writers’ ideas. Without words, writers hardly express their
thoughts in mind, but they normally repeat the same words. This hinders their
creativity and makes monotonous writings. Rabab’ah (2003 cited in Adas and
Bakir 2013: 255) clarifies that students couldn’t give voice to their thoughts
because of the inadequate stock of vocabulary.
c. English language learners don’t use invented spelling and their written
texts are restricted to words which they know (Adas and Bakir 2013: 255).
d. The inflexibility in using tenses. Most of the learners, especially, those
who have elementary level, tend to use the present tense in their writing.

This is applied to language learning in which accurate use of the language was
learned through reinforcement, constant practice and imitation. In such language-
based writing tasks, students will be given writing exercises that will reinforce
language structures that they have learned through the manipulation of grammatical
patterns.
The second is “writing for communication”. With the emphasis of
communicative competence as a goal in language learning (Widdowson, 1978;
Brumfit and Johnson, 1979), teaching of writing begins to shift its emphasis on
accuracy and patterns to the ability to understand and convey information content.
Everything such as ideas, opinions, thoughts or anything else, what a writer need to
express without being used through spoken form, can be shown in written texts to
inform to readers. Obviously, these written texts, at that time, should be considered
as a means of communication between a writer and his/ her audiences. Here writing
has a social function. The communicative writing tasks, which require greater
awareness of writer's purpose, audience, and the context of writing, would stimulate

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real life situations where a writer would write to convey some information to a
reader.
The last is “writing as a discovery and cognitive process”. Writing tasks in
the classrooms begin to shift their focus to the process of writing which is
influenced by the humanistic and cognitive approaches. Writing is viewed as an
expressive mode through which writers use writing as a means to explore and
discover meaning for themselves and develop their own voice (Elbow, 1973;
Graves, 1983; Murray, 1985). The act of composing is "a creative act in which
the process: - the discovery of the true self - is as important as the product" (Berlin,
1988:484) and should be "the result of a genuine need to express one's personal
feeling, experience, or reactions" (Zamel, 1980:74). In order to enhance their
imagination ability and creativity, students or writers are encouraged to generate
their own ideas by writing freely. Elbow (1973) believes that free writing is able to

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The Product Approach concentrates on the end product that writers have to
produce. Teachers following the Product Approach often begin their lessons with
presenting a model text, which is then analyzed on the purpose, language, the
organization, and the style. The aim is to enable learners to produce similar texts.
“Learning is evaluated through text analysis of learner’s work according to some
criteria such as the standard of rhetorical style, accurate grammar, and conventional
organization”. This view has been supported in the work of Brown (1994: 320).
According to Steele’s view (2004) cited in Hasan and Akhand (2010: 78), the
Product Approach comprises of four stages: familiarization, controlled writing,
guided writing and free writing.
Unlike the Product Approach, the Process Approach focuses on thinking and
writing processes. “The Process Approach sees the language learners as creators of
language, decision makers of the message and content”(Brown 1994: 320). It is
argued by Nunan (1991: 87) that “while the product-oriented approach aims at
developing the learner’s writing skill mainly at sentence-level, the process-oriented
approach aims at improving their language at discourse-level”.
As cited in Hasan and Akhand (2010: 79), Steele (2004) considers eight
stages of the Process Approach: brainstorming, planning/ structuring, mind
mapping, writing the first draft, peer feedback, editing, final draft and evaluation
and teachers’ feedback.
According to Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001), activities of three
stages of writing process are classified as follows:
Stages
Activities Pre-writing
Reading (extensively) a passage
Skimming or scanning a passage

happy ending (Cuddon, 1998).
According to Kinsella,
…[A] fairy tale is one type of story under the heading of "folk tales." There
are many types of folktales: a tall tale, a cumulative tale, an animal
story. Sometimes, people use the term folktale and fairy tale to mean the
same thing. A fairy tale is a folktale, but a folktale is not always a fairytale.
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
Writing with background knowledge

Post-writing
Feedback & correction
Revising
Editing
Evaluating

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Fairy tales often have some sort of royalty involved in the story (including
the fairy realm); the main character (s) goes on a journey where he/she is
tested; they have some sort of magical help along the way; good triumphs
over evil; there is a transformation or reward at the end. They usually start
with "a long time ago, in a place far away" and end "happily ever after."
2.2. The elements of fairy tales
The following descriptions are explanation of the elements of story by Bliss

captivate the imagination of young minds and enhance their creativity and reasoning
skills. Thus they are not only useful in the classroom but also in real life. Students
might not explicitly comprehend the issues involved, but will absorb the lesson deep
in the subconscious and find the joys while learning with fairy tales due to these
following benefits:
Fairy tales teach students positive skills to look back on their own. Students
learn from characters in the stories and this helps them to connect the situation with
their own lives. The stories show children how to have a positive outlook in life. It
also teaches them critical thinking skills.
As cited in Tedjaatmadja and Wijaya (2009: 7), “fairy tales as a part of
folklore can be found everywhere in various forms” (Danandjaja, 1984 and Greenia,
2007). “Every culture has various kinds of fairy tales which provide a vast array of
source for teaching material” (Tedjaatmadja and Wijaya , 2009: 7). In addition,
most familiar tales have been reproduced or adapted and are widely available; thus,
these have added their popularity.
In order to raise the familiarity of universal values and plots in fairy tales to
students (Danandjaja, 1984 and Hanlon, 1999), each culture has its particular fairy
tales. It is fascinating to recognize that there are some resemblances among certain
fairy tales in different societies. Therefore, students can compare and contrast those
cultures, events, or characteristics in these stories.
“Fairy tales are enjoyable but meaningful” (Hanlon, 1999). They signify
human experience, values, and history; hence they can provide both entertainment
and opportunities for further discussion. They set as an excellent example of the
multifaceted mixture of history and fantasy. Moreover, they can be analyzed in
short essays as well as in some more complicated research. Because of their
universal values, similar plots and values, most people find it easy to remember
fairy tales.
Fairy tales are short (Bagg, 1991 cited in Tedjaatmadja and Wijaya , 2009:
7). This advantage has added more opportunities to use fairy tales in language
classroom since teachers do not have to be afraid of adjusting most of their lesson

taught through reading fairy tales as well. When working in groups, students can
ask and answer content-related questions and learn the word-order of questions and
affirmative sentences.
In Cameron (2001 cited in Lepin 2008: 13- 14),

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…[F]airy tales include unusual words, or words that have a strong
phonological content, with interesting rhymes or sound that are
onomatopoetic. In fairy tales there is used evocative vocabulary, the
language of the fairy world, memorable language such as metaphors,
alliteration, rhymes, and the spoken language of the common people. The
built-up repetition of the words and phrases is one of the features of fairy
tales that is very helpful for language learning. The context created by the
story, its predictable pattern of events and language, pictures, all act to
support the reader‟s understanding of unfamiliar words. Children will pick
up the words that they enjoy and in this way stories offer space for growth in
vocabulary.
“Writing fairy tales follows a typical structure namely a castle or forest,
monster or witch, prince or princess and so forth. In spite of all these invertible
features, writing fairy tales allows for a wider degree of creativity” (Bruti, 1999
cited in Arslan and Zibande, 2010: 110). “Fairy tales also helps students to jog to
their childhood memories” (Chiarantano, 2005 cited in Arslan and Zibande, 2010:
110), reducing the affective filter. Therefore, while learning fairy tales, students can
employ their previous knowledge gained in reading tales in their native language
and use it in learning English. In addition to, they will make use of the advantage of
cooperative learning to reduce their anxiety and have fun while a fairy tale is
employed in EFL classroom (Guglielmini, 2006).
Fairy tales have a great potential to be used as a valuable source in English
lessons. Children’s stories contain uses of language that are considered typical of
poetic and literary texts. Many of these devices offer opportunities for foreign

of the story”. According to Oster (1989: 85), “focusing on point of view in literature
enlarges students’ vision and fosters critical thinking by dramatizing the
various ways a situation can be seen”. This could happen because when students
read, they interact with the text. By interacting with the text, they interpret what
they read. By interpreting what they read, they can work toward writing English
more creatively.
Using short stories as a source of input, various writing activities can
be created to help students develop their creative writing skills. Students can
be asked to write dialogues or more complex writing activities in accordance with
the nature of the story, objective of the lesson and the language proficiency level of
students’.
3. Previous works review
A previous research on “developing students’ narrative writing through fairy
tales” was conducted by Riyatun, a student of the University of Negeri Semarang in
2007 in his graduation thesis. The research focuses on an action research which was
done in two cycles. The first cycle with five activities aims at the topic focuses of