MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY
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TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND REPORTED CLASSROOM
PRACTICES IN EFL WRITING INSTRUCTION AT THE
SELECTED HIGH SCHOOLS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by TRUONG MINH HOA
Supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. PHAM VU PHI HO

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2016


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that this thesis entitled “Teachers’ Beliefs and Reported Classroom
Practices in EFL Writing Instruction at the Selected High Schools in Ho Chi
Minh City” is my own work.
Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contain material
published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have
qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text
of the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other
tertiary institution.

Cam Ranh City, October 2016

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the anonymous participants who contributed data to
this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
Writing in a foreign language is deemed to be the most difficult language skill to learners,
especially at high school level; consequently, its teaching has become a challenging task for
the high school teachers in Vietnamese context. Teacher belief related literature indicates that
what teachers do in the classroom is directly governed by what they think and believe.
Thereby, the current study adopted features of a survey research design in order to examine
the EFL high school teachers’ beliefs about writing and its teaching, their actual classroom
practices, as well as the interplays between their beliefs and practices in the realm of EFL
writing instruction.
A sample of seventy–six EFL teachers from the eight selected high schools situated in Ho
Chi Minh City was recruited to the current survey. The beliefs and practices of EFL writing
instruction of these studied teachers were elicited through two instruments of thirty–nine–
item questionnaires and semi–structured interviews. Then the questionnaires were
quantitatively analyzed and the interviews were qualitatively analyzed.
Results of the study showed that most of the participants held different views/orientations
about writing skill and teaching writing, consisting of form–based, cognitive process–based,
functional social–based, and interactive social–based views; nevertheless, the form–based
orientation was still most favored in their beliefs. On the contrary, in practical, most of the
high school teachers much followed the product approach, which underlies form–based
orientation instead of different approaches. This can evidently account for the low results of
writing section in the National GCSE examination in consecutive recent years when high
school students only were asked to learn sample writing texts by rote (form–based
orientation) rather than being guided basic writing steps (process–based orientation) as well
as being developed their social awareness of what to be written (social–based orientation).

Writing: Natures, Levels, and Aspects ………………………………………………….11

2.1.1.1 Natures of Writing ……………………………………………………………………11
2.1.1.2 Writing Levels ………………………………………………………………………..13
2.1.1.3 Aspects of Writing ………………………………………………………….………...14
2.1.2

Theoretical Orientations to Teaching Writing ………………………………………….15

2.1.2.1 Behaviorist Learning Theory……………………………………………....................16
2.1.2.2 Cognitive Learning Theory …………………………………………………………..16
2.1.2.3 Social Constructivism Learning Theory ……………………………………………...16
2.1.3

Approaches to Teaching Writing ……………………………………………………….17

2.1.3.1 Product Approach ……………………………………………………………………17
2.1.3.2 Process Approach ……………………………………………………………………18
2.1.3.3 Genre–based Approach ………………………………………………………………19
2.1.4

Roles of Writing Teacher ……………………………………………………………….21

2.1.4.1 Knowledge Transmitter………………………………………………………….……22
2.1.4.2 Facilitator…………………………………………………………………………….22
2.1.4.3 Feedback Provider …………………………………………………………………...24
2.2 Teacher Beliefs ………………………………………………………………………………..24

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2.3.3

Description of the Writing Sections ……………………………………………………33

2.4 Studies on Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Teaching Writing …………………………34
2.5 Research Gap …………………………………………………………………………………40
Chapter Three: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Pedagogical Settings and Participants ………………………………………………………42
3.1.1

Sampling Methods ……………………………………………………………………...42

3.1.2

Pedagogical Settings ……………………………………………………………………44

3.1.3

Participants ……………………………………………………………………………...45

3.2 Research Design and Process ………………………………………………………………..46
3.2.1

Research Design ………………………………………………………………………...46

3.2.2

Research Process ………………………………………………………………………..47

3.2.2.1 Pre–study Interviews …………………………………………………………………48

3.5 Data Collection ………………………………………………………………………………..63
3.5.1

Administering the Questionnaire ……………………………………………………….63

3.5.2

Conducting the Interview ……………………………………………………………….64

3.6 Data Analysis Procedure ……………………………………………………………………..66
3.6.1

Quantitative Analysis for Questionnaire ………………………………………………..66

3.6.2

Qualitative Analysis for Interview ……………………………………………………...66

Chapter Four: FINDINGS and DICUSSION
4.1 Research Question 1 …………………………………………………………………………68
4.1.1

Beliefs about Importance and Nature of Writing ………………………………………69

4.1.1.1 Beliefs about Importance of Writing …………………………………………………69
4.1.1.2 Beliefs about Nature of Writing ……………………………………………………...73
4.1.2

Beliefs about Teacher Roles and Teaching Writing ……………………………………78


Form–based Orientation: From Beliefs to Classroom Practices ………………………..99

4.3.2

Cognitive Process–based Orientation: From Beliefs to Classroom Practices ………...100

4.3.3

Functional Social–based Orientation: From Beliefs to Classroom Practices …………102

4.3.4

Interactive Social–based orientation: From Beliefs to Classroom Practices…………..104

4.3.5

Summary of the Interplays between the Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices …………….105

Chapter Five: CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary of Key Findings ………………………………………………………….………108
5.1.1

The Teachers’ Beliefs about Importance and Nature of Writing, Teacher Roles and
Teaching Orientations at High School Level ……………………………………….…108

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5.1.2


Table 3.3b: Results of Pre–study Interview 2 …………..…………………………………. 50
Table 3.4: Profiles of Participants in the Pilot Study………………………………...…….. 52
Table 3.5: The Link between Research Questions and Instruments ……….….………….. 54
Table 3.6: Description of the Questionnaire (Part II) ……………………..……………..... 56
Table 3.7: Description of the Questionnaire (Part III) ………………..…………………… 57
Table 3.8: Reliability Analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha) ……………..………………...….….. 60
Table 3.9: Process of Questionnaire Delivery and Collection ...………………….…...….. 63
Table 3.10: Demographical Information of the Interviewees..………………….………… 65
Chapter Four: FINDINGS and DISCUSSION
Table 4.1: Teachers’ Beliefs about the Extent of Importance of Writing …………………69
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Table 4.2: Teachers’ Beliefs about Reasons for Importance of Writing ……….…….…71
Table 4.3: Teachers’ Beliefs about Nature of Writing ………………………….…...…. 74
Table 4.4: Teachers’ Beliefs about Teacher Roles …………………………..…………. 79
Table 4.5: Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching Writing …………….…………….……… 82
Table 4.6: Teachers’ Classroom Practices on Pre–writing Activities ……………….…...91
Table 4.7: Teachers’ Classroom Practices on While–writing Activities ….……………. 93
Table 4.8: Teachers’ Classroom Practices on After–writing Activities…..………….….. 95
Table 4.9a: A Comparison between the Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices ……..…………99
Table 4.9b: A Comparison between the Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices …..……….… 100
Table 4.9c: A Comparison between the Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices ...……...…..… 102
Table 4.9d: A Comparison between the Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices……………..... 104

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LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS
Page

completion, organization and connection of sentences. For cognitive factors, sometimes
the task of writing is imposed on us and this may cause a loss of ideas. For the
psychological factors, there is a lack of interaction and feedback between the writer and
the reader, the thing which makes writing a difficult task.
According to Mekki (2012), one of primary causes making writing skill difficult to
acquire is that students or teachers still believe that students‟ good writing ability derives
from what they have learnt about language and text forms but ignore specific steps and
collaborative strategies. It can be inferred that in order to master writing skill, language
learners not only need linguistic knowledge since “even with linguistic knowledge
students often struggle to produce a cohesive piece of writing” (Uddin, 2014), but they
also grasp their social awareness of writing contexts (Khanalizadeh & Allami, 2012) as
well as their cognitive awareness of the processes they use to write (Hyland, 2003).
In helping learners develop their writing which is deemed such a sophisticated skill, it
is evidenced that “teachers are one of the key factors in delivering instruction that leads
to the development of competent literacy learners, [...] to be pivotal in influencing
students‟ literacy achievement” (Kraayenoord et. al, 2009). In other words, what teachers

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teach may have explicit effects on writing performance of their students (Nguyen Ho
Hoang Thuy, 2009).
As teachers play such a critical role in developing learners‟ writing performance, their
instructional beliefs have also become a key issue in education since “what they believe
as well as what they do not believe have powerful influence on their classroom
behaviors” (Le Van Canh, 2011). This may originate from the view that “teachers are
active, thinking decision–makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex
practically–oriented, personalized, and context–sensitive networks of knowledge,
thoughts, and beliefs” (Borg, 2003). In specific, Kuzborska (2011) elaborates that
“teachers‟ beliefs influence their goals, procedures, materials, classroom interaction

reality. In the similar vein, teachers‟ beliefs about nature of writing and teaching writing
skill have also been found in Khanalizadeh & Allami (2012). The study heightened
teachers‟ beliefs about theoretical orientations to writing including (1) writing as a formal
system, (2) as a cognitive process, and (3) as a social activity. More systematically,
English teachers‟ beliefs on the teaching of writing for both primary and high school
students were also investigated in Abadi & Marzban (2012) according to four main
categories, comprising of (1) meaning of writing; (2) importance of writing; (3) teaching
activities and practices; (4) feedback. In term of age factor, differences in teaching
writing skill should exist when we teach for different groups of students.
Not only teachers‟ beliefs about writing and teaching writing have constantly been
explored, but relationships between teachers‟ beliefs and their actual classroom practices
of writing instruction have also been published (e.g., Melketo, 2012; Uddin, 2014;
Nigam, 2015). For examples, Uddin‟s (2014) study has yielded its findings that although
the participants believed that writing as a process and student writers should follow
several stages to write such as gathering idea, planning, revising, drafting, they were
unable to practice in classrooms what they believed for some reasons including large
classroom, exam oriented culture, demands of syllabus completion on time, low–level
students, and time constraints. Likewise, Nigam (2015) examined how beliefs impact
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classroom writing instruction at Auburn Elementary School in the United States. As what
have been reported in this case, the teacher believed students needed understanding of the
components of the process (e.g., brainstorming, planning, rough draft, final draft) which
she modeled in her instruction. Evidently, the participant highly employed process–
orientation to teaching writing in her classroom. Still, she admitted that in practical,
beliefs were not always aligned with writing instruction for some causes such as demands
of assessment, professional development availability, challenges of the classroom
context, and level of preparation for teaching writing. Additionally, in Gaitas & Martins
(2015), both form and content of writing were highly believed by the primary teachers;

time or skipped it. Some students revealed that they found writing section really difficult.
In addition, others admitted that because of learning some sample texts which were
provided by their teachers by rote, when the topic in the writing section had a little
change, they could not manage it. It is interpreted that most high school students do not
know how to do free writing, and they do not handle the strategies for composing texts
independently but actually practice writing in a controlled way. This is like what
Khanalizadeh & Allami (2012) described about teaching–learning writing in Iran,
“writing skill is often limited to making sentences, and the grammatical points of those
sentences are the most important parts of learning how to write”. To add more, Tran
(2007) raised her voice that writing skill has been conducted in the classroom in Vietnam
as “an individual activity with the teacher as the sole audience, and the students are quite
quiet”. It means there is a lack of interaction among students in writing classroom.
Such low results of writing section in National GCSE examination in consecutive
recent years have evidently proved that writing is a “difficult, sophisticated, social
activity and an important skill for language learners” (Mekki, 2012), requiring “the
mastery of a variety of linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural competencies” (Barkaoui,
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2007). Alternatively saying, being capable of writing well, it requires more than linguistic
knowledge and memory of sample texts (i.e., form–based view); it also needs learner
writers know how to construct their texts independently (i.e., cognitive process–based
view) and an active interaction with other writers in learning process (i.e., social–based
view). As a matter of fact, having high school students imitate and memorize the sample
texts might only have its temporary effect on examinations to some extent.
The aforementioned alarming situation has raised some questions such as whether
writing skill is “truly perceived” and “equally treated” as other language skills in high
school context; and whether teaching activities and teacher roles performed in writing
classroom are genuinely useful to help high school students develop their own writing
ability. Thereby, investigating how high school teachers help their students learn and

between teachers‟ pedagogical beliefs and their classroom practices of teaching writing
skill in high school context.
In sum, the purpose of the study was to work out the answer to the question of what
beliefs the selected high school teachers in Ho Chi Minh City hold about the importance
and nature of writing, as well as about their roles and orientations to teaching writing for
high school level. Besides, the study aimed to explore what actual classroom activities of
teaching writing the recruited teachers frequently conduct in their writing class. Finally,
the survey pursued to investigate whether there are any differences between the teachers‟
stated beliefs and their actual classroom practices in teaching writing for their high school
students, and then some impacting factors on this interplay were consequently sought.
1.3 Research questions
In order to fulfill the purpose stated above, three research questions were addressed as
follows:
R–Q 1: What beliefs do the teachers at selected high schools hold in terms of (1)
importance and nature of writing; (2) teacher roles and teaching process?

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R–Q 2: What teaching practices in writing classrooms do the teachers at selected high
schools report?
R–Q 3: Are there any differences between the teachers‟ stated beliefs and their
reported classroom practices in teaching writing? If yes, what factors impact the teachers‟
transfer of their beliefs into writing teaching practices?
1.4 Significance of the study
As mentioned earlier, students in many Vietnamese high schools in common and in
Ho Chi Minh City high schools in particular have not learned EFL writing skill in its own
right. In specific, these students normally imitate and memorize the sample texts, which
might only have its temporary effect on examinations if any, but have not known how to
construct their own writing texts independently and meaningfully so far. With the hope of

assumptions about teaching and learning that teachers build up over time and bring with
them to the classroom (Richards, 1998), which influence their classroom practices
(Khader, 2012).
Classroom practices: A set of teaching strategies and methods of instruction
employed in the classroom (Khader, 2012).
1.6 Overview of the Thesis Chapters
The current chapter, Introduction, presents the general interest of the study, the
research purpose, research questions and significance of the study.
As the name suggests, in chapter two, Literature Review, the theoretical background
to this research is provided by reviewing the areas of interest to the study. Foremost, it
looks at the general background related to writing and its teaching. Following that,
teacher belief systems in connection to nature of writing and its teaching will be
discussed, consisting of definition, categories, importance and impacting factors between
the connections between teachers‟ beliefs and their actual classroom actions. Most
importantly, the chapter moves on to summarize some related empirical studies which
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examined the relationships between teachers‟ belief systems and classroom practices in
the realm of teaching writing. Based on what have already been done with regard to the
study‟s field, some research gaps are provided to situate the study itself.
The design and method of this study are presented in chapter three, Methodology. In
specific, this chapter will present the context and population, data collection methods and
how they were designed and developed, in addition to other methodological concerns
such as the reliability and validity as well as ethical issues of the research area. Also, it
describes how the data were collected and which tools were used in the analysis process,
and how the data were presented.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, provides a comprehensive presentation and
discussion of the results of the study obtained from the analyses of questionnaires and
interviews.

2.1.1 Writing: Natures, Levels and Aspects
2.1.1.1 Natures of Writing
The natures of writing are variously described by some experts.

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From a linguistic perspective, Harmer (2004) believes that writing encourages
students to focus on accurate language use. In other words, linguistic accuracy (e.g.,
vocabulary or grammar, linkers) is the main concern of writing act.
Conversely, in Grami‟s (2010) work, the author reviews some other researchers‟
works, describing writing as a complicated cognitive activity. Then he explains writing as
complex cognitive act because it “demands careful thought, discipline, and concentration,
and it is not just a simple direct production of what the brain knows or can do at a
particular moment”. To illustrate, Graham (1997, in Nguyen Thanh Huy, 2015) points out
key components in writing process: (1) knowledge of writing and writing topics, (2) skill
for producing text, (3) processes for motivating participants to write with enthusiasm, and
(4) directing thought and actions through strategies to achieve specific writing goals.
In another point, Hyland (2003) emphasizes writing as a social activity which
“expressing a culturally recognized purpose, reflecting particular kind of relationship and
acknowledging an engagement in a given community” and “through using language
called genres”. In addition, the author provides another aspect of what is called “social
activity” by “writing is a purposeful and communicative activity that responds to other
people and other texts”. In this circumstance, teacher and peer feedback is mentioned as
an important role in students‟ writing development.
Based upon the natures of writing undergone by different perspectives in the existing
body of literature, the researcher can draw out some potential writing natures such as
 Writing is a form–focused or linguistic accuracy–based activity;
 Writing is a cognitive activity adhered to steps of a writing process;
 Writing is a social activity within specific writing goals;

coursebook series used to teach English subject at high school, students are exposed to
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