University of languages & international studies – vnu, hanoi
Faculty of POST-graduate studies
============= KIỀU THU HIỀN DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY GRADE-10
STUDENTS AT TRUONG DINH UPPER
SECONDARY SCHOOL IN LEARNING WRITING
SKILL WITH THE NEW TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 10

( NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT
TRƯƠNG ĐỊNH GẶP PHẢI KHI HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT VỚI SÁCH
GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 MỚI )

M.A MINOR THESIS
Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 601410
Supersivor : ĐỖ TUẤN MINH, Ph.D
Hanoi - 2009

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1 Different views on what writing is
4
1.2 Distinguishing features of written language from spoken language
4
1.3 The roles of writing in second language learning
6
1.4 Approaches to the teaching of writing in ESL classes
7
1.5 What makes writing difficult to acquire ?
11
CHAPTER TWO : THE STUDY
12
2.1 Overview of the teaching and learning of the writing skill at Truong
Dinh Upper secondary school 12
2.1.1 Teaching and learning context
12
2.1.2 The schedule of learning writing skill in the new textbook Tieng Anh 10
12
2.2 The study
14
2.2.1 Participants
14
2.2.2 Instruments
15
2.2.3 Procedures of data collection
15

v
2.3 Data analysis and discussion
16

3.9 Establishing a positive and supportive learning atmosphere
42
PART THREE : CONCLUSION
43
1. Summary of the study
43
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study
44
References

Appendices

Appendix 1 : Survey Questionnaire for Students
I
Appendix 2 : Survey Questionnaire for Teachers
IV
Appendix 3 : Classroom Observations
VII
Appendix 4 : Interview Transcripts
XIV
Appendix 5 : A sample lesson plan
XX vi
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Tables
Table 1: Types of difficulties students coped with in learning 10
th

Currently, as learning a second or a foreign language is paid more and more special
attention to, there has been a growing tendency towards the emphasis on improving
communicative competence in language teaching and learning. Writing, therefore, is regarded
as a productive skill which provides students with opportunities to put all the language
elements they have learnt into practice and to show communicative competence effectively.
However, in fact writing is not often as important to many students as other skills such as
reading and speaking and it tends to get rather neglected in many Vietnamese language classes.
In addition, writing itself is a very complex and difficult skill to acquire. Thus teaching
students to write well is one of the most challenging tasks in education. In order to resolve this
situation little by little, the Ministry of Education and Training have carried out comprehensive
reforms of teaching and learning English at Secondary Education level by updating new and
appropriate curricula with clear objectives. The syllabus for high school students has changed
completely and focused on developing both students‟ linguistic competence and
communicative competence. Accordingly writing is taught carefully in a separate class, which
creates more chances for students to practise writing skills. Besides these favourable
conditions, there are still challenges faced by teachers and students at high schools since
students have not got accustomed to new learning methods in the innovated syllabus and
teachers have not got much teaching experience with the new textbook.
As a teacher of English at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school for 6 years, I have been
deeply aware of my teaching context in which my students have coped with a lot of difficulties
in learning English especially learning the writing skill. Among four skills taught in English
textbook 10, writing can be seen as the most boring and hardest one so many questions about
teaching writing always concern me a lot : „What problems might my students face when
learning writing ?‟ „What should be done to help my students overcome those problems?‟
„How should each form of written text be taught so that students can learn it effectively?‟
„How can I make the lesson fun, meaningful and memorable?‟. I, therefore, decided to do a
research on “Difficulties encountered by grade-10 students at Truong Dinh upper
secondary school in learning writing with the new textbook Tieng Anh 10” in the hope that
the findings and solutions mentioned in this study will make a significant contribution to
improving the teaching and learning of the writing skill at Truong Dinh high school as well as

Observation can help to get more insights into real situations of learning writing in
some writing classes at Truong Dinh high school and interviews after observing
probably provide more evidence for valid findings of the investigation.
5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Writing itself is a broad and complex area covering a variety of issues for research. Yet,
this study mainly concentrates on analyzing difficulties faced by grade-10 students at Truong
Dinh Upper secondary school in learning writing with the new textbook Tieng Anh 10. On the
basis of the discussion and findings from collected data, some recommendations of solutions
will be put forward.

3
6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Pedagogically, this study has brought lots of practical benefits in such a way that it may
provide useful information about the source of problems that grade-10 students at Truong Dinh
Upper secondary school encountered when learning writing. The information can probably
help the researcher and teachers at Truong Dinh high school identify the limitations in the
teachers‟ teaching approaches and major students‟difficulties in order to find out relevant
solutions. Also, the results of this study may also be used as suggestions for teachers in other
upper secondary schools as well as material developers.
7. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The study is divided into three parts:
 Part I ( Introduction ): includes the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the
scope, the method, the significance and the design of the study.
 Part II ( Development ) : consists of three chapters as follows
- Chapter I ( Literature review ): presents the theoretical background of the study,
which summarizes some views on definitions of writing, differences between written language
and spoken language, roles of writing in second language learning, approaches to the teaching

its own right”. He also stresses that it is not a simple process but a complex one “writing is a
form of problem-solving which involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a
„voice‟ with which to write, planning, goal-setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to
be written as well as what has been written and searching for language with which to express
exact meanings”
In language teaching, writing is considered as “a language skill which is difficult to
acquire” (Tribble, 1996: 3). He also emphasized that “Effectively, everybody learns to speak at
least one language fluently, but many are unable to write with confidence. Why should this be
so ? One of the answers must be that writing normally requires some form of instruction. It is
not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” (1996:11)
Hedge (1988: 61) suggests that the way writing is taught should be close to life.
According to him, “Writing in the English language classroom can become unreal if it is only
ever produced for one reader, the teacher, and if its purpose is limited to enabling the teacher to
assess the correctness of the linguistic forms used. Under these conditions students have to
imagine context for their writing and motivate themselves to write appropriately for the
imaginary readers. It is far more motivating for them if their writing can become genuine
pieces of communication with real audiences such as other students, visitors, the local
newspapers, organizations, etc. Then they can think carefully about the identifiable and
particular context which will determine the exact message and style of their written
communication”
1.2. Distinguishing features of written language from spoken language:
In language classes, it is very necessary for students to make comparison between
spoken language and written language for several reasons. If students have a better 5
understanding of how spoken and written texts differ, they can be much better placed to
become confident writers. They also need to see how the different types of language are
constructed and understand that written texts are not just spoken texts. What is more,
distinguishing writing from speech can help student understand some of the difficulties they

constructed, and linked and organized to form
a text.
6. Sentences often incomplete and sometimes
ungrammatical. Hesitations and pauses
common and usually some redundancy and
repetition.
7. Devices to help convey meaning are
punctuation, capitals and underlining (for
emphasis). Sentence boundaries clearly
indicated
7. Range of devices (stress, intonation, pitch,
speech) to help convey meaning. Facial
expressions, body movements and gestures
also used for this purpose.
Sharing the same opinion that the two processes, speaking and writing, are not identical,
Raimes (1983:4-5) also indicates some typical differences:
 Speech is universal; everyone acquires a native language in the first few years of life.
Not everyone learns to read and write.
 Speakers use their voices (pitch, stress, and rhythm) and bodies ( gestures and facial
expressions) to help convey their ideas. Writers have to reply on the words on the page to
express their meaning.
 Speakers use pauses and intonation. Writers use punctuation. 6
 Speakers pronounce. Writers spell.
 Speaking is usually spontaneous and unplanned. Most writing takes time. It is planned.
We can go back and change what we have written.
 A speaker speaks to a listener who is right there, nodding or frowning, interrupting or
questioning. For the writer, the reader‟s response is either delayed or nonexistent. The writer has 7
1.4. Approaches to the teaching of writing in ESL classes:
In order to produce a good piece of writing, learners have to deal with a lot of
elements. The following diagram demonstrates these elements clearly:
Producing a Piece of Writing ( Raimes, 1983:6)
SYNTAX CONTENT
sentence structure, relevance, clarity,
sentence boundaries, originality,
stylistic choices, etc. logic, etc.

GRAMMAR THEWRITER‟S
rules for verbs, PROCESS
agreement, articles, getting ideas,
pronouns, etc getting started,
writing drafts,
MECHANICS revising
handwriting, `
spelling, AUDIENCE
punctuation,etc. the reader(s) ORGANIZATION WORD CHOICE PURPOSE
paragraphs, vocabulary the reason for writing
topic and support, idiom, tone
cohesion and unity
Raimes ( 1983:5-10) states that on the basis of stressing different features of this

students to write as much as possible and as quickly as possible without worrying about
making errors. Teachers in this approach have stressed quantity of writing rather than quality
by assigning vast amounts of free writing on given topics with only minimal correction of
errors. The important thing is that students can write down all their ideas on paper.
Grammatical accuracy, organization and the rest will gradually follow. In this way, students
feel that they are actually writing, not merely doing exercises of some kind so they can write
what they want to write and as a result they find writing an enjoyable experience. Thus in this
approach concern for „audience‟ and „content‟ in the diagram are taken into consideration.
Byrne (1991:22) also supports the free-writing approach, a fluency-approach, for the cause that
“many students write badly because they do not write enough and for the same reason they feel
inhibited when they pick up a pen. Most of us write less well if we are obliged to write about
something. A fluency-approach, perhaps channeled into something like keeping a diary, can be
a useful antidote.”
1.4.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach
Different from two approaches above, the paragraph-pattern one highlights the
importance of organization, another feature of the diagram. This approach is mainly concerned
to teach students how to construct and organize paragraphs. Students simply copy paragraphs,
analyze the form of model paragraphs and imitate model passages. Their concrete tasks are
putting scrambled sentences into paragraph order, identifying general and specific statements,
choosing or inventing an appropriate topic sentences and inserting or deleting sentences.
This approach has its own advantages pointed out by Byrne (1991:23) “this approach
identifies and tries to overcome one of the central problems in writing: getting students to
express themselves effectively at a level beyond the sentence.”

9
1.4.4 The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach
From the viewpoint that writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which

How do I get started?
This approach lays particular stress on a cycle of writing activities which move students from
the generation of ideas and the collections of data through to the „publication‟ of a finished
text. The diagram below shows the whole process not as a fixed sequence but a dynamic and
unpredictable process: 10

PREWRITING

(specifying the task / planning and outlining / collecting data / making notes )

COMPOSING/ DRAFTING

REVISING
( reorganizing / shifting emphasis / focusing information and style for your readership )

EDITING
(checking grammar / lexis / surface features)

PUBISHING
In this process approach, teachers in ESL classes give their students the opportunity to explore a
topic fully in such prewriting activities as discussion, reading, debate, brainstorming and list
making. Students do not necessarily produce the first piece of writing in a restricted time and
hand in the composition for the teacher to correct or grade. Rather, they explore a topic through
writing, showing the teacher and each other their drafts and using what they write to read over,
think about, and move them on to new ideas. After getting the appropriate feedback from
readers, the teacher and other students, they will discover new ideas, new sentences and new
words, then revise and edit what they have written in the first draft to prepare for the publication

language and to getting feedback of some kind. Writing, on the other hand, is essentially a
solitary activity and the fact that we are required to write on our own, without the possibility of
interaction or the benefit of feedback, in itself makes the act of writing difficult.
 Linguistic problems :
Oral communication is sustained through a process of interaction and except in special
circumstances, such as a lecture, the participants help to keep it going. Because speech is
normally spontaneous, we have little time to pay attention either to organizing our sentence
structures or to connecting our sentences : to some extent the latter is maintained through the
process of interaction. We repeat, backtrack, expand and so on, depending on how people react
to what we say. Incomplete and even ungrammatical utterances usually pass unnoticed.
In writing, we have to keep the channel of communication open through our own efforts and
to ensure, both through our choice of sentence structure and by the way our sentences are linked
together and sequenced, that the text we product can be interpreted on its own.
 Cognitive problems
We grow up learning to speak and in normal circumstances spend much of our time doing it.
We also appear to speak without much conscious effort or thought and generally we talk because
we want to, about matters which are of interest or relevant to us socially or professionally.
Writing, on the other hand, is learnt through a process of instruction: we have to master the
written form of the language and to learn certain structures which are less used in speech, or
perhaps not used at all, but which are important for effective communication in writing. We also
have to learn how to organize our ideas in such a way that they can be understood by a reader
who is not present and perhaps by a reader who is not known to us. Furthermore, writing is a task
which is often imposed on us, perhaps by circumstances. This not only has a psychological
effect; it may also cause a problem in terms of content – what to say. Being at a loss for ideas is a
familiar experience to most of us when we are obliged to write. 12
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY
2.1. Overview of teaching and learning writing skill at Truong Dinh

diversified topics and after every three units students have a revision lesson called „Test
Yourself‟. Thanks to the new syllabus, students can stand a chance of learning writing in a
separate class. In each writing lesson, students are expected to write a form of written text for a 13
personal communication purpose within 100 -200 words using a suggested model and word
cues .The syllabus sketch for learning writing in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 is presented
clearly as follows :
Units
Themes / Topics
Forms of Writing
Attainment Targets
1
A Day in the Life of
Writing a narrative
Students will be able to write a
narrative within 100 – 120 words
using suggested word cues and a
frame.
2
School Talks
Filling in a form
Students will be able to fill in a
personal form.
3
People‟s Background
Writing about people‟s
background
Students will be able to write about

advantages and
disadvantages of the
mass media
Students will be able to write about
advantages and disadvantages of the
mass media of 100 -120 words
using a suggested model and word
cues.
8
The Story of My
Village
Writing an informal
letter:
Giving directions
Students will be able to write an
informal letter of 100 -120 words to
give directions using a suggested
model and word cues.
14
9
Undersea World
Describing information
from a table
Students will be able to describe
information from a table of 100 -
120 words using a suggested frame
and idea cues.

The World Cup
Writing an
announcement
Students will be able to write an
announcement about sport events in
school of 100 – 120 words using a
suggested outline and word cues.
15
Cities
Describing a city
Students will be able to write about
a city of 100 – 120 words using a
suggested model and word cues
16
Historical Places
Describing a chart
Students will be able to describe
information from a chart of 100 -
120 words using suggested word
cues and idea prompts
2.2. The study:
2.2.1. Participants:
A total of 200 grade-10 students chosen randomly from seven different classes and 12
teachers of English from the language group at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school
participated in the study.
The students are both male and female at the age of sixteen and have been learning
English for four years at junior secondary schools. They had finished their syllabus of 10 -form 15

respondent and probe for additional relevant information.
2.2.3 Procedures of data collection:
 Questionnaires:
The questionnaire for students was delivered in their classrooms at the end of the
school year in May when all the informants had finished the syllabus of their school year.
Before the questionnaire was administered, a brief explanation of the purpose of the study was
provided to the subjects. Subjects were advised that responses would not affect their academic 16
grades. Subjects were also told that they had to answer in terms of how well the statement of
each item in the questionnaire describes them. Most of the students took about 20 minutes to
finish all the questions. The answered questionnaires were collected right after the subjects
completed them.
Twelve teachers of English at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school received the
questionnaires in May when the school year was over. Thanks to their teaching practice, they
could give appropriate information about the difficulties facing grade-10 students in learning
writing. They were also elucidated about the research aims to ensure their confidence in
providing data.
 Observation:
Because of being a teacher of English at Truong Dinh high school, it is more
favourable for the researcher to conduct classroom observation. Some writing classes were
observed at different periods of time throughout the whole term. During these observations, the
researcher would play a role of an observer and did not participate in any classroom activities.
Several teachers had been asked to have classroom observation. Being informed about the
purposes of the study, all the teachers were always ready to support it.
 Interviews:
Right after observing each writing class, the researcher conducted informal interviews
with students during class breaks. Three students selected randomly took part in one-to-one
interview in a quiet room. Before interviews, the aims of the interview were explained to the

rarely
never
20 %
5 %

Chart 2: Frequency of students‟ writing practice at home
Stemming from low motivation in learning writing, a large number of students
(75%) rarely practise writing skills outside classes. 5 % do not do any writing tasks at all. Only
20% of the students stated that they sometimes drill in writing at home. Surprisingly, none of
the students consider writing as an important skill that needs to be practised frequently. In
general, the data indicates that the lack of constant practice has resulted in students‟
difficulties in learning writing.

75 % 18
2.3.1.1.3 Students’ general thoughts of the 10 form - writing syllabus:
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
very difficult
difficult

form syllabus
The figures in the table have proved that there are lots of challenges in grade 10-
students‟ writing leaning. In detail, a majority of students acknowledged that their bad grammar
( 84% ) and narrow vocabulary (92%) make them incapable of writing well. The lack of well-
prepared idea organization ( 74%) and the insufficiency of teachers‟careful guidance (54%) also
cause students quite a few difficulties. In addition, the restriction of students‟ background
knowledge (68%) affects their idea development. Besides, some others (35 %) think that some
factors such as little writing practice, time pressure, work arrangement, learning facilities also
limit students‟ writing ability.
19
2.3.1.1.5 Students’ idea organization before writing:
The data reveals that students themselves hardly brainstorm ideas before writing. Only
24 % of the students are aware of making organization before writing meanwhile nearly 76%
of the students do not have the habit of brainstorming. This can cause students‟ disordered and
obscure writings. In addition to this, students‟ writing may be discontinued because of not
expanding ideas. The teachers should pay attention to this problem to help students overcome
it.
2.3.1.1.6. Students’ frequence of getting a problem with vocabulary:
As it is known, vocabulary has a great influence on the quality of students‟ writing. It is
impossible for students to write well with narrow vocabulary. However, the students‟ writing
learning has been seriously impacted by lack of vocabulary. Specifically, more than half of the
students ( 63%) conceded that their writings were always discontinued by lack of vocabulary.
27% of the students often found difficult to express their ideas due to their narrow vocabulary.
Only a small number of students (10%) said that sometimes they got a problem with vocabulary
when writing. None of the students wrote without any difficulties.
always
often

2.3.1.1.8. Students’ awareness of the close relationship between reading and writing.
The data indicates that a majority of the students (80 %) are aware of the importance of
increasing vocabulary by reading English materials frequently but a quarter of them often
spend time on reading practice. Only a small percentage of students (20%) do not realize the
interaction between reading and writing. It can be concluded from the information that
although quite a few students are conscious of the usefulness of constant reading drill for
widening vocabulary, they themselves have not made a habit of practising reading regularly.
2.3.1.1.9. Students’ grammar mistakes in their writings
Among the factors affecting students‟ writing competence, grammar is thought to play
a very important role in the success of a writing piece. However, the sad fact shows that 23 %
of the students always made so many grammar errors in their writings. 57% of the total
admitted that their writings were often badly-evaluated due to many grammar mistakes. Only
15 % said that a few grammar errors could be found in their writings and 5% hardly made
grammar ones. In short, the figures demonstrate that one of the main factors which greatly
influences the students‟ writing competence is grammar
23 %
57 %
15 %
5 %
o %
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
so many
many
few

Table 2: Teachers‟ writing stage application
2.3.1.1.11 Teachers’ implementation of Pre-writing activities:
Teachers‟ implementation of Pre-writing activities
Results
 carefully teach students the form of written text they are going to
learn in the lesson
35 %
 suggest necessary vocabulary for students‟ writing
58 %
 give students a writing model
20 %
 merely do some first tasks in the textbook
80%
 Others
0 %
Table 3: Teachers‟ implementation of Pre-writing activities
As can be seen from the table, most of the students (80%) were often asked to do the first
task in Pre-writing. It can be inferred that the teachers strictly followed the tasks in the text book.
They did not change anything to be suitable for their students. Only a small number of students
(20%) claimed that their teachers gave them a writing model. Teaching students the form of a
written text in a writing lesson is very important for their later writing practice. However, just
about 35% of the students agreed that their teachers carefully taught them the form of written text
they were going to learn in the lesson. Besides, approximately 58 % students were suggested
vocabulary before writing. It can be concluded from the data that pre-writing stage was not
carried out carefully by the teachers, which would create a lot of difficulties for students‟ later
writing.