SKKN Some methods in teaching pre - Writing helping class 11A2 improve their writing skill

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL
THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE 
 Author: Le Thi Hong
 Occupation: Teacher
 Field ( Subject): Foreign language
THE THESIS:
SOME METHODS IN TEACHING PRE-WRITING HELPING 
CLASS 11A2 IMPROVE THEIR WRITING SKILL
THANH HÓA NĂM 2016
PART I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Reasons for choosing the thesis.
	As you know, English is an international language which is used by a lot of countries all over the world. It also becomes main language in communicating among different people in different countries in the world. 
	With the trend of integrating, Vietnam has been promoting their abilities in all aspects. Therefore, in education, Vietnam really pays attention to teaching and learning English all schools in Vietnamese educational system. English is also becomes a chore subject in national educational system. From those, we see the importance of teaching and learning English in the development and integration of our country.
	English is a device for communicating and integrating with many countries in our region and in the world, a device for approaching modern technology and science and exchanging economics, politics and culture between our country and others in the region and in the world.
	In Vietnam, nowadays students begin to learn English at primary school. In high school, they continue the teaching program from primary school to secondary school. They learn English with four skills such as writing, listening, speaking and reading along with language focus to continue improving their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, they also prepare the best knowledge for their most important examination of graduating or use the knowledge for higher education.
	As an English teacher I know the importance of English with my students, so I always try to find out the best methods in teaching English for them. In our school system, English is both different and characteristic subject. It makes students curious and passionate. However, it also creates a lot of difficulties and misunderstandings. As a result, students sometimes feel discouraged. In this situation, teacher has an very important role to transfer the passion and the enjoyment to their students.
	When teaching English at high school, specially teaching the 11th grade at Le Hoan high school, I see that most of my student like learning English. They also try their best to learn it in all skills and language focus. While teaching them, I see that my students are attractive and exciting with reading, listening, writing skill and language focus, but they seem indifferent to writing skill. However, nowadays writing skill is step by step becoming an important part in their study. As you know, this skill has been becoming a important part in the examination for English excellent students for many years. A Large part of students hadn't done well in this part. Besides a few years ago, writing skill or paragraph writing didn't appear in the final exam of graduating and higher education, but now we can see that in this exam, writing skill is becoming an essential part and accounts for 2 marks in total 10 marks for all parts. From these elements. I see that I have to update and change my method in teaching writing skill so that I can make students really like this skill more than ever before. So as to help students improve their writing skill, I also see that in this skill, pre-writing stage is a very important stage in teaching writing and also has significant effects on the students' writing performance. If students are not prepared well enough, they can't write well, they can't write anything in their notebook.
	With my own thought and my own experience in teaching English at Le Hoan high school for many years, I strongly try to give my own bright experience: Some methods for teaching Pre-writing effectively helping the 11th grade students improve their writing skill.
	With the thesis I hope that I will contribute my little experience to help my students like and improve the writing skill in the next courses.
I.2. Objectives.
	When teaching writing skill to the students in the grade 11A2 at Le Hoan high school. I found out that pre-writing stage is very important in teaching writing skill and it also effects students' writing result, so I decided to carry out this thesis. Firstly, I want to find out some other methods in teaching pre-writing effectively. From changing this stage helps students improve their writing performance result in writing skill. Secondly, I want to create my own experiences which are useful and necessary for my teaching. The experiences will be used in the next courses and bring out the good results in my job. Furthermore, I also want to contribute my own experiences in teaching English at Le Hoan high school. Hopefully that the results of this study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study. Last but not least, Based on the results of this action research, some changes and new methods could be applied in some lessons I hope that my students will love writing skill more than ever before and work effectively in the writing lessons.
I.3. Participants.
The subjects chosen for the research include 45 students in the class 11A2 at Le Hoan High School with the survey questionnaires. The research was carried out during the first term of the academic year 2015 – 2016 at Le Hoan High School.
I.4. Methods of the study.
	The study bases on teacher's main activities: teaching time in the class
	The data is collected by sets of questionnaires. some were set before using the methods and others were set after using the methods.
	Other sources of data come from writing tasks from the textbooks. The analysis of the data hopefully will bring about reliable findings useful for the teaching of writing to students at Le Hoan High School.
PART II: CONTENTS OF THE THESIS
II.1: Rationale which affects to the thesis.
 	Students' result in writing lesson can be affected by some major factors which originate from students, teachers, and other external factors.
II.1.1. Students' factors
II.1.1.1. Students' learning style
	As we know, it is normal that there are about 40 to 50 students in peer classroom at high school. They are different individuals in a class. Different individuals may have different learning styles and different kinds of work. They want to get different degrees of care and attention from the teacher. It means that there are different reactions from students toward the pre-writing stage. From those If teacher realizes the differences among individuals in the class when they create an activity, the students will take part in the lesson actively. 
II.1.1.2. Students' language level.
	It can be easily seen that Le Hoan high school is situated at the countryside in Xuan Lai commune, Tho Xuan district. Most of the people here have medium living condition, so most students learn English with very simple ways. They only learn English from their teacher at school. These students have medium level, few also have low level. Others, but not large a mount of students with good living condition from their parents, find out some extra ways for learning English such as learning outside the school, using cassette, computer and cell phone to learn online. This group of the students has good knowledge. It means that students' language level is different. Therefore, teacher may have some difficulties in choosing a suitable teaching method, language and activity which are used in a class.
II.1.1.3. Students' attitude
	Beside students' learning style and students' language level, students' attitude in writing is very important. This decides the success in learning a foreign language. Students' attitude may derive from the society, the friends, the parents, their purpose or the teacher and his or her method. Among these sources, teacher and his or her method may be the most important factors. For teacher, his or her attitude and enthusiasm helps himself create a positive classroom atmosphere. For the method, it means both teacher's and students' confidence shown in the way of teaching and learning. If they lose their confidence the chances of success in learning a language will be very small. 
II.1.2. Teacher's factors
II.1.2.1. Teacher's teaching method.
	In pre-writing stage as well as pre-lesson stage, teacher's teaching method focus on the ways which teacher designs appropriate activities to motivate students to write. Most students believe that the teacher is a fountain of knowledge and their main responsibility is to transfer that to students. Besides the more knowledge of the lesson a teacher can apply to his student, the teacher should make students feel more interested in it. When students feel comfortable and interesting, they can produce a good writing.
II.1.2.2. Teacher's instruction.
	Before asking students to do something, teacher always has to explain and instruct them. If students don't understand teacher's instruction. They don't react anything. This is a problem that teacher's instruction should be clear and short not too complicated. To have a good instruction, before giving instruction teacher should prepare what they are going to say and ensure that the class's attention. Next they should give the information more than one. That helps students know exactly what they will have to do next.
II.1.3: Other factors
II.1.3.1. Time limitations
	Normally, in pre-stage it takes from 7 to 10 minutes to conduct the activities. However, in some large classes with a number of students whose English knowledge is limited, it often takes more time to conduct these activities
II.1.3.2. Classroom and material limitations
	In teaching lesson, there are some facilities in classroom which also affect students' learning and students' result such as the lightness, the temperature or classroom atmosphere and facilities for displaying pictures and chart. As we know English is a subject which is using and updating a lot of pictures about many aspects in daily life. the use of visual display to show these pictures in teaching and learning is an effective way, that makes students exciting and wants to discover the subject more. However, most schools of Vietnam don't have the best condition for students to learn foreign language. Most classroom don't have computer screen or visual display unit, students have to sit in a crowded number. Those surely affect students' learning result. Others such as lightness, temperature or classroom atmosphere if they are not good enough , they also makes students are not comfortable, so their learning result is also not good.
II.1.4. The writing program for the grade 11th at Le Hoan high school. 
	Basing on the new text books designed by the Ministry of Education and Training. English is taught with four skills and language focus which focuses on grammar and pronunciation. The writing program at Le Hoan high school is the same as this book with the aim of improving students' abilities in writing. On English 11 textbook, we have 16 units with 16 topics for student's writing. There are a range of types to practice writing with narrative, writing letters, describing statistics from a chart or a table or writing a report or a biography. 
 	From the content and writing lesson of the textbook, We can see the writing topics in the first term of the academic year. It consists of the 8 units with 8 topic for students' writing. After 8 units they review to prepare for the final first term test.
Topic 1 
Unit 1: Friendship - Writing a narrative: Writing about your friend
Topic 2 
Unit 2: Personal Experience 
Writing a personal letter to describe a past experience
Topic 3
Unit 3: A Party - Writing an informal letter of invitation
Topic 4
Unit 4: Volunteer work - Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude
Topic 5
Unit 5: Illiteracy - Describing information in a table
Topic 6
Unit 6: Competitions - Writing a letter of reply
Topic 7
Unit 7: World population 
Interpreting statistics on population from a chart
Topic 8
Unit 8: Celebrations - Describing a celebration’s activities
Final first – term Test
The teaching and learning tasks for the second term will be shown as follows:
Topic 9
Unit 9: The Post Office 
Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction
Topic 10
Unit 10: Nature in danger - Describing a location
Topic 11
Unit 11: Sources of energy 
Describing information from a chart
Topic 12
Unit 12: The Asian Games
Describing the preparations for the coming Asian Games
Topic 13
Unit 13: Hobbies - Writing about a collection
Topic 14
Unit 14: Recreation - Describing a camping holiday
Topic 15
Unit 15: Space Conquest - Writing a biography
Topic 16
Unit 16: The Wonders of the world
Writing a report on a man – made place
Final Second – term Test
II.2. Some problems before implementing the thesis.
II.2.1. Some features about class 11A2. 
II.2.1.1. Advantages
	Class 11A2 is the class with 46 students. Most of them have good knowledge about Math, Physics and Chemistry because they choose them as their main subjects for their studying and their higher education. When they learn those it means that most of the students in class 11A2 have a good logical ability. Beside their main subject, they can have special ability for learning others quickly and well. 
	With my subject, English, most students in the class 11A2 really like it and also aware its importance for their future. Therefore they always feel attractive and try their best to learn it. From each lesson, I saw my students' passion and attention. They always listen to me and have a good interaction with their teacher, which makes me feel satisfied and exciting when teaching them.
II.2.1.2. Disadvantages
	My student's attitude in learning is very good, but it also have some limitations. Firstly, their main subjects are Math, Physics and Chemistry, so they spend much time studying them. It means they spend little time on the others as well as English. Secondly, I began teaching them when they was lass 10A2. That time I saw my students writing bad. They didn't like this kill, they didn't pay attention it much. When I asked them to write, they seem indifferent to this kill and became passive. Maybe, my students didn't practice this skill well and regularly at secondary school and that time writing skill didn't mention in their exams so they didn't need and pay attention too much. Last but not least Most of them also don't have good condition in using modern devices for studying foreign language such as computer with internet connection, radio or expensive cell phone. These are some disadvantages affecting my students in learning English.
II.2.2. Old method in teaching pre-writing and its results.
	I began teaching class 11A2 last year. In that time I taught writing skill based on the design of the textbook. I also taught this kill with three stages pre, while and post stage sometimes I taught four stages consisting warm-up. I didn't change anything in the textbook. I also asked my colleges for how they taught this kill. They gave me the same steps as I did. You can see the method and its result which I and my colleagues used last year in teaching writing kill in class 11A2 and other classes at Le Hoan high school as some following examples: 
Example 1: Topic " write a letter to express gratitude " Unit 4: Volunteer work
Stages
Teacher's activities
Students' activities
Warm-up
(3 minutes)
- pointed at the letter in the text book and asks students " what is this? "
- said " ok, today we are going to learn how to write a formal letter of expressing gratitude"
- answered " It is a letter"
- listened
Pre-writing
(10 minutes)
- explained some news words and asked students to do task 1 in the textbook 
- called students to give their answer for the task
- gave feedback
- listened and did the task
- gave their answer
While-writing
(20 minutes)
- asked students to do the task 2 for the while-writing and explained the requirement of the task for students
- went around and gave help for students.
- listened to the teacher. Some began to do the task by writing the letter of expressing gratitude. Some did nothing, some asked teacher's about some new words, some asked their friend. 
- 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
Post- writing
(12 minutes)
-asked students to work in pairs and correct their writing each other
- worked in pairs and corrected their writing
Example 2: Topic: " Describing a celebration's activities" Unit 8: Celebration
Stages
Teacher's activities
Students' activities
warm up
( 5 minutes) 
- asked students to tell name of the celebrations in Vietnam
- gave feedback
- gave the name
Pre-writing
( 10 minutes)
- asked students to choose a celebration to describe
- explained the task and some new words
- asked students to use the main points in the task to describe the celebration they chose
- chose the celebration
- listen to the teacher
While-writing
( 20 minutes)
- asked students to use the guideline in the task to write their paragraph
- went around to view students' writing 
- wrote the paragraph
- some wrote, some thought about the lesson, some looked indifferent to it.
Post- writing 
( 10 minutes) 
- asked students to work in pairs and corrected their writing each other
- gave feedback about students' writing. 
- corrected their writing
From two situations I see that my students didn't feel attractive with the topic and the writing lesson. They felt bored, so their writing would be affected. To know exactly the cause of this problem and to find out the solution as well as the better methods in teaching writing I implemented a survey to get information from my students. In my survey, 45 students in class 11A2 were asked to give their answer to the questions from the teacher then handed in their papers to the teacher. After the survey, teacher statistic students' answer to find out the cause. There were the results of the survey.
Question 1: " What do you think of your writing performance today?"
Choices
Very bad
 bad
 Fair
Good
very good
Number
 19
 12
 8
 4
 2
Percent (%)
42,22
26,66
17,77
8,88
 4,47 
	The result in the table shows that the writing performance of the class 11A2 wasn't good. The percentage of students who thought their writing performance on that day very bad got the highest rate with 42,22% and 26,66% of the students thought their writing result was bad. 17,77% of the students accessed that their writing was fair. Meanwhile the number of students who thought their writing good and very good accounted low rate with 8,88% and 4,47%. The number showed that students' writing was boring and not effective.
Question 2: " Why can't you give a good writing performance today?"
Reasons:
a. My vocabulary, grammar and structure are so poor
	b. I don't have much information about the topic
	c. I don't feel being motivated enough.
	d. I don't know what and how to write.
	e. you choose all
Choice
 a
 b
 c
 d
 e
number
 0
 0
 0
 0
 45
percent
 0%
 0%
 0%
 0%
 100%
As can be seen from the table, most students thought they were lack of many things in the writing lesson . From the information collected. I am aware of the importance and the influence of pre-writing stage in student's writing.
Question 3: "What factors do you want your teacher change in writing lesson?"
Factors: 
	a. Teacher should create pre-writing stage effectively and attractively.
	b. Teacher should speak louder.
	c. Teacher's instruction should be short and clear enough
	d. change teacher's mood and teacher's lifestyle.
Choice
 a
 b
 c
 d
Number
 30
 10
 3
 2
Percent(%)
 66,66%
 22,22%