Vietnam National University, Hanoi College of foreign languages Post graduate Department o0o nguyễn phưƠng ngọc an Action research on the effects of Pre writing

In teaching a language, writing is considered one of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master. 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 thoroughly 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.

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:

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  First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students.
  
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  Second, 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.
  

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 teaching writing namely: Controlled – to – Free Approach, Free – Writing Approach, Paragraph – Pattern Approach, Grammar – Syntax – Organization Approach, Communicative Approach and Process Approach.

I.2.3.1 Controlled – to – Free Approach

According to this approach mistakes shown up in written work was regarded as a major problem. The teacher assumed that students made mistakes because they wrote what they wanted freely. This approach stressed the importance of control in teaching writing skills to 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

I.2.3.2 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 were that 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

↓

EDITING

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.

I.2.4. 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

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.

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.

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, significant others 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 involving both teacher and students’ confidence shown in the way of teaching and learning. If either 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.

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.

sIn 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.

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 conditions. Choosing an inappropriate or not being flexible in applying methods to a certain class may have negative effects on students’ participation

In the study What makes a good teacher, Breach (2005) points out that most students believe that the teacher is a fountain of knowledge and their main responsibility is to pass on that knowledge to students. Breach compares the teacher as a teapot and the students with empty cups waiting for the knowledge from the teacher to be poured down in. In the pre – lesson stage of writing lesson, we are going to focus on language ability and general knowledge.

Complicated instructions are another major problem that often makes giving instructions very time – consuming. In the class, if the students do not understand the teachers’ instructions, they do not react anything. Therefore, the teacher has to try at least twice to explain to them before resorting to Vietnamese. Much has been written on how to give effective instructions. Ur(1996) provides several very useful recommendations: The first step is to prepare what you are going to say, and if possible, even to write it down. Then the teacher needs to ensure the class’s attention. Next, he should give the information more than once. Make sure that the language is brief and clear, then follow it up with demonstrations. Giving effective instructions is not as easy as some teachers may think. It is a skill that we can gain only with proper learning and frequent practice.

In conclusion, students’ writing performance can be affected by teachers’ factors including teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge and teachers’ instructions in pre – lesson stage. Teaching methods may play a decisive part in obtaining teaching goals in pre – lesson stage. Beside teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge also plays an important part as the former makes the activities interesting in term of the content. Additionally, the fact that teachers’ instructions properly may help students be sure that they can understand what they need to do in the lesson. Thus, with a view to improve the pre – lesson stage in writing lesson, teachers should renovate their teaching methods, in this case that is the way teachers elicit the pre – lesson activities. At the same time, teachers should improve their knowledge including both knowledge of language and knowledge of the field expertise. Finally, teachers should give clear and brief instructions in this stage so that students can produce good writing pieces.

I.3.3. External factors.

I.3.3.1.Time limitations

Normally, in pre – lesson stage, only 5 to 10 minutes are used to conduct the activities. However, if teachers, for some reasons, do not prepare the materials well enough, they will realize the failure of having pre – lesson activities immediately. Moreover, in some large classes with a number of students whose English knowledge are limited, it often takes time to conduct these activities. This leads to the confirmation of the teachers’ role in designing appropriate materials in pre – lesson activities.

According to Williams and Burden (1997), we can not underestimate the importance of appropriate environmental conditions for learning to take place as an understanding of the ways in which aspects of the environment affect learning is vitally important for language teachers and learners.

Underwood (1987) points out some factors related to the classroom physical conditions that can affect the learning process:

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  The lightness
  
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  The temperature and fresh air
  
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  The acoustics
  
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  The lines of vision
  
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  The layout of the desks/ tables
  
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  The possibility of moving desks/ tables
  
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  The other furniture
  
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  The facilities for displaying pictures, charts,etc
  

No one can deny the role of classroom atmosphere in the success of language learning. According to Underwood (1987), both the teacher and students are responsible for creating a good atmosphere and a good learning atmosphere consists of some characteristics such as giving a sense of purpose or the teachers should ensure that English is spoken. Balancing fluency and accuracy or using appropriate language are the two necessary elements in creating a good classroom atmosphere. Underwood also mentioned the effects of encouragement as well as students’ involvement on the improvement of students’ English learning. Last but not least, tests and extracurricular activities are also considered as important parts of increasing learning atmosphere in the classroom.

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 Nguyen Binh Khiem 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 non - major English students, 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.

The course books used to teach writing skills to the grade 11^th non English major students of Nguyen Binh Khiem High School is English 11 by MOET

There are 3 periods of English in a week. In our school, we spend two weeks for one unit because each unit is taught from five to six periods.

Three volunteer teachers from other classes were asked to come to classes 11CT1 and 11CH in two different periods to observe the writing lesson without notifying to the teacher and all the students in that class. The observers just focused on what the teacher did in pre – writing stage and the reaction of students in the class at this stage. What is more, the teachers collected some of students’ writing papers in order to compare the differences in students’ writing performance between the pre – and post improvement stage of this research.

“Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude”

The above results show that the problem of ineffective pre – writing activities was true in writing lessons in classes of NBK High School. The next step is to conduct a survey to find out the causes of the problem from students

80 students were asked to give their answers to the 5 questions and then handed in their papers to the teacher. These were the results of the survey:

The data in Table 1 shows that the writing performance of the grade 11 non – major English students at NBK High School was not good. The percentage of the students who thought their writing performance on that day were very bad was 43.75% and bad was 25%. What is more, 10% of the asked students assessed that they had no idea of their writing performance. Meanwhile, the percentage of the students thinking their writing performance were good and very good was 15% and 6.25% respectively. Clearly, the findings show us that most of the students feel their writing performance will be monotonous if there is nothing improved.

All the students (100%) are asked to join in the pre – writing activities on that period. This shows that the trend of having pre – writing activities in the writing lesson is very popular in NBK school.

Question 3: Do you like those pre – writing activities? If No, please answer the next question

As can be seen from the table, a large majority of the students (87.3%) stated that their vocabulary and grammar structures were not enough to take part in the pre – writing activities on that day. 63.5% of them said that they did not know much about the topic. One more reason for the inactiveness of students in that pre – writing activity is that students thought that the topic was not “hot” enough. This accounted for 50.79% of the students. Motivation and other classroom effects added 41.26% and 19.04% respectively to the list. From the information collected, teachers at NBK High School should be aware of some factors affecting to the students’ participation in pre – writing stage so that they can conduct more effective activities that help students write better.

Multiple choices:

1. 
   Teacher doesn’t conduct the pre – writing activity effectively
   
2. 
   It is hard to hear what the teacher talks in the activity
   
3. 
   The topic is not enlightened well enough
   
4. 
   The teacher’s instructions are not clear enough (You feel confused with what to do)
   
5. 
   Others: Teacher’s bad mood, she doesn’t make up…
   

As can be seen from the table, almost all the students agreed that on that day, their teacher conducted a boring pre – writing activity whereas 67.7% of them reckoned that their teacher gave unclear instructions and 34.9% of them thought that it’s hard to hear what the teacher talked in the pre – writing activity. This proves that teacher’s carelessness in preparing activities in pre – writing stage is the main reason that causes the students’ inactiveness in the stage. In addition, smaller percentage of other teachers – related factor such as the teachers’ mood or appearance or the ineffective topic exploitation are also counted for students’ low motivation in taking part in this stage.

In order to get more professional advice, suggestions and ideas about the problem of finding out “the effects of pre – writing activities to students’ writing performance” and with the aims of making teachers at NBK High School realized the importance of pre – writing activities in teaching writing the author of the research consulted with 15 English teachers who are teaching in the English Division at NBK High School.

The following questions were chosen for teachers of English in the English Division at NBK High School to answer on piece of paper:

Question 1. According to you, how important these activities affect to students’ writing performance?

Item No	(1) Least important → Most important (5)
	1(%)	2(%)	3(%)	4(%)	5(%)
a	0	6.6	26.6	33.3	33.5
b	6.6	13.3	6.8	53.3	20
c	0	40	20	26.7	13.3
d	16.6	33.3	41.6	2.5	6

a. Warm – up activities.

b.Pre – writing activities

c. While – writing activities.

d. After – writing activities.

Table 6 summarizes the teachers’ ideas about the importance of pre – writing activities on students’ writing performance. In general, they thought that pre – writing activities affect most students’ writing performance. Coming back to the above analysis, we also can see that warm – up activities ranked the second after pre – writing activities in the teachers’ view toward its relationship with students’ writing performance meanwhile while and after – writing stage were appreciated less important than the above activities

Clearly, the findings show that English teachers at NBK High School realized that pre – writing activities are really important to measure their students’ writing performance.

Question 2.Do you often conduct pre – writing activities in teaching writing?

This question was designed with a view to explore whether the teachers of English at NBK High School have the habit of conducting pre – writing activities in writing lessons or not. And the result was as follows:

As can be seen from the pie chart, a majority (8 teachers = 53.33%) of the teachers said they always conducted pre – writing activities, and 26.66% claimed “often”. Meanwhile, 13.33% admitted to conducting these “sometimes” only and 6.6 % of all the teachers rarely took pre – writing activities into consideration when teaching writing. Luckily, no teachers confessed “never”

Question 3.Have you ever met the following problems while conducting pre – writing activities?

a.(problem 1). Students make noises and keep on their personal talks. 

b.(problem 2). Students do not do anything, just keep silent. 

c.(problem 3).Students do not work effectively with the activities you have prepared. 

The answers to this question revealed that all of the teachers have ever met problems when they conduct pre – writing activities in writing lessons. Not surprisingly, 80% (12/15) responded that they saw the students made much noises and kept on their personal talks in pre – writing stage. This may be accounted for the psychological matter of the students. They are, at that age, often talkative and naughty not only inside the classes. 33.33% (5/15) of all the teachers admitted that their students did not do anything, just said in the chairs and kept silent.

7 out of 15 teachers (which accounted for 46.66%) also stated that they had prepared some pre – writing activities but their students did not work effectively. This should be concluded that may be the students do not like the activities of the teachers. Besides, 40% (6/15) of all the teachers gave out some more problems in pre –writing stage they had ever met such as students slept, they looked out of the windows or leant the other subjects.

Question 4.How do you solve the problem? If you choose choice d Please answer the next question

1. 
   Just do nothing, let the class be. 
   
2. 
   Shout at the students and punish them. 
   
3. 
   Move to another parts of the lesson. 
   
4. 
   Try to find out the reasons why they are not interested in the lesson and find the appropriate activities for the next lessons. 
   

To solve the above problems, it is a good sign that 80% (12/15) of all the teachers wished to change the situation by trying to find out the problems and looked for the appropriate activities for the next class (one teacher can teach more than one class at the same grade) or the next lesson. In addition, no one did nothing and let the class be. However, 20% (3/15) admitted that they would shout at the students and punished them when they did not

listen to the teacher. What is more, 40% decided that sometimes they were not patient enough to expect the ordered class and then they moved to another parts of the writing lessons.

Question 5. What is your suggestion toward the ineffective pre – writing activities?

12 teachers who wished to change the situation gave the following suggestions. They are rearranged already.

1. Teachers should prepare well enough for both English proficiency and suitable activities.

2. Teachers should make sure that the students understand what she/he said.

3. Teachers should take notice to their students – related problems such as students’ low motivation, their English ability and also the writing topic for them.

4. Besides, teachers should also take care of the classroom restraints when conducting the activities.

5. Last but not least, the time limitation in this stage is another difficulty therefore teachers should take care of this by choosing the suitable activities for this stage.

II.1.5. Reading professional books or journals for ideas and suggestions

All the information, ideas or suggestions taken from the professional books or journals were mentioned in details in the chapter one in this Minor Thesis Paper (from page 12 to page 17)

From the comments, ideas and suggestions from the students, colleagues, professional books or journals and my own teaching experience the author of this thesis designed the following strategies to improve the problem:

1. 
   Preparing more than ONE suitable activities for pre – writing stage and making the writing topic easier.
   
2. 
   Trying to avoid the unclear instructions and English proficiency problems
   
3. 
   Making sure that students are motivated to work and be more interested in the writing lessons.
   
4. 
   Trying to avoid the classroom restraints.
   
5. 
   Paying more attention to less – active or quiet students and encouraging them to work.
   
6. 
   Managing time well in each part of the writing lesson.
   

The new strategies and changes were tried out in the next practice writing lesson. All the changes and improvements or even new or bad problems after each lesson were made notes by the teacher in brief.

Topic: “Describing information in a table”

- Pre – writing activities lasted for 10 minutes.

- Teacher prepared a table drawn in A0 paper, the classroom was comfortable and well – prepared.

- After the warm – up activities, the teacher presented the words and the language expressions used in describing a table with some symbols of “rise”, “drop”, “slightly”, “Sharply”….All these symbols were drawn on the board. Teacher checked the words by showing at the symbols and the students read the words without looking at the letters or the translation of the teacher. At the end of the stage, teacher divided the class into 3 big teams and let students play a game in which the longer sentences were emphasized such as “the number of the literate females dropped sharply in 2006”, “it increased slightly”…If any team has more correct sentences, they will be the winners.

- It might be a successful lesson.

Topic: Topic: “Describing information in a table”

- Pre – writing activities lasted in 10 minutes in a comfortable classroom.

- After the exciting warm up activities of a game “Word category” with the aim of presenting the new words in describing a table, the teacher showed a A0 paper with the number indicating the trends of falling, increasing….The students might be successful in writing this kind of exercise because there were a large number of students repeated these expressions.

- Three volunteer teachers were asked to observe a lesson after the trying – out stage that illustrated the changes that had been made.

- The results of class observation was used to reflect on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that were improved or that got worse).

- A survey was carried out to get information from students.

- Comments and conclusions were made.

II.3.1. Post – improvement class observation

A. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE LESSON

1. Topic for writing essay:

“Write about one of the competitions for secondary school students on TV”

Bellows are some more comments about the improvement of the students in post – improvement stage:

a. Very boring

b. Boring

c. So so

d. Interesting and challenging

e. Very interesting

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.

a. Extremely unsatisfied c. Satisfied

b. Unsatisfied d. Good

e. Very good

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.

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.

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.

1. 
   Students will be more interested in learning writing skills if the teacher conducts these kinds of activities regularly
   
2. 
   These activities help to build the students’ confidence in writing and overcome the “shock” of language use.
   
3. 
   Both a and b
   

This chapter is not only the most important but also the most interesting part of this research. It provides information on the practical study with situational analysis. Given the fact on how teachers and students at NBK High School teach and learn writing classes, the effects of pre – writing activities on the students’ writing performance, the students’ ideas about the way teachers conducted these activities, teacher will realize the importance of pre – writing activities in teaching writing skill and what they should do to make the students feel more interested in their writing lessons.