SKKN The effects of pre - Writing activities on the grade 11 students’ motivation in writing at to hien thanh high school

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ 
TRƯỜNG THPT TÔ HIẾN THÀNH
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SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
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THE EFFECTS OF PRE - WRITING ACTIVITIES ON THE GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN WRITING 
AT TO HIEN THANH HIGH SCHOOL
(Ảnh hưởng của các hoạt động trước khi viết tới việc 
tăng cường hứng thú trong kỹ năng viết cho học sinh Lớp 11 Trường THPT Tô Hiến Thành)
	Người thực hiện	: Lê Thị Hà
	Chức vụ	: Giáo viên
	SKKN thuộc môn	: Tiếng Anh
THANH HOÁ, NĂM 2017
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
1.1. The reasons for choosing this topic.
1.1.1. Theory background. 
Nowadays English has become an international language because it is widely used in many parts of the world. In the tendency of integration of the global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for everybody. The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture and education. Especially, Vietnamese official membership of WTO on November 7th 2006 opened a new door for integrating into the world economy, and more and more people want to learn English for communicating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc.
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 11th students at To Hien Thanh High School the author found out that pre – writing stages are very important in teaching writing and it also has significant effects on the students’ writing performance. If students do not prepare well enough they can not write well, they can not even write anything in their notebooks.
The author of this research decided to carry out the action research to find out how pre – writing stages affect the students’writing performance and whether the pre – lesson activities are important to english teachers at To Hien Thanh High School. Based on the results of this action research, some changes and improvements could be applied in the author’s lessons, and some appropriate strategies needed to be designed with the hope that students will work more effectively in a writing lesson. Hopefully that the results of this study will be shared with some colleagues who has the same problem,is interested in this study.
1.1.2. Practice facility
Through practising teaching English at To Hien Thanh school, I have got some notices:
The teaching of writing skills is one of the hardest skills in four skills . Students often make mistakes: such as using vocabularies related to the theme articles, grammatical errors. In addition, the students affected by the mother tongue and Vietnamese culture.
I spent a lot of time and effort to prepare the mind for writing and teaching part especially prepared for teaching writing in English Unit 8 (English 11) in 2016 and 1017.
Writing skill requires students to have various vocabulary, understand the grammatical structures, the idea to outline. Writing skill helps students reconstruct knowledge which they have been learned, practise using the language effectively, promote their creative abilities. it reflects the results of the process of listening, speaking, reading, grammar, vocabulary of students, and it also helps teacher realize student's mistakes rather than other skills. Writing skill is a very important part of the process of teaching and learning English .
 From the above situation, in order that teaching a writing lesson in school is more efficient, I bravely improve method content for my topic that is:
“THE EFFECTS OF PRE - WRITING ACTIVITIES ON THE GRADE – 11 STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN WRITING AT TO HIEN THANH HIGH SCHOOL”
1.2. The aims of study . 
	Through this topic I wish my students were good at pre-writing and applied good writing skill in Unit 8(English 11) and overcome the difficulties of learning English writing skill. And it has motivation to learn English at high school. Through it, my students also have a look and a better way of thinking in writing skill. I would like to contribute a part of experience to consult colleagues, applied and achieved good effect in teaching English. I hope this will be a useful reference for significant contribution to study and research.
1.3. The objects of study.
This study was carried out in two English classes with 11th grade students at To Hien Thanh High School in Thanh Hoa. The research focused on how pre – writing activities affect the student’ writing performances in writing lessons.
The objects chosen for the research include 77students in grade 11 in class 11B4, 11B5 of To Hien Thanh High School with the survey questionnaires. The research was carried out during the academic year 2016–2017 at To Hien Thanh High School.
1.4. The methods of study.
The study is a basically qualitative research, which employs the following methods:
Data is collected by means of three sets of questionnaires, one on the teachers and the others on the students in pre–improvement stage and post -improvement one. The questions are of the three–kinds: close–ended questions, open–ended questions.
Other sources of data come from writing tasks from the textbooks.
The analysis of the data hopefully will bring about reliable useful findings to teach writing skill for students at To Hien Thanh High School. 
2. The contents of the experience idea. 
2.1. The theoretical basic of the experience idea.
2.1.1. The definition of writing.
 In teaching a language, writing skill is considered one of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that the learner is expected to master the English language. Writing is the process in which the writer expresses his thoughts or ideas in the form of handwriting. “Writing is communicating. Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into the reader’s head without losing or distorting those ideas” (Leki, 1976). To understand throughly the nature of writing, some more academic definitions of writing should be studied.
According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is to “make letters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen or pencil”. Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills. The first ones were low–level skills such as handwriting or typing, spelling, constructing grammatical sentences, organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting, and editing. Byrne (1988) gave a long and complex definition which might be summarized as follows: writing is the act of forming graphic symbols (letters or combinations of letters) which were arranged to form sentences, and we produced a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain way, on a flat surface of some kind.
	In conclusion, Byrne’s definition can be considered one of the most complete definitions of writing because it covers all of the features of writing given by three above–mentioned authors. [2].
2.1.2. The reasons for teaching writing skill.
When we learn a second or a foreign language, we learn to communicate with other people: to understand them, talk to them. An integral part of participating fully in a new culture setting is learning how to communicate when the other person is not right there in front of us, listening to our words and looking at our gestures and facial expressions. Visitors to another country will often have to leave a note for the mailman, fill out a customs declaration form, give written instructions, or write a thank you letter.
	Raims (1983,p3) thinks there is “.an additional and very important reason: writing helps our students learn.”. She shows three ways in which students can learn through writing:
Firstly, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students.
Secondly, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond that they have just learned to say, to take risks.
Thirdly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning.
Writing is a productive skill, so it is writing that provides students with a chance to put all those language itself and practice communicative skills at the same time. Through the act of writing students will realize which they are already good at and they still need to learn to become a better and more effective writer (also a better learner) By far, the difficult question for teachers to answer is not “why teach writing”, but it is how to create good reasons for writing.
2.1.3. The approaches to teach writing.
Nowadays there are many different approaches to teaching writing. In this part six approaches to teaching writing presented by Ann Raims (1983, pp 5-10) were mentioned.
	According to Ann Raims (1983, pp 5-10), there were six approaches to teach writing namely: Controlled-to-Free Approach, Free-Writing Approach, Paragraph-Pattern Approach, Grammar Syntax Organization Approach, Communicative Approach and Process Approach. [2].[3].[4].
2.1.3.1. controlled – to – Free Approach
According to this approach shown up in written work which was regarded as a major problem. The teacher assumed that students made mistakes because they wrote which they wanted freely. This approach stressed the importance of control in teaching writing skills for students in early stages. Students were taught how to write and combine various sentence types and manipulation exercises were used to give students the experience of writing connected sentences.
The amount of control would be reduced gradually and students were asked to exercise meaningful choice. At the next stages, students might be given a good deal of guidance and content, but allowed some opportunities for self -expression. This approach also emphasized step-by-step learning and formal correction
2.1.3.2. free – writing approach
This Free-Writing encouraged students to write as much as possible and as quickly as possible-without paying attention to mistakes. The important thing students did was to get their ideas down on a paper. The drawbacks of this approach which many students wrote badly because they did not write enough and for the same reason they felt inhibited when they picked up a pen to write. This approach might be useful when writing a journal or a diary.
2.1.3.3. paragraph – pattern approach
This Paragraph-Pattern Approach stressed the importance of paragraph as the basic unit of written expression. Students were taught how to construct and organize paragraphs. This approach helped students express themselves effectively at a level beyond the sentence.
2.1.3.4. the grammar – syntax – organization approach
Writing can not be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned one by one. So some teachers devise writing tasks that lead students to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax. This approach links the purpose of a piece of writing to the forms that are needed to convey the message.
2.1.3.5.communicative approach.
This Communicative Approach emphasized the communicative role of writing. Students should have a reason for writing and think about whom they wrote to or for. This approach required situations which allowed them to write purposefully. This approach motivated students to write and showed how writing was a form of communication.
2.1.3.6.the process approach.
In this approach, particular stress is paid on a cycle of writing activities which move learners from the generation of ideas and the collection of data through to the “publication” of a finished text:
PRE – WRITING
(Specify the task/ planning and outlining/ collecting data/ making notes)
↓
COMPOSING
↓
REVISING
(Reorganizing/ shifting emphasis/focusing information and style for your readership)
↓
EDITING
(Checking grammar/ lexis/ surface features)
So in the Process Approach, students did not write on a given topic in a restricted time and gave their writing assignments to their teachers to correct. They explored a topic through writing in an unrestricted time, showing their teachers and each other their drafts, and using what they wrote to read over, think about, and moved them on to a new ones. Teachers could give their feedbacks on the content of which students have written in their drafts. The writing process became a process of discovery. That was the discovery of new ideas and new language forms to express those ideas.
	To sum up, there is no one perfect way to teach writing. We teachers have to take into consideration the many factors of our context before deciding which approach to apply or very likely, develop one of our own which is the combination of some approaches and which suits our settings best.
2.1.4. The definition of pre-writing.
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. Smith (1989) stated that Pre – writing is the complex network of initial mental sequences we undergo when we write a paper. In addition, Richmond (1985) pointed out 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. [5].
The factors affect students’ performance in writing lessons:
Students’performance in writing lesson can be affected by a variety of factors originating from students, teachers and other external factors. In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed.
Student factors:
 students’ learning ways.
Harmer (2001) emphasizes the importance of understanding that there are different individuals in our class if we are to plan appropriate kinds of activities for them. Different individuals may have different learning styles, prefer different kinds of work, and expect different degrees of care and attention from the teacher. This can be seen clearly that there are different reactions from students toward the pre – lesson stage. We can conclude with certainty that if teacher realizes the differences among the individuals in the class when an activity is in progress, the students will participate in the lesson actively.
students’ motivation.
Regarding the issue, there are sample definitions of motivation. Lightbown and Spada (1999) consider motivation a complex phenomenon and define it in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community while Harmer (2001) defines motivation simply as “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something”. No one can deny the importance of motivation towards the success in learning a foreign language so we have to understand the sources of motivation. According to Harmer, the sources of motivation are diversified. They may derive from the society we live in, others significances like parents or old siblings, the teacher and the method. Among these sources, the teacher and the method may be of the most importance. For the teacher, his or her attitudes and enthusiasm help create a positive classroom atmosphere. For the method, it means to involve both teacher and students’ confidence shown in the way of teaching and learning. If somebody loses this confident motivation, the chance of success in learning a language will be very small. 
Downs (2000) also points out some conditions that help increase students’ motivation. He says that motivation increases when students feel acknowledged and understood, when students are confident they can succeed, when language has a communicative purpose, and when students take responsibility for their own learning.
Clearly, motivation plays an important role in the success of language learning in general but we may wonder how much or to what extent motivation accounts for students’ participation in pre-lesson stage. We may not give the exact answer but we can conclude with certainty that the degree of motivation is directly proportional to the level of involvement in pre-lesson stage in common and particularly in students’ performance in writing lesson. To be more concrete, the more motivated students are, the more actively they will participate in the lesson.
students’ language levels.
According to Harmer (2001), in a class where students’ language levels are different, teacher may have some difficulties choosing a suitable teaching method, language and activities used in class. Harmer claims that some techniques and exercises are suitable for some students but less appropriate for others. The language we use in classroom and in the materials we expose to students must be carefully chosen concerning the complexity, length and genre. With regard to Topic and Genre Harmer says that if students are not interested in the topics we are asking them to talk about, they are unlikely to invest their language production with the same amount of effort as they would if they were excited by the subject matter. If they are unfamiliar with the type of activity we are asking them to talk about, they may find it hard to engage themselves with the task we have given to them. Concerning the topic and genre Harmer (2001) suggests that teachers should take some issues into consideration such as choosing interesting topics, creating interest in the topic, activating schemata, varying topics and genre and providing necessary information. In writing lesson, we do not have the chance to choose the topic because of its various writing tasks. However, teacher should choose the suitable genre or activities to motivate students.
In brief, the limitation in the students’ language levels can directly affect their participation however much they like the activities. We, therefore, should choose the topics as well as the kinds of activities of their levels to encourage their participation. 
In conclusion, those are the main factors originating from students’ side that may affect students’ participation in classroom activities. For each student, the degrees of effect of those factors may vary and within one factor the degrees of effect on each student are different. First, in a class may exist different learning styles. The teacher should identify which group a student belongs to, this may help students overcome the difficulty getting involved in the activities. Second, students’ knowledge including both knowledge of English proficiency and knowledge of field expertise seems directly proportional to their level of involvement in the tasks. To be more concrete, the more knowledge students have, the higher degree of participation is. In addition, if students are motivated, they will engage themselves more in classroom activities. 
Teacher factors:
 teachers’ teaching methods.
Through the history we have experienced the existence and development of many teaching methods that can be divided into two types: teacher – centred and learner – centred methods. In pre – lesson stage, teachers’ teaching methods are focused on the ways teacher design appropriate activities to motivate students to write as well as the ways that the teacher elicits pre – lesson activities. In order to have a suitable method, the teacher should take some of the following factors into consideration including learners, teaching purposes and other available classroom