Finding the effective techniques in teaching pre-Writing stage to be used in teaching writing at the 10th grade at Quang Xuong 4 high school

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A:INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale	..2
II. Research questions	..3
III.Ojective of the study..3 
IV.Methods of the study	..3
V. Scope of the study	..4
VI. Design of the study	..3,4
VII. Significance of the study	.4
B:DEVELOPMENT
I.literature review and theoritial background
1.Prewriting...5
2.Identify the problems.5
3.Previous researches on prewriting activities	...5,6,7
1. Summary	.....7
 II.Methodology
1.Brainstorming	8
2.Clustering	9
3.The journalists’question10
4.Working from an outline	11
III.Effects of applying prewriting activities...........................12,13,14,15,16
C.CONCLUSION
I.Summary of the main finding17
II. Suggetions	17
REFERENCES	18
A: INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE
Together with our country’s integration English takes an extremely important role in every field,which requires the teachers of English in Vietnam education systems in general and high school as well to renovate the methods,techniques,skills to improve students’ability to speaking,listening and writing.We communicate with the foreingers in English so we have to listen to them and talk to them as well.Many people can listen and speak very well but when being asked to write a report,a description or something else in English they often feel confused and some even do not know how to write as they want to express their thought.It is because they only focus on grammar,speaking and listening at school,many people are bored of writing lesson,some find it difficult to write so they pay little attention to writing.While teaching at Quang Xuong IV high school,a school near the sea where many students here come from poor families with little support from their family for learning,especially English I find students prefer doing grammartical exercises to listening,speaking and writing.They do not like writing at all.
Thanks to the innovation of ways in teaching English, English lessons are taught with four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) in one unit. Moreover, there exists three stages – Pre - while – post - teaching in one lesson. This really helps students improve their skills beside the grammar exercises to pass the exams.
When teaching writing skill to the 10th graders,The lessons having interesting pre-stage get students more than others which means to me thet pre-writing stages are very important in teaching writing and it also has significant effects on the students’writing performance.I have used some activities on teaching pre-writing with the hope to draw students’attention to writing and they will be better and more confident while writing.
II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Do students pay much attention to the pre – writing activities in a writing lesson?
How do pre – writing activities affect the students’ writing performance?
III. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Finding the effective techniques in teaching pre-writing stage to be used in teaching writing at the 10th grade at Quang Xuong 4 high school with the aim of making students be confident at writing as well as improve this skill
IV. METHODS OF THE STUDY
The study is basically a qualitative research, which employs the following methods:
1.Collect students’opinions and the sesults of writing skill before using the activities for pre-teaching
2.Applying the activities in appointed teaching classes,observing the attention of students,giving writing task,getting the results,taking lesson and experiences
V. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study was carried out in three English classes with 120 10th grade students at Quang Xuong IV High School in Quang Loi. The research focused on how pre – writing activities affect the students’ writing performances in writing lessons.
VI. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The research consists of three main parts : Introduction, Development and Conclusion. 
Part 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the research questions, the method of study, the research procedure, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and the design of the study.
Part 2: Development consists of part one “Literature Review and theoriatical background” and part two “Methodology”. In part one, the theoretical background of action research are introduced with its definition, three reasons to use it, and ways to carry it. The concepts of writing, approaches to teaching writing and some pre – lesson factors affecting students’ writing performance are also presented in this part. What is more, the writing program for grade 10th students at Quang Xuong IV High School is described in this part, too. Part two namely “Methodology” describes the procedure of this action research with the following main steps: defining the problem, observing class, conducting some techniques (brainstorming,clustering,the journalists’questions,working from an outline) and giving out conclusions from findings.
Part 3: Conclusion is the last part which offered a summary and suggestions for more effective writing activities and some limitations and suggestions for further studies 
VII. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Writing, one of the two productive skills, has always a significant position in language teaching. Nevertheless, how to teach and learn writing effectively often poses great problems to both teachers and students. For the teachers of English at high school, writing is considered a difficult skill to teach. Some of them even ignore teaching writing skill and focus only on grammar excercises for the exams. However, nothing is difficult if we, the teachers make decision to make it easier. Hopefully , with a range of suggestions of how to make pre – writing activities effectively in writing lessons introduced in this research, it will be more motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching writing Therefore, their students will be interested in writing lessons.
B. DEVELOPMENT
I.LITERATURE REVIEW THEORITICAL BACKGROUND
I. Prewriting
For most of us, getting started is often the hardest part of writing. A blank page, begging to be filled with ink, can be intimidating, especially when our words come slowly or when our minds go blank. Pre – writing is considered to be very important in teaching writing. Pre – writing is the paper. In addition, that Pre – writing is the first stage of the writing process and is also called the idea – generating stage which stretches back to include anything that you have ever done or have ever been that might have given you ideas to write about
II.Identify the problems
Nearly all 10th grader students in Quang Xuong IV high school can write a complete sentence without making error,they have habit of translating into English words by words from Vietnamese while writing so they often use wrong words or structures in written Engli
The lack of vocabulary and structures make them hestitate writing,furthermore students tend to prefer doing grammartical exercises than writing.
III.Previous results of the study
1. Topic for the writing task
“Writing about people’s background-Unit 3,textbook 10 ”
2. Time allowance: 10 minutes (3 minutes for warm – up and 7 minutes for pre – writing activities) 
Class
Teachers’ activities
Students’ activities
Comments
10B
For warm – up:
Teacher pointed at the textbook and asked her students “What is this?” – “OK. Today we are going to learn how to write about people’s background”
For pre – writing stage:
Teacher asked her students to do Task 1, and then she explained some cues given below the table
Teacher asked students to do Task 2 for the while – writing stage
Some of them said “It is a curriculum vitae”. Some said nothing, some kept on personal talks
The class was noisy because of the hot weather. Most of the students did nothing and only some of them listened to what the teacher said
No effective activities given,student have little chance to get what a background is in an interesting way and no games,activites for them to do so they easily feel bored and make noise
10K
For warm – up:
Teacher showed a table of one’s information copied in A4 paper and asked the students “Can you see what do you call this? Is this a curriculum vitae?”
For pre – writing stage:
Teacher also asked students to do task 1 in the textbook and then she answered all the questions by herself if there was no reply from the students
Teacher also asked students to do task 2 with no emphasis on what they had to do to write about peopls’s background
“Yes”
Students seemed tired and nervous and tried to finish their task
Students have nothing to think about, to discuss and nothing to challenge them.
IV.SUMMARY
The above results show that the pre-writing lacks effective activities and this situation needs improving,which asks the teachers of English in our school think it over to find something more effective to get students’attention to writing from the beginning of the lessons
 B: METHODOLOGY
I. BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming, also called listing, is a process of generating a lot of information within a short time by building on the association of previous terms you have mentioned.
Jot down all the possible terms that emerge from the general topic you are thinking about. This procedure works especially well if you work in a team. All team members can generate ideas, with one member acting as scribe. Don't worry about editing or throwing out what might not be a good idea. Simply write down a lot of possibilities.
Group the items that you have listed according to arrangements that make sense to you.
Give each group a label. Now you have a topic with possible points of development.
Write a sentence about the label you have given the group of ideas. Now you have a topic sentence or possibly a thesis statements
II. CLUSTERING
Clustering is also called mind mapping or idea mapping. It is a strategy that allows you to explore the relationships between ideas.
Put the subject in the center of a page. Circle or underline it.
As you think of other ideas, link the new ideas to the central circle with lines.
As you think of ideas that relate to the new ideas, add to those in the same way.
The result will look like a web on your page. Locate clusters of interest to you, and use the terms you attached to the key ideas as departure points for your paper.
Clustering is especially useful in determining the relationship between ideas. You will be able to distinguish how the ideas fit together, especially where there is an abundance of ideas. Clustering your ideas lets you see them visually in a different way, so that you can more readily understand possible directions your paper may take
III.THE JOURNALISTS’QUESTIONS
Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments, 5 W's and 1 H: Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, How? You can use these questions to explore the topic you are writing about for an assignment. A key to using the journalists' questions is to make them flexible enough to account for the specific details of your topic. For instance, if your topic is the rise and fall of the Puget Sound tides and its effect on salmon spawning, you may have very little to say about Who? if your focus doesn't account for human involvement. On the other hand, some topics may be heavy on the Who?, especially if human involvement is a crucial part of the topic. Possible generic questions you can ask using the six journalists' questions follow:
Who?: 
     Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the secondary actors?
What?: 
     What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem? What are the issues?
Where?:
     Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue have its source? At what place is the cause or effect of the problem most visible?
When?: 
     When is the issue most apparent? (past? present? future?) When did the issue or problem develop? What historical forces helped shape the problem or issue and at what point in time will the problem or issue culminate in a crisis? When is action needed to address the issue or problem?
Why?: 
     Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or problem at all? Why did the issue or problem develop in the way that it did?
How?: 
     How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How does it affect the participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved?
The journalists' questions are a powerful way to develop a great deal of information about a topic very quickly. Learning to ask the appropriate questions about a topic takes practice, however. At times during writing an assignment, you may wish to go back and ask the journalists' questions again to clarify important points tat may be getting lost in your planning and drafting.
IV.WORKING FROM AN OUTLINE
 Once you have a general idea of what will go in the introduction, body, and conclusion of your paper, the next step can be to develop a more specific outline in which you break down what specifically will be in each paragraph of your essay. Although some students find it more effective to create an outline based on a draft that they have already written, creating an outline ahead of time can help keep your writing more focused than inventing paragraphs as you go. Either method can create great writing - you might want to experiment with both methods to see which one works best for you. The purpose of an outline: An outline helps organize your ideas. An outline presents your material in a logical form. An outline shows the relationship between the ideas in your writing. An outline constructs an ordered overview of your writing. An outline defines boundaries and groups within your paper. An important part of outlining your ideas is to remain consistent. For example, if you are presenting information or ideas in a certain order at the beginning of your paper, don't switch that order half way through your paper. This may confuse your reader. Try to make it obvious to your readers why and how you are presenting your information so that they don't have to work at figuring out your organization as they are reading your paper. Here is an example of an outline covering the topic of rain forest preservation. 
 OUTLINE 
 1.Introduction 
A. Square miles 
B. Location
 C. Thesis:
 Because of the valuable characteristics rain forests possess, the rapid destruction of the forests is creating negative effects on the environment. 
2. Characteristics of rain forests 
A. Variety of species
 B. Value of rain forests 
- Medicinal values 
- Food values
 3. The destruction of rain forests
 A. Rate at which rain forests are destroyed 
B. Reasons why rain forests are destroyed 
- Poverty 
- Large company projects 
4. Effects on environment 
A. Extinction of species
 B. Global warming 
5. Reactions 
6. Conclusion 
A. Restate thesis
 B. Key role 
C. Consequences 
III. EFFECTS OF APPLYING PRE–WRITING ACTIVITIES
1. Brief description of the results
1.1 Topic for writing essay:
“Writing to give directions”
1.2. Time allowance: 10 minutes
1.3. Class: 10M
Time/ Activity
Teachers’ activities
Students’ activities
Comments
1. Warm – up (5’)
2. Pre – writing activity
(10’)
3. While – writing activity
(20’)
Teacher comes into the class, turn right then turn left .
Teacher asks students “What have I just done? 
Teacher show a big picture 
Teacher asks students to ask the way to 
-Ghep market
-Soto factory
-Teacher uses the picture shown at warm up(hide the letters ) and introduces somewords,phrases to give directions
-Asks students to tell give their words and asksother to give comment 
-Let them check themselves after show the letter hidden
-Dive the class into groups 
- Students can discuss in groups and choose one place to write 
- Teacher asked students to make sentences basing on the suggestions in the textbook 
-Teach asks students to write an outline before writing
-Answer the question
“you have come into the class and gone right and left?
Discuss in groups to give some words or prepositions to descibe the pictures
-go up
-go down
-go ahead
.
-Pairwork 
1.A:Can you tell me the way to ghep market
B:Go ahead
2.Could you tell me how to get to Soto factory?
B: Go straight ahead,turn right,it’s on the corner opposite a store shop
- Discuss in groups using the words,phrases give by teacher to match the symbol
1.turn left
2.turn right 
3.go ahead 
4.go along
-Each group chose one place to write 
-Write to give the direction according to the place chosen 
- Students write direction in a very good mood with the content suggested in the textbook. 
This period is considered to be successful. After being consulted by English teachers at QX IV High School as well as conducting the two try – out lessons, teacher has withdrawn some reasons for the success of the period
1. Pre – activity is interesting
2. Visual aids are effective enough
3. Students cooperate better because they are acquaintances
4. New words and structures are taught logically
5. There is no problem with students’ misunderstandin toward teachers’ instructions.
4. Post – writing activity
(12’)
- Ask students to work in pairs for peer correction.
- Teacher goes around to check whether students can correct their classmates’ writing. If students need her help, the teacher will help them to correct the mistakes
- Students do the peer correction
-Show their directions then give comment on other groups
5.Homework
(3’)
- Give direction to their own houses from the school.
- Write on the notebook
Bellows are some more comments about the improvement of the students in post – improvement stage:
Pre – improvement
Changes
 Post –improvement
Low
30% of the students did not write because they said that the topic was boring. Some of them were forced to write basing on the suggestions in Task 1. They wrote in a bad form of letter . 
Students’ motivation
Higher
Most of students were eager to write after the game because they said that they liked the game so much
More
Some students tried to follow the suggestions in Task 1 in the textbook but theirs were full of grammar mistakes and words usages 
Notes: This may take longer time to improve the situation but the teacher should pay much attention to this because it is the goal in teaching a productive skill
Ss’ mistakes on both grammar and expressions
Less
Mistakes on grammar and expressions has improved a lot. There still existed some but for the whole letter they were acceptable because both the teacher and her students need more time to perfect these mistakes 
Less creative
Some students in the class did not know what to do with their writings so they copy the whole sample letter in the text book ignoring the requirements of the writing tasks
Ss’ creativity when producing a new writing version
More creative
Ss’ creativity in writing is another hard work to attain and Ss will make their writing creative when they are motivated enough or they feel much interested in the writing topic. In the post – improvement the students’ writing performance has been improved much.
PART 3: CONCLUSION
I. Summary of the main findings
	As evidenced from the previous parts, in the writing classes what the lessons lack is more effective pre – writing activities prepared by the teacher. 
It has also been revealed from the data analysis that I met manydifficulties when teaching writing lessons without these activities.I chose the way of changing my method and activities with the hope that the students would be more interested in the writing lessons.I used these techniques in other teachers’classes and got students’enthusiasm too..
II. suggestions 
The study still has some limitations. First of all, this study is very small – scale, which focuses on only the effects of pre – writing activities on the students’ writing performance so while – writing activities roles are not mentioned here. Secon