III
HOW TO MOTIVATE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS
IN WRITING CLASS
By: Hong Th Thanh Tm
Hong Dim Thu
V Thanh ThuIntroduction
Nowadays, the needs of politics, diplomacy, technology, science
exchange and other fields are ever increasing all over the world.
Yet, how to communicate with each other? It would take the
politician, the scientists, the diplomats and the leaders a lot of
time to learn foreign languages. English, which was found out as a
global solution, has rapidly become an international language and
ended all the trouble. It has been the most popular language of the
communication between countries and many fields of human
endeavor.
English is now very familiar with almost every person including
Vietnamese people. It is being taught and learnt in many parts of
our country and given a fit priority in schools as well as in the
society. Many pedagogic research and discourse analysis have been
done in order to improve and enhance the teaching and learning
process and many have impressively born fruits. Yet to a great
number of learners as well as new and inexperienced teachers, of
all the four skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and
writing, the last is always the biggest challenge to master. Fresh
teachers often get stuck at how to encourage students to love
writing whereas English learners find it very boring when it comes
to writing lessons. The problem here is that even though learners
have a good command of English, they are still reluctant to write
as expected. Thus, the role of teachers is of great importance to
boost learners interest in writing.
But how to do that is a headache to many. There have not been
many proper studies into this matte except for a few methodology
books which deal with the matter of motivating students on the
merit surface. As a result, motivation in writing class is still a
question that is really in need of being answering.
We are, for good reason driven by such motive, to work on this
research to better our performance in writing classes, at the same
time, to contribute something to help other colleagues to improve
their work as well as to help students really get involved in their
writing.
Methods
The basic instrument for the current study was survey. In order
to probe situation of writing class motivation, a questionnaire was
designed. (Appendix I)
The questionnaire comprises of nine questions. The nine items
were divided into the following three groups: four questions were
pre-coded with show-card, factual (question one, two, four and
seven); four questions were simple pre-coded factual (question
three, five, six and nine) and one question was attitude statement
(question eight).
The first three questions focused on approaches of class
motivation for pre-writing stage. The next three questions and the
last three ones dealt with ways of class motivation for
while-writing and post-writing stages respectively.
The study involved subjects from English learning classes at
Hanoi University of Foreign Studies. Questionnaires were given out
a hundred first-year students of full-time courses. The respondents
were asked to fill in the questionnaires. Finally, the total of one
hundred questionnaires was returned.
Literature review
It cannot be denied that motivation plays a very important role
in improving study effectiveness. In other words, this approach
helps encourage and motivate students in language-learning classes.
Therefore, students will feel eager and interested in lessons if
motivation activities are applied in classes.
As a matter of fact, there have been many studies focusing on
class motivation so far. In "Teaching by principles" (H. Douglas
Brown, 1994), there are two chapters including chapter III and
chapter XIX concentrating on motivation. In chapter III "Intrinsic
Motivation in the Classroom", the author mostly discusses
motivation definition and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
However, he really expressed his interest over the intrinsic
motivation in language-learning classes. For H. Douglas Brown,
"motivation is the extent to which you make choices about (a) goals
to pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to that pursuit". He
also gives out some kinds of motivation definitions. In chapter
XIX, the author focuses on creating interactive, intrinsically
motivating tests. This chapter is very practical and useful for
teachers to apply in language-learning classes. H. Douglas Brown
analyzes the importance of tests and how teachers can use tests to
motivate students in classes. He also mentions many kinds of
motivating tests in this chapter, which is very necessary for
teachers. In general, Douglas Brown in this book mostly presents
intrinsic motivation in classes.
Another discussion on motivation is the book "The practice of
English language teaching". In this book, the author deals with
definition and types of motivation as well as motivated
differences. In the definition of motivation, he defines it as
"some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a
course of action". Furthermore, he states two main kinds of
motivation comprising of extrinsic motivation and intrinsic
motivation. According to him, extrinsic motivation is concerned
with factors outside the classroom and intrinsic motivation
discusses what takes place inside the classroom. Especially, he
gives detailed analysis on factors affecting intrinsic motivation.
Those factors are physical conditions, methods, teachers and
success. He not only explains the theory but also gives examples to
demonstrate the function of intrinsic motivation in classrooms.
What's more, "The resourceful English Teacher" (Trevor
Sylvester, 1999.) brings us an overview of activities that teachers
should take to encourage students in classes to participate in
lessons. In other words, in two parts including "Icebreakers and
Welcoming Activities" and "Warmers and Fillers", Trevor Sylvester
concentrates on describing activities which can be used by teachers
in classes to stimulate students' interests before the lesson
starts.
In addition, there is an article about motivation when teaching
English under the heading of "Free Speaking" (David Heathfied,
2004.). In the article, the writer not only mentions some speaking
teaching approaches but also explains and instructs each activity
very carefully in order to enhance students' speaking skills. He
considers free speaking one of the good ways to motivate students
in classroom. Obviously, letting students freely speak through
certain activities not only makes them feel interesting to learn
but helps them improve their skills as well.
"Tasks for language teachers" (Martin Parrott, 1993.) also deals
with Motivation and learning. In the first section, this book
raises the issue of motivation definition. In the second section,
it looks at ways in which a teacher can affect motivation. When
defining motivation, the author explains two related terms:
integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. Besides, Martin
Parrott also lists many measures that teachers should follow if
they want to activate and motivate students in classes.
In another article "Leave them alone!" (Magdalena Kubanyiova,
2004.), one way of motivation is stated. The teaching approach
suggested by the author is that teachers should let students do
something by themselves with careful and clear instructions. In the
article, she mentions an activity motivating students. She explains
each step very obviously and gives her own opinion on the method's
result.
Other book also mentioning motivation is "A course in language
teaching" (Penny Ur, 1991.). The author in this book discusses the
importance of motivation and characteristics of motivated learners
as well as different kinds of motivation. Especially, in the part
of "Characteristics of motivated learners", he lists seven typical
characteristics with very careful explanation for each, which helps
teachers a lot find out proper activities to apply for each
student.
In addition to above-mentioned studies, "Conditions for second
language learning" (Bernal Spolsky, 1989.) has one chapter dealing
with the relationship between motivation and attitudes. Basing on
summarizing results of studies by other people, the author analyzes
many aspects related to motivation and tries to figure out the
relationship between motivation and attitudes.
In short, it can be said that most of those above-mentioned
studies concentrate on motivation in aspect of learning and
teaching language in general or in some areas in particular.
However, none of them focuses on motivation in writing classes.
Therefore, in this research, we aim to explore some approaches to
stimulate students in writing lessons during different stages of
pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing.
According to our survey, most students are not fond of writing
lessons, resulting in bad marks. When being asked, they said that
they have ever felt like learning writing skill. And we have found
out that lacking motivation is one of reasons for this problem.
That's why we are really interested in motivation in writing
classes in this research in order to partly improve the current
situation.
Findings and discussions
I- An overview of motivation:
1.What is motivation in class?
We would like to embark upon this part by giving the general
definition of class motivation.
In general terms, class motivation refers to a students
willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be
successful in their learning process. (Bomia et al., 1997, p.1)
There is a fact that getting students to involve in class is an
issue with which teachers perennially grapple. Our group aims at
unearthing the factors that motivate students to participate in
writing class activities.
Apart from some factors that draw students to attend class such
as: materials, high-quality teachers, classroom environment, etc.,
the ability to motivate students ranked among the top qualities of
exceptional teachers noted by our group members. Thus, students
perceive that the time in writing class is interesting and
productive.
2.Types of writing class motivation:
Motivation in class in general and writing class in particular
is often divided into 2 categories:
a.Extrinsic motivation:
A student can be described as extrinsically motivated when he or
she engages in learning purely for the sake of passing exams or
getting high scores. For many students, writing is probably the
least important of the 4 skills, they are more likely to need to
listen to, read and speak English than to write it. Their need for
writing is most likely to be for study purposes and also as an exam
skill. The writing class becomes an instrument in their attainment
of such a goal.
Another factor affecting the attitude of students is their
negative view of their writing. For one reason, they have negative
feelings about their English writing. Their language is poor and
inadequate. For another reason, it is the common thought that
writing can be practiced at home by students themselves. Therefore,
students are not stimulated to go to writing class.
What can teachers do about extrinsic motivation and students
attitude? It is clear that we cannot create it since it comes into
the classroom from outside. It is clear, too, that students have to
be prepared to take some responsibility for their own learning. But
with that in mind we can still do our best to ensure that students
view the language and the learning experience in a positive
attitude to the language, and we can try to be certain that were
supportive and encouraging to our students rather than critical and
destructive.
b.Intrinsic motivation:
A student can be described as intrinsically motivated when he or
she is motivated from within: Intrinsically motivated students
actively engage themselves in learning for curiosity, interest or
enjoyment, or in order to achieve their own intellectual and
personal goals.
As far as writing class is concerned, we can consider some
factors affecting intrinsic motivation, namely physical conditions,
teachers methods. Firstly, the term physical condition refers to
the classroom environment (e.g., facilities, equipments and
materials). It is clear that this factor has a great effect on
learning and can alter a students motivation either positively or
negatively. As a matter of fact, teachers should presumably try to
make their writing classrooms as pleasant as possible. Even where
conditions are bad such as plain handouts, it may be possible to
improve the atmosphere with posters, pictures, etc. Secondly,
though we do not have a desire to discuss much the area of teachers
method into which we will go deeply later on, we have to say that
the method by which students are taught must have some effect on
the motivation. If they find it clearly boring they will probably
become de-motivated. Consequently, perhaps this is the most
difficult area of all to be certain of, and this is the matter that
we, the junior teachers want to focus on this study.
3.The importance of motivation in writing class:
What would you think of a person who goes fishing and does not
put bait on the hook? A bare hook dangling in the water is not
appetizing to a fish. Yet, many teachers do the same thing in their
teaching. They teach class with bare hooks. They are trying to hook
students to learn and to develop an interest in the topic but they
don't do anything to get or retain the attention of the student.
Teachers typically do little to motivate students to learn.
Most teachers realize that motivation is important, but many
insist it is not possible to motivate students. "You can lead a
horse to water," they say, "but you can't make him drink;
motivation is internal and people have to motivate themselves."
Well, you can't force a horse to drink, but you can make a horse
want to drink by giving it plenty of salt. The same line of
reasoning applies to students. You can't force them to learn, but
you can make them want to learn by "salting" your teaching with
techniques for creating student interest.
We can cite some scholars words to show how important class
motivation is in teaching. In 1880 Hughes wrote, "There is and
there can be no teaching where the attention of the students is not
secured. The teacher who fails to get the attention of the students
fails totally." Several decades earlier, Horace Mann, Secretary of
Education in Massachusetts, stated rather quaintly, "A teacher who
is attempting to teach without first inspiring the student to
learn, is hammering on cold iron."
Teachers do have an influence on whether or not students are
motivated to learn. While it is true that some motivation is
internal, there are techniques teachers can use to get students
ready to learn. A master teacher will know these techniques and
employ them.
Research indicates that students learn more, there are fewer
classroom problems and teachers feel better about their teaching
when students are motivated to learn. Motivation is a highly
significant factor and greatly facilitates learning. Highly
motivated students are likely to be learning at or near their
intellectual capacities. Poorly motivated students are likely to be
learn well below their capacities.
II- Findings and discussions
An ability to write appropriately and effectively is, however,
something which evades many of us, in our mother tongues or in any
other languages we may wish to learn in spite of the many years
which are frequently devoted to the development of the skill. It
is, furthermore, the one in which relatively few people are
required to be expert.
The teaching of writing, therefore, has long been a central
element in all educational systems. Each teacher has their own way
of going about it, but in general not much success has been
circulated. This is proved by learners reluctance to write and
their odd behaviors in writing class.
The careful survey carried out on 100 reliable respondents shows
that the statistics in this research are valid. Theres no bias in
the questions and answers.
1- Pre- writing:
Pedagogically, the concept of writing does not mean jotting down
ideas only, but more than that. It includes three basic steps which
requires a lot of critical thinking from writers, both native and
non- native, namely pre- writing, while- writing, and post-
writing. In this section, the discussion focuses on pre- writing
step which is often ignored by most writing classes in Vietnam.
So what is pre- writing? Common knowledge about this notion is
that it is the step in which preparation such as topic choice,
topic limitation, brainstorming, etc., for the would- be- product
is carefully made. Or metaphorically, pre- writing is like the
stage you choose flour, seasoning and the like to make a
potentially delicious cake. If not careful, you may choose the
substandard flour, or mixing the wrong recipe of dough and
seasoning which results in an awful cake. The same thing goes with
pre- writing step, that is if wrong topic limitation or
uninterested topic is produced, learners may find themselves in a
dilemma of handing in a good piece of writing.
The research was firstly, therefore, carried out to help both
teachers and learners to find way to be successful with the pre-
writing stage. The respondents, however, were not of a single mind-
on the style of brainstorming, the form of teachers aid and the
freedom of topic choice.
The majority of freshmen preferred to work in groups in terms of
brainstorming (45%) while a sizable number (27%) believed they
would work best as a whole class. 15% of the respondents were
inclined to perform the task in pairs and 13% others loved working
individually. (See the chart below)
What can we draw from the result? The motivation for students to
get themselves involved in writing process varies from student to
student. Each approach has its own pros and cons and this research
will look closely at each approach to find the final solution for
teaching activities. First, lets look at the preference for working
alone. When students work by their own, they can develop the
ability to think independently. They can also avoid being disturbed
by their friends idea and therefore can protect their own way. Of
course this way of working has disadvantages. Since students keep
their own thinking, they lose the chance to compare with others
work and fail to realise their mistakes. Therefore, those students
are susceptible to errors without acknowledging it.
In terms of working in pairs, here a saying goes: Two heads are
better than one. A student can enrich his knowledge about the
subject by discussing with his friend. Cooperating in pairs may
increase students interest since they have a good opportunity to
show off what they have accumulated and learn what they havent
heard from their partner. However, as witnessed, in a multitude of
cases, there are students who play a passive role, just listen to
their superior friends without making any contribution to the task.
The reasons for this are many. Maybe the passive students fear of
making mistakes since they are afraid of being laughed at. Or maybe
they have nothing to say because the more intelligent partners have
done it already. Thus, a problem arises. The talkative students
will surely improve their English and vice versa, the ones who dont
dare to speak out their ideas may not be successful in any skill of
English, probably including writing skill.
As of working in groups, there are a great deal of viewpoints
applauding this type of language learning. Performing a task in
groups means that students should put forward their opinion and try
to defend themselves and in many cases they have to make concession
if they are persuaded by the others that their opinion is better.
Students often feel more excited working in groups since they can
talk to a relatively large number of people, and the exchange of
knowledge is bigger than the previous approaches. This preference
can be illustrated by the percentage of choice for working in
groups which accounts for 45% of the total number. However, this
approach also helps lazy students become lazier since these
students can rely on the others in his/ her group. They may not do
anything, contribute no idea but listen to the others or fall
asleep in the middle of the conversation and in the end they still
share the result of the group working as a whole.
Last but not least, it comes to the form of brainstorming with
the whole class in chorus. The number of respondents who feel this
one motivating is not very small which occupies 27%. If teacher
brainstorms with the entire class, students may bravely contribute
their ideas, sometimes very proudly, to the topic on the account of
the fact that there is no obligation, that is they tell what they
know, not what they dont know. If their contribution is appreciated
by the teacher, they may be at high clouds and eager to speak out
their thinking. On the other hand, working as a whole class has
some problems, too. This type of activities may be useful for some
elite students and may be a useless for weak students who just sit
still at their table, having nothing to say.
Thus, as teachers, we should know all good points and bad points
of each approach with the view to applying the best strategy in our
class. The suggestion of this researchs authors is somehow not new
at all which calls for teachers flexibility in their writing class.
Teachers should base on the topic and base on the style of learning
of their students to decide which approach to apply. For easy
writing topics such as describing people or places, working alone
approach can be exploited. And for more complicated ones like
giving directions for using telephone cards or how to win someones
heart, it is better to apply group discussion or class as a whole.
Or when notice that the students are getting bored with the lesson
they are going to fall asleep, teachers should ask them to stand up
and find a new partner different from the one next to them.
With regard to teachers aids, an outstanding number (47%) ticked
at the form of games to be the thing motivating them best in a
writing class. Meanwhile 35% of their peers thought that pictures
would do the job. The two other forms namely teachers spoon feeding
ideas and articles account for 10% and 8% respectively.
A close look at the reasons has found out that many students
love playing games in classroom since it brings them fun and more
energy at the same time with learning something new. They are more
eager to write when they feel they are not working but having fun.
Common sense has it that students perform better when they are
relaxed and free to develop their own likes. The more they laugh,
the more they are easy to be told to do the tasks assigned by
teachers. I myself have an experience to share. During some first
days of the course, a student in my writing class always sat
quietly when I asked her to contribute her ideas to the topics and
then she did not write anything down though all her classmates did
so. One day, I told the class that they did not learn that day but
play only. When the game started and went on, I saw the quiet girl
join the game very noisily and when I asked the class to write down
a topic based on the game, together with others, the girl worked
very industriously on her writing. From the case, it can be noted
that having fun in classroom sometimes creates very encouraging
results.
Paralleling with games, pictures were the choice of many
respondents and the reason is obvious. When looking at the
pictures, students can pick out many details and see clearly what
they can develop on certain topics. Pictures make students have the
feeling that they are working on real things with real English.
However, teacher should be careful not to overuse the two
approaches since that may make students depend too much on fun
without really focusing on study; or in some cases, students are
serious, and are not clearly told about the usefulness of games or
pictures, they may feel it a waste of time. The advice is that once
again teachers should be flexible and choose the appropriate time
to use any of the approaches or in other words, combine them to
make the best use.
Finally, lets look at the aspect of choosing topics. An
overwhelming majority of students preferred to select topics for
their own writing (62%) whereas 27% agreed to have the topics
assigned by the teacher. The others remained neutral.
Since students have free choice of the topics of the writing-
to- be, often the things they are interested in, they may be more
motivated to do the task than being told to work on a theme they
dont like or do not have enough information about. To some extent,
it is good in terms of giving students a sense of being independent
and a feeling of being a grown-up. However, if giving students too
much freedom of selecting their writing topics, it may leads to
negative outcomes. That is students get used to choosing their own
topics, when they take examinations or deal with compulsory topics
such as business letters, notices, or formal announcements, they
may find it hard to produce a worth- reading- piece of writing. So
this means teacher should assign the topics for their listeners? On
one hand, assignments are good for both students and teachers.
Students who often cope with assigned topics may feel its quite
normal when they are asked to write about something they dont like
much. And teachers find it easier to compare the products among
students and therefore easier to evaluate them. However, there
stands a problem. Sometimes, being given topics by the teacher,
students may feel passive and they may not be willing to write,
which, no doubt, means they are discouraged. Thus a question
arises. How to encourage students effectively without
indisciplining them? Good advice is that to motivate students in
writing class, teachers should recognize when is appropriate to use
this method and when to use that method. If they depend too much on
a certain way, it may bring about adverse effects.
One thing we can learn from this section is that every step
requires teachers flexibility since no approach is perfect. As
teachers, we should learn how to combine them worthily and make the
best out of it.
2- While-writing:
A fact that all teachers have to accept is that most of our
students are rather reluctant to write a paragraph or an essay in
the class as well as at home. This is the biggest problem teachers
have to cope with. In other words, how to encourage students to
write is most concerned about whenever we mention writing lesson.
By carrying out the survey on students' opinion and attitudes, we
to some certain extent have found out reasons and solutions to the
problem. In the previous part, we have discussed some methods
teachers can use in pre-writing teaching stage. And in this part,
we will deal with some methods applied in while-writing teaching
stage.
One of the methods we have discovered is that teacher should map
out clear dimensions for students before they really get involved
in writing papers. This means that teacher will be the one who
decides the working style of students. For example, teacher can ask
students to work in different forms such as work in pairs, in
groups, work as a whole class or work individually. This factor
much depends on real situations in each class. In a class with
highly independent students, teacher can let students write
individually whereas teacher cannot manage it in a class with lazy
students. According our survey's results, forty per cent of
respondents when being asked about the form of writing in the class
are favor of developing their own ideas in pairs. This causes a big
surprise!
Result:
Ss opinion on ways of developing ideas during while-writing
process
When we asked students the reason for their choice, they said
that their writing becomes more effective if it is done by two
people at the same time. Of course, we have taken this idea into
consideration. And we have also applied this method in some writing
class. The result has satisfied our expectations. Most of students
when being asked to write a paragraph in pair seem to be more eager
to do their task. Their writing is more perfect with fewer mistakes
and more interesting contents. This means when two people work
together, they will support each other by correcting mistakes
immediately and using perfect words or phrases. That is the reason
why they can produce a perfect writing.
So we can come to conclusion that students prefer to write in
pairs. This helps us in particular and teachers in general a lot
when teaching writing skill. From the result, we will know how to
take activities in the class to make the lesson most effective.
What must teacher do? With obvious dimensions before writing,
teacher also can organize the class by dividing it into small pairs
and tell students limited time to write. In order to avoid the
situation in which two excellent or two weak students are in a
group, teacher can use different ways of forming groups, e.g.
teacher asks students to count from 1 to 2 and make pairs of number
1 and pairs of number 2. In addition, to enhance effectiveness of
writing in pairs, teacher will have to give them common topics
which most of students have something to share with their partners.
Students cannot work in pairs to write a topic like "Describe the
person you like most". Besides, teacher should limit time, the
length of the writing and give clear organization for all of
students when they work in pairs to avoid uneven level because the
excellent pairs are likely to lengthen their writing.
However, developing ideas in pairs is sometimes not easy to do.
For instance, that students are always asked to work in pairs can
bring about bad marks in the final test. The reason for this is
students have to do the test individually meanwhile they are
allowed to write with friends during practice. This is the problem
that teacher should consider. Work in pairs is good to some extent
but not effective when teacher does not know how to get benefits
from it. Sometimes in writing lesson, teacher should let students
write by their own. And sometimes working in groups is also useful.
Thus, to get a very effective writing lesson, teacher should
combine all forms of teaching to apply in each class in a proper
way.
Another method teacher can use is that students can be awarded
if their writing is well done. This is considered a very wonderful
teaching strategy because we have realized that most of students
are eager and excited about writing. The following statistics has
shown this very clearly.
Ss opinion on the effect of awards given by Ts during lesson
The above highest column represents the percentage of
respondents who agree with the fact that there should be always
presents for the best writers. The reason for this result is that
students will feel more attracted when they know there are gifts
waiting for them. In fact, all people like being presented with
gifts. Whenever someone is gifted, they also will be happy and
sometimes it is very easy to ask them to do something. Moreover, it
cannot be denied that if teacher brings gifts to the class and
declares the competition with the prize, students certainly will be
very curious and think that they will do their best to gain gifts
from teacher. Therefore, present brought to the class is very
effective way in order to encourage students to get involved in
writing. It suits the psychology of students who really want to get
gifts. Furthermore, this method also creates a competitive
atmosphere in the class. All students will think that they must
make great effort to get presents. Because they do not want to get
left behind their friends. Obviously, awards such as small books,
stories.... can stimulate students' eagerness to lessons in general
and to writing lesson in particular. In general, this is the
effective teaching tip. However, teacher must consider the way of
taking activities because not all students are hardworking or eager
to write. In some cases, some still refuse to write even though
there are presents to award the best students. In these
circumstances, teacher must be tactful. Teacher can divide the
class into small groups. In each group, there are excellent and
lazy students working together. When being in groups, maybe lazy
students will have a spirit of team. And because of team spirit,
these lazy students will cooperate with their group's partners to
gain the prize. Clearly, this way not only helps students enhance
their writing skill but also improve their responsibility. Thus,
teacher always plays a very significant role in the lesson because
only she or he knows how to control and adjust the class into the
right orbit.
The third method teacher should take into consideration is the
teaching tools or materials. When being asked about materials
students like to use in writing lessons, 72 per cent of respondents
are interested in using special papers and pens to write.
Ss agreement to the use of teaching tools distributed by Ts in
classes
The reason they have given is very simple. They said that
special papers and pens can make them feel more interested in
writing. And their writing at that time seems to be a work.
Moreover, some students emphasize that they will feel more
responsible when writing on beautiful papers with different special
pens such as colored pencils, crayons, etc.
So the different teaching materials can help teacher a lot
encourage students to write. We will give an example to illustrate
its positive sides. During the time attending REI's class - a
teaching approach class we have observed the various ways of
teaching writing skill. The teacher prepared small pieces of cards
and many boxes of crayons. Those cards are in different colors,
which attracted all of us. We remember that we had to learn the
ways of writing a paragraph about meals. At first, teacher gave
each of us a card with favorite color. She asked us to use crayons
to draw pictures showing our favorite dishes. Teacher only gave us
five minutes drawing. We realized that all of us really
concentrated on our work. We chose suitable colors to draw on their
favorite cards. After five minutes, we were required to exchange
cards. At this time, teacher asked us to write a short paragraph
describing partner's favorite dishes. This was very interesting
work for us to do. Because we are not only had a chance to admire
the "drawing ability of our friends" but also had opportunities to
improve our writing skill. Finally, teacher asked us to exchange
the cards once more time to correct mistakes. In this step, we were
given a chance to see pictures and read paragraph as well as
enhance our ability to analyze words or structures to finish peer
correction. Then cards were given back to their owners. So one
thing we can learn from American teacher is that she is very
creative when using beautiful teaching materials which easily catch
students' eyes. This makes students feel enjoyable and stimulate
their desire to write. Moreover, choosing their favorite cards and
colored pens also makes them think that they are concerned. They do
writing with pleasant attitudes without feeling of any compulsion.
This is the most important thing when teaching any subject
especially teaching writing skill. When we do anything without
feeling of compulsion, we can reach the target easily. That's why
teacher should prepare carefully to work out their plans in the
class so as to arouse attraction, funs and eagerness to students
whenever they get into writing process.
In addition to three above-mentioned methods, teacher can use
other ways to encourage students to write during lesson. But the
important thing whenever teacher gives out an activity is whether
his or her activity is suitable with students' levels. If it does
not proper, we get nothing at the end of the lesson. Therefore,
teacher must always pay attention to this point. For example, with
elementary level, when teaching students to write a postcard to be
sent to their friends, teacher first must show a model postcard to
students. She or he should explain the way of writing contents, the
form that students can imitate. Especially, teacher has to
emphasize on using suitable words, phrases or structures. And then
teacher can give each student a postcard and ask them to write
basing on the model one.
However, at intermediate level, teacher can use way of altering
dictation. It means that teacher will dictate some sentences about
her or his habits or interests. But when listening to the teacher,
students must change each sentence to suit their own interests.
Obviously, this helps students develop both listening skill and
writing skill.
In short, there are many methods teacher can use to encourage
and motivate students during writing process. But to achieve a very
effective lesson, teacher must consider carefully before taking any
activity. The consideration here means whether teacher's activity
draws on students' attention or suits students' level or not. This
is the most significant and decisive factor to help teacher succeed
in her or his lesson.
3- . Post-writing:
No doubt, giving feedback is a sensitive issue that teachers
should lay stress on. When you receive written book, we normally
correct and comment on it and give it back. The question is what we
should do to avoid de-motivating students next writing.
This part discusses various problems associated with how
teachers can give feedback on original writing in English without
any de-motivation and discouragement of students.
Such questions as What should feedback be mainly on: Language?
Content? Organization?; Should learners rewrite, incorporating
corrections?; Should all mistakes be corrected?; Should we let
students correct or give feedback on each others written work?; How
do teachers comments affect students writing interest? are of great
concern. However, for the limited scope we study, the three last
questions should be focused on.
1. Teachers comments:
Ss opinion on ways of checking mistakes in classes
As can be seen in the above bar chart, most of students prefer
to have their teacher check (nearly 80), whereas the percentage of
students would like to have their work checked by themselves and by
their classmates are equal, only 11%. The number shows that
Vietnamese students take up this habit when they are at school.
Moreover, this can be explained by the aspect of psychology. They
may feel shy when their mistakes are exposed.
In fact, correcting written work is very time-consuming
particularly if we have large classes. One possible solution is to
let students correct and edit each others. They may not be able to
see or define all the all the good qualities or shortcomings of an
assignment, but they, but they will detect at least some of them.
The problem is: will students feel uncomfortable correcting, or
being corrected by their peers? Will they accept criticism
(positive or negative) from each other?
In general, peer-correction can be a time saving and useful
technique; also, critical reading for style, content and language
accuracy is a valuable exercise in itself. This does not release
teachers from the duty of checking and evaluating students writing;
but it can be a substitute for first draft reading. Students can
work together on their first drafts, giving each other feedback on
content, language and organization; they then rewrite and give in
the final version to the teacher.
The question of personal relationships, trusts and willingness
to accept criticism and help from one another remains. This is not
a problem that can be solved by particular teaching techniques; it
depends on the general classroom climate, which in its turn is
created by the attitudes of both students and teachers.
2. Should all mistakes be corrected?
Ss attitude to the number of mistakes checked in lessons
The majority of students (60%) disagree with correcting every
mistake in written work; however, a small number, accounting for
35%, believes teachers should correct all mistakes. The rest had no
ideas.
If we accept that language (including punctuation) should be
corrected; another problem arises: should all language mistakes be
noted, even if therere so many that the page will be covered with
corrections? If not, how do we judge which to relate for which
not?
The problem is one of potential conflict between two of our
functions as teachers: Language instruction versus support and
encouragement of learning. The correction of mistakes is part of
the language instruction but too much of it can be discouraging and
demoralizing. Also, over-emphasis on language mistakes can distract
both learners and teachers attention from the equally important
aspects of content or organization.
Some kind of compromise is obviously called for, which will vary
according to context. In principle, it would seem reasonable to say
that language mistakes should be ignored if there is a danger that
to correct them would hinder learning more than help it. We might
correct only mistakes that actually affect meaning ( that is),
might lead to misunderstanding or confusion on the part of the
reader), and / or those which are very basic; or of course, vary
our response according to individual need.
3. How should teachers correct the written work?
Ss opinion on the influence of Ts comments on their writing
The number of students thinks teachers comment had positive and
negative influence on students writing interest are 49% and 46%
respectively. The others remain neutral. Figures indicate that this
matter is of great controversial, thus, it is necessary for
teachers to find out solution.Most students find it very
dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is
covered in red ink, underlining and cross-out. It is a powerful
visual statement of the fact that their written English is
terrible.
Of course, some pieces of written work are completely full
mistakes, but even in these cases, over-correction can have a very
de-motivating effect. As with all types of correction, the teacher
has to achieve a balance between being accurate and truthful on the
one hand and treating students sensitively and sympathetically on
the other.
One way of avoiding the over-correction problem is teachers tell
their students that for a particular piece of work they are only
going to correct mistakes of punctuation, or spelling, or grammar
etc. This has two advantages: it makes students concentrates on
that particular aspects, and it cuts down on the correction.
Another technique which many teachers use is to agree on a list
of written symbols ( S = spelling, WO = word order etc). When they
come across a mistake they underline it discreetly and write the
symbol in the margin. This makes correction look less damaging.
However many mistakes you want to identify, it is always worth
writing a comment at the end of a piece of written work - anything
from well done to this is a good story, but you must look again at
your use of past tense - see X grammar book, page 00.
Two last points: correcting is important, but it can be
time-consuming and frustrating, especially when it is difficult to
know what the mistake is because it is unclear what the student is
trying to say. Common sense and talking to students about it are
the only solutions here. The other really important point is that
correction is worthless if students just put their corrected
writing away and never look at it again. Teachers have to ensure
that they understand the problem and then redraft the passage
correctly.
Conclusion
When English is increasingly used globally, the need to learn it
also upsoars. In the process of acquiring a language of learners,
teachers play a vital role. Apart from mastering English, they
should learn how to motivate their learners. Sometimes motivation
is indispensable to the success of students, especially in terms of
writing ability.
We want to conclude our research by displaying an opinion about
good teachers: Good teachers are those in some way push me to want
to give of my best!
References
1. Penny Ur. A course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University
Press, 1991.
2. Bernal Spolsky. Conditions for Second language
learning,1989.
3. Martin Parrott. Tasks for Language teachers. Cambridge
University Press, 1993.
4. Jonathan Chandler, and Mark Stone. The resourceful English
teacher. Oxford University Press, 1999.
5. Brown, H.Douglas. Teaching by principles. Prentice Hall
Regents, 1994.
6. Harmer, J. How to teach English. Longman, 1998.
7. Paul, D. & Eric, P. Success in English teaching. Oxford
University Press, 2000.
8. Snow, M. A. Teaching English as a Second Foreign Language.
Heine & Heine.
9. Freeman & Larsen, D. Techniques and Principles in
language teaching. Oxford University Press, 2000.
10. Doff, A. Teach English. Cambridge University Press,
1998.
Appendix
Questionnaires
1. When brainstorming, you prefer to work
A. by your ownB. in pairs
C. in groupsD. as a whole class
2. In terms of teachers aid, which of the following would
motivate you best?
A. Teachers ideasB. Pictures
C. ArticlesD. Games
3. Among a range of ideas on the same topic, do you want to use
the ideas assigned by your teacher?
A. YesB. No ideas
C. No
4. While writing, you would like to develop your ideas
A. by your ownB. in pairs
C. in groupsD. all A + B + C
5. Do you think you are more likely to get involved in writing
if you receive an award for the best written afterwards?
A. YesB. No ideas
C. No
6. Would you prefer to use plain sheets of papers and normal
pens to special papers and pens?
A. Plain sheets of papers and normal pens
B. Special papers and colored pens
Please clarify your answer:
7. After finishing your writing, do you want it to be checked
by:
A. yourselfB. your classmate
C. your teacher
8. Should all mistakes be corrected?
A. YesB. No
C. No ideas
9. How do teachers comments affect your writing interest?
A. positivelyB. negatively
C. Not at all
Appendix
1.
Brainstorming ideas By your ownIn pairsIn groupsAs a whole
class
13%
15%45%27%
Table 1: Ss ideas on ways of brainstorming during while-writing
process
2.
Motivating factorsTeachers ideasPicturesArticlesGames
10%
35%8%47%
Table 2: Ss opinion on the impact of motivating factors given by
teachers writing classes
3.
Ss opinionYesNo No ideas
27%
11%62%
Table 3: Ss opinion on using topics assigned by Ts
4.
Developing ideas(A)
By your own(B)
In pairs(C)
In groupsAll (A) + (B) + (C)
26%
47%18%9%
Table 4: Ss opinion on ways of developing ideas during
while-writing process
5.
Ss ideas opinionYesNo ideasNo
77%
9%14%
Table 5: Ss opinion on the effect of awards given by Ts during
lesson
6.
Teaching toolsPlain papers and normal pensSpecial papers and
pens
28%
72%
Table: Ss agreement to the use of teaching tools distributed by
Ts in classes
7.
Mistake correctionBy yourselfBy your classmateBy your
teacher
11%
11%78%
Table 7: Ss opinion on ways of checking mistakes in classes
8.
Ss attitudeYesNoNo ideas
35%
60%5%
Table 8: Ss attitude to the number of mistakes checked in
lessons
9.
Ts comments on SswritingPositivelyNegativelyNot at all
49%
46%5%
Table 9: Ss opinion on the influence of Ts comments on their
writing
N.B.: Ss = Students
Ts = Teachers
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