The effects of pre - Writing activities on 11th graders and students’ motivation in writing at Trieu Son NO2 high school’’

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 PART1.INTRODUCTION Page
I. Rationale	 2
PART2: PROBLEM SOLVING	 2
Chapter1: Methodology	 2
1.Research setting 	2
1.1 An overview of Trieu Son N02 high school.	2,3
1.2 The teacher of English in Trieu Son N02 high school 3
1.3 The students in Trieu Son N02 high school 3
1.4 The situation of English teaching and learning English in Trieu Son N02 
high school 	3
2.The writing program for grade 11 th students at the Trieu Son N02 high school.	4
2.1 The objectives of the program.	4
2.2 The teaching materials 	4
Chapter2: Research procedure	4
1 The process Approach	5
1.1 What is Pre-Writing? 	6
 Brief des cription of the lesson 	7
 PART 3 CONCLUSION	16
1. Implications for more effective writing lessons	16
1.1 To the teachers 	16
1.2 To the classroom facilities	16
2. Limitation and suggestion for further research	17
3.Conclusion	17
 PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. RATIONALE
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, Vietnam’s official membership of WTO on 7th November 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 non – major English students at Trieu son no2 High School the author of this research 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.
To these seasons I decided to carry out the action research on “ The effects of pre-writing activities on 11th graders and students’ motivation in writing at TRIEU SON NO2 high school’’ Because the pre-writing activities are important to teachers of English at TRIEU SON N02 High School. Based on the results of this action research, some changes and improvements could be applied in my 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 would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study.
 PART 2: PROBLEM SOLVING
CHAPTER 1: METHODOLOGY
1. Research setting
1.1. An overview of Triêu sơn N02 High School 
Triệu Sơn No2 High School is located in the West of Thanh Hoa. Founded in 1968, Triệu Sơn High No2 School is one of the oldest as well as the biggest schools in the area. At present, there are 20 classes with over 800 students placed into three different grades: grade 10, 11 and 12. In recent years Triệu Sơn No2 High School is one of the schools which has high percentages of high school graduate and gifted students.
1.2. The teachers of English in Triệu Sơn No2 High School 
There are six teachers of English currently working at Triệu Sơn No2 High School , four of them have participated in this research for discussion. Their ages range from thirty to forty years old, three of them are female. The years of teaching English are also different, minimum level of ten years and maximum nearly twenty years. Most of them have University Bachelor’s Degree, one Master Degree, and the others have taken the in-service training courses. Without doubt, all the teachers at Triệu Sơn No2 High School are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching. They are willing to help their students overcome their difficulties in learning English generally and in speaking particularly.
1.3. The students in Triệu Sơn No2 High School 
The majority of students in the study at Triệu Sơn No2 High School are aged from 15 to 18. Most of them come from rural areas and they have learnt English since lower secondary schools. Among them, there are a large number of students who are really interested in learning English and want to develop their ability in using English. In contrast, the other part of students is low in motivation. They tend to regard English as less important than other subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations.
1.4. The situation of English teaching and learning English in Triệu Sơn NO2 High School 
 The syllabus of teaching and learning English.
At Triệu Sơn No2 High School , English is one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum. The syllabus and the textbooks for English including “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, “Tiếng Anh 12” are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training. 
The English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a total of 105 periods, 3 periods per week. Each period is 45 minutes long.
The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade 10th at Triệu Sơn No2 High School is “Tieng Anh 10” which was designed following communicative approach. The textbook consists of 16 units with 5 parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice. Also, there exists a consolidate unit after every 3 units. The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have achieved in the previous units.
2.THE WRITING PROGRAM FOR GRADE 11TH STUDENTS AT TRIEU SON N02 HIGH SCHOOL
2.1.The objectives of the program
Basing on the new textbooks designed by the Ministry of Education and Training, English are taught with four skills and Language Focus which focuses on grammar and pronunciation. The writing program at TRIEU SON N02 high school follow the syllabus of the MOET ( Ministry of Education and Training) with the aim of improving students’ abilities in writing. On English 11 textbook, 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. 
As regards the language, for students sometimes have to depend on the provided structures and phrases or vocabularies. However, some of them start to be aware of and perform different styles as well as various levels of formality to match the writing situation. But most of their works still need to be examined for vocabulary and style accuracy.
In terms of methodology, students are expected to master the general study skills. Students should be active in self – studying, peer and group cooperation. They understand the process in teaching and learning writing and know how to write.
2. 2. The teaching materials
	The course books used to teach writing skills to the grade 11th students of Trieu son No2 High School is English 11 by MOET
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH PROCEDURE
This action research consists of three main stages: Pre – Improvement stage, Trying – out stage and Post – Improvement stage
Stage 1: Pre – Improvement
Step 1. Identifying the problem which was wished to solve or an area which was wished to improve by:
Observing a lesson that illustrated the problem
Conducting a survey to get information from students
Step 2 Finding causes of the problem by:
Consulting with colleagues: a number of colleagues were asked to answer three questions about the effectiveness of conducting the pre – writing activities in writing lessons
Reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions
Stage 2: Trying – out
Step 3: Designing strategies for improvements (plan for action)
Step 4: Trying – out the strategies (action) and making records of what happened in class.
Stage 3: Post – Improvement
Step 5: Evaluating the try – out by:
Observing a lesson (Focusing on the students’ writing performance at the end of try – out period) that illustrated the changes that have been made;
Reflecting on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that had been improved or that had been got worse)
Carrying out a survey to get information from the students
Giving comments and conclusions.
1. 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 what 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.
1.1. What is 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 about
	A. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE LESSON
1. Topic for writing essay:
“Write about one of the competitions for secondary school students on TV”
2. Time allowance: 10 minutes
3. Classroom observation description
Time/ Activity
Teachers’ activities
Students’ activities
Comments
1. Warm – up (5’)
2. Pre – writing activity
(10’)
3. While – writing activity
(20’)
Teacher asked some questions such as “Do you often watch game shows on TV?” “Can you tell me the names of these competitions for secondary school students on TV?” .
- Teacher showed some big pictures of the famous game show “Road to Olympia” and asked students to play the game “What is this?”. There are five big pictures, all are copied from the gameshow on TV. If any team can guess the name of the game at the first picture will get the highest mark. The marks will be counted backward. 
- Teacher asked students to answer the six suggestions about the content of the game show in the textbook. All the students of the class had the chance to talk about the show before writing it.
- Students can discuss in groups and choose one competition to write about
- Teacher asked students to make sentences basing on the suggestions in the textbook and practice in pairs.
- Teacher asked the students to write about any competitions for secondary school students on TV. Most of them chose the show “Road to Olympia” and some chose other show such as “Not Nhac Vui” or “Tuoi Doi Menh Mong” – the singing contest and even one of them chose “Ringing The Golden Bell” – a famous game show for students at university. 
“Yes”
Road to Olympia
Tuoi Doi Menh Mong
Nguoi ban gai dang men
Rung chuong vang
After looking at those pictures, students discovered the name of the game show was “Road to Olympia” at the second picture and the winner is group 1 in the class. The class is excited with a big applause for the winner.
T: “What time is it on TV?”
S: “Ten o’clock”
“What chanel is it on?”
“ VTV3”
S: How long does it last?
S: 2 hours
S: How many parts are there in the show?
S: four parts
S: How many competitors are there?
S: four 
................
- Students write the passage in a very good mood with the content suggested in the textbook. Some of them write short passage. However, some write very well – done ones
This period is considered to be successful. After being consulted by English teachers at Trieu son 2 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’ misunderstanding 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
5.Homework
(3’)
- Read your passage again, make it perfect and retell it in the next period.
- 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 (See Appendix). 
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 (See Appendix)
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 passage 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. b(See the appendix)
4. Post – improvement questionnaire for students
Question 1:
What do you think of the pre – writing activities today?
a. Very boring	
b. Boring	
c. So so	
d. Interesting and challenging 	
e. Very interesting 	
Question
Choice
Notes
a
b
c
d
e
What do you think of the pre – writing activities today?
0%
0%
12.5%
37.5%
50%
As can be seen from Table 7 50% of the students loved the pre – writing activities on that day and 37.5% of the students said that they liked the activities because they were interesting and challenging. However, 12.5% of the students had no ideas of the activities. This might be concluded that the try – out stage of conducting pre – writing activities with the attention of some factors relating to the writing performance have certain good effects.
Question 2:
What do you think of your writing performance today?
a. Extremely unsatisfied 	c. Satisfied	
b. Unsatisfied	d. Good	
e. Very good 	
Question
Choice
Notes
a
b
c
d
e
What do you think of your writing performance today?
0%
0%
18.75%
43.75%
37.5%
It appears that students preferred the post – improvement lesson compared with the pre – improvement one. The number of students who enjoyed the lesson and felt confident with their writing performance accounted for 43.75% and 37.5% respectively while there was no students stated that their writing performance is very bad or bad (0%). The students’ writing performance improvement should be assessed by the teacher but students’ ideas toward what they have done is an important matter that we teacher should take into consideration.
Question 3:
Which of the changes made by the teacher were successful?
a. The teacher carried out interesting activities that made the class work well.
b. The teacher provided sufficient and effective new words and sentence structures. 	
c. The teacher encouraged the less active students to work and give helps when necessary.
d. The teacher gave clear instructions. 	
e. All of the above changes. 	
Question
Choice
Notes
a
b
c
d
e
Which of the changes made by the teacher were successful?
0%
0%
0%
0%
100%
All of the students (100%) agreed that the changes made by the teacher were successful
Question 4:
a. The class is well – equipped.	
b. Visual aids are used effectively. 	
c. Good class atmosphere. 	
d. Suitable time using for the activities.
e. All of the above factors. 	
Question
Choice
Notes
a
b
c
d
e
Besides, the changes from teachers, which of the following factors in pre – writing stage help you write better?
40%
31.25%
21.25%
10%
87.5%
It can not be denied that students needed a lot of changes for the situation. That is the reason why they choose the option e with 87.5% of all the students. Classroom facilities are really helpful in conducting the lesson. Students can not pay attention to the lesson if the fans do not work or they can not see the board clearly because of the dim lights. Therefore, they appreciated that well – equipped classroom with 40% of the students may help to change the situation. It seems that students did not take care of how much time the teacher used for the pre – writing activities because there was only 10% of the students thought that this may be the cause of the situation. However, teachers should be aware of the time limitation problem, because sometimes they make the class involve in the activities and they forget that they have only 5 to 10 minutes for the pre – writing activities.
Question 5:
 What are your own changes after taking part in the pre – writing activities today?
Changes
Extremely 
disagree
Disagree
I don’t 
know
Agree
Strongly
agree
Not 
given
a. I am motivated to work because the teacher gives out many interesting activities
0%
11.25%
7.5%
46.25%
32.5%
2.5%
b. I can write with the requirement in the textbook because the teacher provides right and useful new words and sentence structures
5%
18.75%
8.75%
56.25%
8.75%
2.5%
c. I am confident enough even though I stand in front of a big crowd 
2.5%
16.25%
5%
47.5%
27.5%
1.25%
d. I can work better because I work with my acquaintances
0%
2.5%
3.75%
68.75%
23.75%
1.25%
The students’ self – assessment are clearly presented in Table 11. An overall statement made based on the data in the table is that students’ interest in the activities has increased considerably. It can be inferred from the fact that most of the students (92.5%) preferred working in a group with their acquaintances and they could