HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO. 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY
BUI THI DUYEN

SOME EFFECTIVE ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO TEACH WRITING
IN THE PRE - WRITING STAGE TO THE 11
TH
– GRADE
STUDENTS AT NGUYEN DUC THUAN HIGH SCHOOL

(GRADUATION PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI LE NGUYEN, M.A ii

ABSTRACT

In recent years, pre-writing activities have been commonly adopted and
applied in the English writing class practice. The objective of this study was to
find out the current situation of the application of the pre-writing activities in the
teaching and learning of writing skill to 11
th
– grade students in Nguyen Duc
Thuan high school. This study aimed to investigate how pre-writing activities
have been applied in teaching writing to 11
th
form students in Nguyen Duc
Thuan high school in reality, the research conducted by both quantitative and
qualitative. The data collected from students’ survey questionnaire and class
observation showed that pre-writing activities has little to do with the teaching
of writing skill to 11
th
– grade students in Nguyen Duc Thuan high school. Most
of students often get obstacles in learning writing skill as well as using pre-
writing activities. Moreover, almost students also claimed that their teachers
have not used pre-writing activities often and with variety of techniques.
Based on the results of the survey, the major findings such as roles of
writing skill and pre-writing activities, the preferences, difficulties, evaluation
and expectations of students as well as types, time duration and effectiveness of
pre-writing activities have been found. Some pre-writing activities such as


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
ABSTRACT ii
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF TABLES/ FIGURES viii

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study 1
1.2. Objectives of the study 2
1.3. Significance of the study 3
1.4. Scope of the study 3
1.5. Task of the study 3
1.6. Methodology of the study 4
1.7. Organization of the study 4

PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT

Chapter one
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1. Literature review in brief 6
2. Theoretical background 8
2.1. Teaching writing 8
2.1.1. Definition of writing 8

– grade students at Nguyen Duc Thuan high
school 29
2.1.1.2. Students’ preferences for pre - writing activities 30
2.1.1.3 Students’ frequency of learning writing skill 32
vi

2.1.1.4. Students’ writing ability 32
2.1.1.5. Students’ difficulties in pre - writing activities 33
2.1.1.6. Students’ evaluation on actual pre -writing activities used in
writing classes 34
2.1.1.7. Students’ expectations in pre – writing activities 36
2.2.2. Data analysis of class observation 37

Chapter three
MAJOR FINDINGS AND SOME EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM
ACTIVITIES TO TEACH WRITING IN THE PRE – WRITING STAGE
TO THE 11
TH
– GRADE STUDENTS AT NGUYEN DUC THUAN HIGH
SCHOOL

3.1. Major findings 39
3.1.1. Major findings of students’ questionnaire 39
3.1.1.1. Roles of writing skill and pre – writing activities in writing
classes to the 11
th
– grade students at Nguyen Duc Thuan high
school 39
3.1.1.2. Students’ preferences for pre - writing activities 40
3.1.1.3 Students’ difficulties in participating in pre - writing

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………… viii
APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………xii
APPENDIX 1………………………………………………………………….xiii
APPENDIX 2………………………………………………………………… xv
APPENDIX3……………………………………………………………… xix
viii

LIST OF TABLES/ FIGURES

Figure 2.1. Producing a piece of writing by Ann Raimes (1983) 12
Figure 2.2. Spark’s (1984) diagram of rhetorical triangle in writing 16
Figure 2.3. White and Arndt’ s (1991) diagram of process approach 17
Figure 2.4. Curry’ s (1996) diagram of the writing process approach 18
Figure 2.5. Scarcella and Oxford's (1992) diagram of abilities underlying
writing proficiency 19
Table 2.1. Students' attitude towards writing skill 29
Table 2.2. Students’ attitudes towards pre-writing activities 30
Table 2.3. Students’ preferences for pre - writing activities 31
Table 2.4. Students’ amount of time spent on learning each skill 32
Table 2.5. Students’ writing marks 32
Table 2.6. Students' difficulties in pre-writing activities 33
Table 2.7. Students' reflection of teachers' pre-writing activities 34
Table 2.8. Students' evaluation on actual pre-writing activities 35
Table 2.9. Students' expectation of pre-writing activities 36
Figure 3.1. Pre-writing activities-brainstorming 1 47
Figure 3.2. Pre-writing activities-brainstorming 2 48
Figure 3.3. Pre-writing activities-brainstorming 3 50
Figure 3.4. Example of mind-mapping 61

1

There have been new teaching techniques and strategies developed as well as
new perspectives techniques. One of these perspectives techniques is best taught
as a process of stages prewriting, revising, reshaping and rewriting a piece of
writing until it becomes a better product. As mentioned in William, Z.,
prewriting activities are supposed to the foremost phrase to start for a successful
writing task. As his ways of thinking, pre-writing stage could considerably solve
the problems of ideas stuck, vocabulary limitation, and raise the students’
interest in learning writing.
Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, few researches have been carried out on
the activities when teaching of prewriting stage particularly for the 11
th
form
students in Vietnam. Together with the above reasons, teacher of English in the
future who is aware of this fact and wish to contribute some suggestions for
improvements in teaching and learning writing skill. Hence, the study “SOME
EFFECTIVE ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO TEACH WRITING IN THE PRE-
WRITING STAGE TO THE 11
TH
– GRADESTUDENTS AT NGUYEN DUC
THUAN HIGH SCHOOL” was carried out.
1.2. Objectives for the study
The objective of this study is to find out the current situation of the
application of pre-writing activities to the 11
th
– grade students at Nguyen Duc
Thuan high school and then suggest some possible pre-writing activities here.
In brief, this study would answer four following questions as followed:
1. What are the students’ attitude towards writing skills in general and
pre-writing activities in particular?
2. What kinds of pre-writing activities are used actually in writing

regardless of outdoor ones and indoor ones for the 11
th
course book. Moreover,
much focus pays only attention on the prewriting stage, not the whole process of
teaching and learning writing. What is more, due to the scale of the study as well
as the limitation of the time and knowledge, the participants of the study are 100
11
th
form students n Nguyen Duc Thuan high school.
1.5. Task of the study
As it is mentioned from the objective, it is obviously affirmed that this
study intended to investigate the students’ attitude towards writing skill in
general and pre-writing activities in particular. The study, then, find out how
pre-writing activities have applied in the process of teaching and learning
writing, especially in the pre-writing stage. Based on the data from students’
survey and observation, the study would figure out the difficulties which the
4
students often deal in pre-writing stage. Additionally, some effective activities
used before the actual writing would be given.
1.6. Methodology of the study
In order to answers to the objective as mentioned above, two methods
namely qualitative and quantitative method are used. First, the students’ survey
questionnaire was conducted to get quantitative information which would be
great value to support my research. The survey was carried out among 100 11
th

form students at Nguyen Duc Thuan high school. The purpose of this survey is
to collect data about the current situation of using pre-writing activities
involving the students’ attitude, common troubles, comments on teachers’ actual
writing, and their expectations for adjustments from teachers. Secondly,

activities to 11
th
form students were suggested.
Last but not least, the part three of the study is named CONCLUSION,
which is the summary of the paper along with my awareness of unavoidable
limitations and suggestions for further research. 6
PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT

Chapter one
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1. Literature review in brief
In fact, there are four major English skills including speaking, listening,
reading, and writing, which must be mastered by the students. Especially,
writing skill is such a complex one in teaching and learning English that much
discussion has been devoted to it. In addition, there is no denial that the teachers
and learners are fully aware of the role of activities in the writing lessons
especially in the pre-writing stage. How to make writing lessons effectively and
how to motivate students before writing tasks? In fact, it has been studied by
many linguists like Oluwadiya, A. (1992: 3), White & Arndt (1991), Tribble, C.
(1996), Raimes, A. (1983), Nunan, D. (1991), Mark, S. (1982), Melanie, D.
(1998), Harmer, J. (1991), and Harmer, J. (2004) and so on. Each of them gives
different opinions to improve writing skill at the pre-writing stage.
Oluwadiya (1992: 3) in Some Prewriting Techniques for Students Writer
gives the procedure and techniques in teaching writing including activities in the
Pre-writing stage, in Practicing Writing in Hello and in the Post-writing stage.

pre-writing stage in Language Teaching Methodology such as group
brainstorming, clustering, rapid free-writing, and Wh-questions.
In brief, each person can have a different viewpoint to improve writing
skill and we cannot tell which is better because each of them focuses on one
important matter of writing skill. However, the findings they drew out were too
simple and general. They do not find out the real situation of teaching and
learning writing skill at the pre-writing stage. In fact, there are a lot of
8
difficulties that the learners have to face before starting writing. Therefore,
being a language teacher, we must understand the nature of writing thoroughly
to help our students write effectively.
2. Theoretical background
In this section, the relevant literature which has helped from the
theoretical background and conceptual framework for the study is presented.
First, definitions of writing and the importance of learning and teaching
writing have been given. Second, some approaches to teaching writing
suggested by different theorists have been presented and taken into
consideration. What is more, principles for writing proficiency and factors in
learning and teaching writing have been mentioned. In addition, the definitions
and the importance of pre-writing activities in learning writing have also been
reviewed.
2.1. Teaching writing
2.1.1. Definition of writing
It has been argued that the term writing seems to be very common and
familiar in language teaching and learning. The ability to write fluently and
expressively is something that all language learners regardless of whether the
language in question is a first, second language finds it hard to achieve. All
children, apart from those with physiological disabilities, want to write, in fact,
need to write, before they want to read. There have been numerous definitions of
writing each of them is the reflection of its author’s view of the writing process.

represents language through the inscription of signs and symbols. In most
languages, writing is c complement to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a
language but a form of technology. Within a language system, writing relies on
many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and
semantics, with the added dependency of system of signs or symbols, usually in the
form of a formal alphabet” (retrieved from
10
Sharing the same view, many linguists agree that writing is a complex
process (Flower and Hayes (1981), Ham – Lyons (1987), cited in Nunan
(1991)), but we still write for some reasons, to get information to someone who
are not present in front of us, to solve the problem of volume, of having to store
more than the human brain can remember, and to filter and shape our
experience.
In short, from all these opinions above, it is obvious that no definition can
possibly capture all the ideas and features of what writing is. Each linguist’s
definition reflects what writing means as seen from his own point of view.
However, they all have some features in common, they share the same ideas that
writing as a complex skill is one of the four basic skills in learning and teaching
of English. It is not only a means of communication where students can share
their views and thought, it is actually a pre requisite to master other language
skills.
2.1.2. The importance of learning and teaching writing
In the process of teaching and learning a second or foreign language, the
teaching and learning of writing are always received much attention, since it is
regarded as one of the most important major skills as “for many students, writing
is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a
second or foreign language”. As it is mentioned above, writing is a productive
skill that plays an importance in learning and teaching the English language.
Writing enhances language acquisition as learners experiment with words,
sentences, and other elements of writing to communicate their idea effectively,

students.
2.1.3. Approaches to teaching writing skills
Writing is an important skill to develop in language learning and teaching
but the question is how writing competence can be developed. In reality, the
number of answers to the question of how to teach writing English in foreign
classes is as many as the number of teachers, students, and their teaching and
12
learning styles. As it is concerned by Ann Raimes (1983), there have been six
approaches to teach writing. These have inferred from the development of
several different approaches to teach language in general, which have in turn
contributed to the changing importance of writing within English syllabuses and
the English class in particular. Figure 2.1is Raimes’s diagram of aspects which
shows what writers deal with while writing.
2.1.3.1. The Product Approach or Controlled-to- Free Approach
According to Tribble (1996:118), students were purely “writing to learn”
as opposed to “learning to write”. This point of view was paraphrased and
praised by the Product Approach or Controlled-to- Free Approach that
originated from the Audio- Linguistic approach to second- language learning
popular in 1950s and early 1960s when primary purpose of learning and
teaching English was put on spoken language and writing mainly involved the
mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms. Following this approach, students
would likely have good grammatical skills. In general, students mainly work
with given material. The distinguishing feature of this approach is that students
can write a great deal of little mistakes. This approach emphasizes on three
features in the figure 2.1: grammar, syntax, and mechanics, and on accuracy
rather than fluency.

Figure 2.1. Producing a piece of writing by Ann Raimes (1983)
13
This approach as “focus on language structures” provides a four - stage

2.1.3.3. The Paragraph –Pattern Approach
Instead of emphasis on accuracy and fluency, Raimes (1983) has called
the Paragraph-Pattern Approach, which emphasized the importance of
organization at the above-sentence level. As a matter of fact, students often
copy, analyze paragraphs and imitate model passages. They identify to write
topic sentences or insert or delete sentences. In reality, this approach is based on
the principle that the ways people organize communication with each other vary
from cultures to cultures. By far, the largest single concern in second language
writing research has “contrastive rhetoric”. The focus of this work has been on
characterizing how first language “cultural thought patterns” are reflected in
second language writers’ texts, how some cultures put the responsibility for
successful written communication on the writer and others on the reader, and
how differences between “collectivist” and “individualist” tendencies express
themselves in second language writing.
(
“The genre approach” is similar to the Paragraph-Pattern Approach. The
goal of the genre approach is to let students have control of the rhetorical
structure of specific text types to achieve a certain purpose. In this approach,
teachers are mainly concerned about how language patterns are used to achieve
coherence in writing, and students develop their writing skills through analyzing
expert texts and reproducing them. In short, the Paragraph-Pattern Approach
stresses the organization of a target language, and the organization is different
among cultures; thus, the writing classroom should deal with the differences for
students to reproduce a particular type of writing for a specific purpose.
2.1.3.4. The Grammar –Syntax-Organization Approach
In the Grammar –Syntax-Organization Approach, simultaneous work is
the most significant concern. This approach requires students to focus on several
features of writing at once. “The writing tasks are designed to make students to
pay attention to grammar and syntax while also giving the words such as first,
15

products that communicate their own ideas. Teachers and scholars represent the
relationship between the three factors – writer, audience and context with a
rhetorical triangle:

Figure 2.2. Spark’s (1984) diagram of rhetorical triangle in writing
Such a triangle links these three elements while emphasizing that all three
equal and dependent on each other. A writer who has adopted an appropriate
rhetorical stance can not only change our minds, but also “engages us in the
process of thinking, and feeling”. Hence, to find appropriate stance, the writer
must be aware of their own persona, strengths, weaknesses and communication
style, as well as their audience’s character and needs. Similarly, the audience
influences the way the context is delivered. In other words, the contexts change
as the audience change. Finally, the three sections of this rhetorical triangle play
an important role in writing and suggest questions writers may ask of themselves
when beginning on the writing process.
2.1.3.6. The Process Approach
It is easily seen that what are presented in the parts from 2.1.3.1 to 2.1.3.5
that all these approaches, in one way or another, focus on product. Undeniably,
the final product is crucial. All of teachers as well as students would like to
produce fluent and correct product. Moreover, teachers who use the Process
Approach give students time to generate ideas and give feedback on the content
of what they write in their drafts. As a matter of fact, when being assigned a