i
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
 BÙI HỒNG VÂN

PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY TEACHERS IN TEACHING
WRITING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(CÁC VẤN ĐỀ GIÁO VIÊN GẶP PHẢI TRONG VIỆC DẠY VIẾT CHO SINH VIÊN
CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI VÀ MỘT VÀI HƯỚNG
GIẢI QUYẾT)
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410
Hanoi, 2010


vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF TABLES vii
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 1
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Method of the study 2
5. Contribution of the study 2
6. Design of the study 2
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Definitions of writing 4
1.2. The importance of writing 5
1.3. Approaches to teaching writing 6
1.3.1. The product approach 7
1.3.2. The process approach 7
1. 3.3. Differences between the two approaches 8
1.4. Factors affecting the teaching and learning of writing 9
1.4.1. Learners’ personality 9
1.4.2. Motivation 9
vii
APPENDIX 2 (The teacher questionnaire) VIII
APPENDIX 3 (Interview questions completed by teachers) XV ix LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES
No
Content
Page
Chart1
Teachers’ opinions on teaching writing
18
Chart 2

teachers. It requires both good communicative competence and logical thinking. Despite these
requirements, writing is very necessary. In language learning process, it helps learners not
only improve other skills but promote their ways of thinking as well. Therefore, teaching
writing plays a fundamental role in teaching and learning English as a second/foreign
language.
However, there exist lots of problems in teaching writing, especially at Hanoi University of
Industry (HaUI), where the author of this thesis works. Most of the teachers, particularly
teachers teaching writing to English major students, find it uneasy to motivate their students to
write, to make their writing lessons more interesting and so forth. In spite of these obstacles,
there is a lack of studies on teaching writing.
As a result of the reasons above, the study “Problems experienced by teachers in teaching
writing to English major students at Hanoi University of Industry and Suggested Solutions”
is conducted in an attempt to address the gap in the literature and to offer English writing
teachers, especially the teachers teaching writing to English major students at Hanoi
University of Industry, some effective solutions to their current problems. Finally, this study is
also hoped to lay a foundation on which subsequent researches into this matter is based and
developed.
2. Aims of the study
This study is carried out with the wish of achieving the two primary aims:
- To find out what the problems that teachers at HaUI experience in teaching writing to
English major students are.
- To suggest some solutions to the problems in teaching writing.
These aims are shown clearly in addressing the following research questions:
- What are the problems that teachers at HaUI experience in teaching writing to English
major students? 2
- What are the possible solutions to these problems as suggested by the teachers at
HaUI?

importance of writing, approaches to teaching writing, factors affecting the teaching
and learning of writing and problems in teaching writing and solutions
- Chapter Two in the Development is wholly devoted to describing the study with details
in the research hypothesis, rationale for using the survey method, participants,
instruments, procedure of data collection, results and discussion.
- Finally, the third part is the Conclusion of the thesis dealing with the summary,
implications and limitations of the study. Furthermore, this part also provides some
suggestions for further studies.


supported by Harris (1993) when he considered writing as “a process that occurs over a period 5
of time, particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended period of thinking that
precedes creating an initial draft”. He also stressed on the importance of teaching writing:
“writing normally requires some forms of instruction. It is not a skill that is readily picked up
by exposure”. Finally, Tribble (1996) pointed out that writing was “a language skill which is
difficult to acquire” and thus, the teaching of writing was essential to the development of
writing skill.
In brief, reviewing all the theories of both linguists and teachers, writing is an act, a process
and a skill which shows writers’ mental power. Therefore, writing is not simple. It needs
studying, practicing and especially teaching.
1.2. The importance of writing
No one can deny the importance of writing in our society. We write to record what we have
seen, felt and thought. We also write to celebrate experience. In addition, we write to inform,
to explain, to entertain, to persuade and so forth. Therefore, in teaching and learning English,
writing plays a crucial role. Concerning about this issue, White (1987) pointed out:
(i) Writing remains the commonest way of examining students’ performance in English (all
public examinations include a composition). Consequently, ability to write remains a key to
examination success.
(ii) In the eyes of both parents and students, ability to write may be associated with evidence
of having learnt the language. Writing is tangible parents and students can see what has been
done and what has been achieved. So it has high “face validity”.
(iii) In classroom, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help add variety
and interest to lesson.
(iv) Teachers may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what students have
learnt. Students’ writing can provide useful evidence of successes or failures in learning, of
confusions, and errors.
(v) Writing requires thought, discipline and concentration. It is relatively a permanent form

1.3. Approaches to teaching writing
It is confirmed that teaching writing is really complicated work. Teachers always have to
choose what to teach, why to teach and how to teach. Among these choices, choosing the
suitable approach of teaching writing seems to be the most difficult one. Therefore, in the 7
range of an MA thesis, two most fundamental and popular approaches of writing are
introduced with the hope of providing an overview of teaching writing approaches.
1.3.1. The product approach
Product Approach is a traditional approach which is a largely “prescriptive and product-
centered” way of teaching writing. This approach focuses on the final outcome of a writing
process and supposes that students need to produce only one writing version of the task.
The model of this approach was outlined by Nunan (1991) when he reviewed that the product
approach favored classroom activities, preferred organization of ideas to ideas, emphasized on
grammar exercises and correctness, and focused on the result of the final writing paper of
learners.
In addition, Tsui (1996) distinguished four stages of the product approach like generating
ideas, drafting, revising and editing. He also claimed that the product approach focused more
on form than on content. Also emphasizing on form, White (1987) considered the product
approach as the emphasis on grammatical correctness and adherence to give models or
guidelines.
In brief, after reviewing some basic features of the product approach, it may be concluded that
the product approach focuses on form, which prevents students from developing their
creativity and confidence in the learning of writing. On the contrary, this approach seems to be
good for beginners of writing to formulate their skill. Besides, the careful instruction of
teachers in this approach is a good chance for students to improve their own writing.
1.3.2. The process approach
The process approach to writing, an innovation in a product-oriented culture (Cheung, 1999),
has been seen as an improvement over the traditional method of writing instruction in recent

independence and confidence in writing.
1.3.3. Differences between the two approaches
Based on theoretical background of the product and the process approach, Steele (2005)
distinguished the differences between them.
Firstly, the process approach considers text as a resource for comparison while in the product
approach, text is used for students to imitate. Secondly, when process approach emphasizes
the importance of ideas, product approach appreciates the organization of ideas more than
ideas themselves. Moreover, focusing on creativity, the process approach often has more than 9
one draft; on the contrary, concentrating on the final product of writing, only one draft is used
in the product approach. Finally, in process approach, students or learners often collaborate
with each other while in product approach, they work individually.
From the distinguishing features above, it is likely that there is not much clear-cut separation
between these two approaches. Each of them has both strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, in
order to yield the most effective lessons of writing, integrating the product and the process
approach seems to be a good choice for both teachers and students.
1. 4. Factors affecting the teaching and learning of writing
In addition to the teaching approaches which properly affect the quality of the writing teaching
and learning, there exist some other factors contributing to the success of the learning and
teaching namely learners’ personality, motivation, the first language and culture, curriculum
and students’ communicative competence.
1.4.1. Learners’ personality
Second language acquisition is defined as the learning and adopting of a language that is not
learners’ native language. Once learners have acquired a foreign language, they have mastered
that language. For second language learners to make maximum progress with their own
learning styles, their individual differences must be recognized and attended to. A number of
theories hold that personality factors significantly influence the degree of success that
individuals achieve in learning a second language (Gass & Selinker, 1994) based on the

learners having already developed their subconscious competence in the first language. This
experience of their native language may be more or less helpful as they approach a new
language since they have already learned how to do with language. To a certain extent,
universal features shared by languages may facilitate their learning a new language. However,
it is a fact that learners of different backgrounds experience failures to control the foreign
language, and this has been for a time attributed to the native language habits and experience.
People have believed and still hold that the mother tongue has something to do with these
failures. Some representative linguists like Lado (1957), Fries (1945) advocated this
viewpoint. They suggested a theory in which two types of transfers were described on the
basis of behavior psychology: the positive and negative transfer. Transfer was positive when
foreign language learning was facilitated due to its similar features with the mother tongue and
negative in the sense that their different features impeded learning. Although this theory has 11
been vulnerable to critical attacks from many linguists, the fact that the first language
contributes to the success of learning and teaching a foreign language is undeniable.
In addition to the first language, culture is also seen as a factor affecting the quality of
teaching and learning the second language, especially teaching and learning writing. Kaplan
(1966) claimed that oriental cultures wrote in a circular way and western cultures write in a
linearly. The idea of linearity was confirmed by the studies of Houghton (1983) and Hoey
(1986) and Leki, (1991). Furthermore, Scollon and Scollon's (1986) study of news items
showed the circular way of presenting an argument by the Chinese, reflecting the classical
structure of English texts produced by Chinese writers. There are other researchers, especially
in second language contexts, who have engaged with Kaplan's theory and allow that different
cultures have different rhetorical techniques (Scollon, 1991, Connor 1990 and 1996). On the
other hand, these researchers also concluded that people who are from the same or similar
culture may employ different rhetorical structures and, consequently, write similarly or
differently (Clyne, 1980, 1987, Scollon, 1995, Kirkpatrick, 1997).
1.4.4. The textbook

communicative competence is about “rules of speaking” (Cameron, 2001, p. 55).
Secondly, communicative competence is associated with sociocultural factors. In the study of
communicative competence, the social dimension also needs to be concerned. Communication
is “a social interaction through messages” (Fiske, 1990), and it takes place in a social context
involving transmitting not only information but also in communicating social values and
interpersonal relationships (Thompson, 2003). Hymes (1972) pointed out that a competent
language user needs to know more than just a set of rules for forming grammatical sentences;
he/she also needs to know how to use language in a contextually appropriate way. According
to Hymes (1972, p. 282), competence should be based on “knowledge” and “use”, and
acquisition of competence includes developing both competence for grammar and competence
for use. All the components of communicative events need to be involved, such as persons,
places, purposes and other modes of communication. To produce an appropriate utterance
requires a speaker to adapt to different communicative circumstances. Consequently,
communicative competence is regarded as a fundamental issue in teaching and learning the
second/ foreign language, which serves as both a means of language acquisition and a goal of
language teaching and learning process. 13
1. 5. Problems in teaching writing
1.5.1. The interference of the first language and culture
As stated in the parts above, the first language and culture play an important role in the
acquisition of English as a second/foreign language. Concerning about this role, Kaplan
(1967) insisted: “Language in the whole multiplicity of its forms – both shapes and is shaped
by the experience of the society of speakers” while Ellis (1996) said: “Speakers of different
languages view the world in different ways”. Talking about the interference of the first
language in the teaching of writing, in the study of English writing by Vietnamese immigrants
to the United States, Byleen (1986) wrote: “Their first language may have predisposed them to
certain interference errors in English”. Besides, sharing the idea about the effect of culture,
Furnham and Bochner (1986) said: “The directness of Western discourse styles might be

As stated in the factors affecting the teaching and learning of writing, communicative
competence is very important to the success of language teaching and writing. It serves as the
basis for the teaching and learning of writing. In case of students’ poor communicative
competence, students cannot communicate successfully. They cannot use words to express
their ideas. As a result, there would be much difficulty for the teaching of writing.
1.5.5. Giving feedback
Not like other skills, in the teaching of writing, giving feedback is considered as the key to the
success. It shows the relationships between teachers and students. However, there has been
limited literature on the effectiveness of feedback. According to Murphy (1994), it raised the
question of whether teachers’ kind of correction and comment match students’ expectations.
Besides, it is the way to improve the quality of students’ written work (Shrum & Glisan,
2002). Therefore, giving feedback is not a simple matter. Firstly, correcting written work is
very time-comsuming (Ur, 1991). Secondly, teachers have difficulty in deciding focus on form
or on content when they give feedback to their students (Farthman & Whalley, 1990). Lastly,
whether teachers correct all the mistakes in their students’ writing is another problem of giving
feedback that Ur (1991) questioned.
1.5.6. Adapting the textbook
Although textbooks are very necessary to the teaching of writing, there still have been some
arguments on their role. Tomlinson (2003) argued: “Many ELT materials (especially global
course books) currently make a significant contribution to the failure of many learners of 15
English as a second, foreign or other language to even acquire basic competence in English
and to the failure of most of them to develop the ability to use it successfully”. What is more,
concerning about the importance of textbooks to teachers, Williams (1983) insisted: “In
situations where there is a shortage of trained teachers, language teaching is very closely tied
to the textbook. […] The textbook can be a tyrant to the teacher who, in his or her
preoccupation with covering the syllabus feels constrained”. Similarly, Sheldon (1988)
claimed: “ELT course books evoke a range of responses, but are frequently seen by teachers as

focuses on answering two following research questions:
- What are the problems that teachers at HaUI experience in teaching writing to English
major students?
- What are the possible solutions to these problems as suggested by the teachers at
HaUI?
2.2. Methodology
Based on Johnson’s theory (1992) that “a survey is usually defined, then, as a study of a large
group through direct study of a subset of that group”, survey research was one of the research
methods that the author could employ to explore problems in teaching writing experienced by
English teachers in general and teachers at English major group, English Department, HaUI in
particular. Moreover, Johnson (1991) also insisted that survey methods had been used to study
issues that impinge on language learning. Therefore, with the aims of discovering problems in
teaching writing and suggesting some possible solutions to English teachers, survey research
was used in this study through classroom observation, a questionnaire and interviews. In
detail, all the data were collected, analyzed and interpreted both quantitatively (use means,
percentage, graphs, etc) and qualitatively (interactive and thematic narrative analysis exploring
inductive themes).
2.3. Participants and instruments
2.3.1. Participants
The subjects involved in this study include 12 teachers at English Major Group, English
Department, HaUI. They are all female from 27 to 30 years old, and have three or four years
of teaching writing to English major students at Hanoi University of Industry.

17
2.3.2. Instruments
In order to get the most exact information for the study, three types of research instruments
were used.

part in completing the questionnaire about problems in teaching writing to English
major students at HaUI and some suggested solutions.
- Stage 3: After the questionnaire was analyzed, some questions for interviews were
raised. The subjects were invited to answer these questions.
2.5. Results and discussion
All the data collected from the classroom observation, the survey questionnaire and the
interviews are carefully analyzed in this section of the thesis.
2.5.1. Problems in teaching writing to English majors students at HaUI
One of the most important factors in this thesis is the problems that teachers have to deal with.
However, before teachers’ obstacles in teaching writing to English major students at HaUI are
explored, it is necessary to have a look at teachers’ opinions on teaching writing, which is
referred by two first questions in the questionnaire.
Question 1: What do you think about teaching writing to English major students at HaUI?
92%
8%
Difficult
Normal

Chart 1: Teachers’ opinions on teaching writing
With this question, most of the teachers (92 %) thought that teaching writing is very difficult
because a majority of HaUI students came from English non-major high schools. Besides, that
English Department has just been established at HaUI is another reason. Compared to the 19
majority of teachers, only one teacher claimed that teaching writing to English major students
was neither difficult nor easy. She explained that her students were very hard-working and
their proficiency of English was not too bad.
Question 2: In your opinion, which factor(s) affect(s) your teaching of writing most?