Phương pháp gia tăng hiệu quả của Đề án tạp chí tiếng Anh trong việc học bút ngữ cho sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh tại Khoa Ngoại ngữ - Đại học Thái Nguyê

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THI ̣ BÍCH NGỌC METHODS TO INCREAS

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THI ̣ BÍCH NGỌC

METHODS TO INCREASE THE ENGLISH

MAGAZINE PROJECT POWER IN THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH WRITTEN LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF

FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAINGUYEN

UNIVERSITY

(Phương pha ́ p gia tăng hiê ̣u quả của Đề án ta ̣p chí Tiếng Anh trong viê ̣c học bút ngữ cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh ta ̣i Khoa Ngoa ̣i Ngữ,

Đa ̣i ho ̣c Thái Nguyên)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 601410

HANOI-2011

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THI ̣ BÍCH NGỌC

METHODS TO INCREASE THE ENGLISH

MAGAZINE PROJECT POWER IN THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH WRITTEN LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF

FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAINGUYEN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements………

Abstract………

Table of contents………

List of charts and tables………

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Background of the study ………

2 Problem identification………

3 Aims of the study………

4 Methodology………

5 Scope of the study………

6 Significance of the study………

7 Structure of the study………

8 Definitions of concepts ………

9 Conclusion ………

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Project-based learning ………

1.2 Different types of project in learning written language ………

1.3 The necessity of English Magazine Project to the study of written language………

1.4 Challenges of project-based learning ………

1.5 Portfolios in writing ………

1.6 Conclusion ………

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Rationale for the use of an action research………

2.2 Background of the study………

2.3 Instruments………

2.4 Research program………

(i) (ii) (iii) (v)

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2.5 Procedures………

2.6 Conclusion ………

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS 3.1 Possible problems for students and teachers which prevented the project from effective implementation ………

3.2 Students‟ problems in the two first week magazine columns …………

3.3 Comparison of the students‟ writing performance before and after using portfolios.……….… …………

3.4 Conclusion ……….… …………

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Discussion of research questions………

2 Pedagogical implications………

3 Limitations of the study………

4 Suggestions for further study………

5 Conclusion………

REFERENCES………

APPENDICES ………

1 Questionnaire ………

2 Interview ……… ……

3 Overview of the research program ……… ……

4 Group action plans ……… ……

5 Writing collections ……… ……

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LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Table 1………

Table 2………

Table 3………

Table 4………

Table 5………

Chart 1………

Chart 2………

Chart 3………

Chart 4………

Chart 5………

Table 6………

Table 7………

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Part A: INTRODUCTION

This part will briefly state the background of the study, the problem initiating the study, the aims of the study, methodology of the study (including participants and procedures), its scope, significance and structure

1 Background of the study

Currently, project-based learning is applied in a rather large scale of language teaching worldwide and is considered to be a new effective approach to L2 learning and teaching The types of project can vary according to certain purposes of teaching, of which some popular ones are magazine project, excursion project, culture project and television show Among these, English Magazine project (EMA) is to develop students‟ four integrated skills but particularly focuses on written English (reading and writing) In this kind of project, students are required, in groups, to design their own magazines with typical columns as professional ones Topics are varied depending on the magazine themes and students‟ interests Students perform their ability and creativeness on the writing of different styles and topics The teacher acts as a guide for providing feedback and advice to students‟ work

Over the last few years, there have been a number of studies on project-based learning Most of them focus on the benefits or advantages of PBL in teaching English as a second language (North, 1990; Vincent, 1990; Alan and Stoller, 2003; Yan Guo, 2007); others concern the steps in a project work (Stoller, 1995), Project-based learning and assessment (Mansoor, 1997) or Project-based Learning Activities (Foss, Carney, McDonald and Rooks, 2007) However, it is hard to know how many teachers have been tried out this approach and how they implement it in the actual context of classroom There are few studies on the implementation of certain project reported by language teachers and there are not many papers stating their satisfactions or their wishes to change the method of teaching The application of the EMA is not an exception since there seems not to have any paper discussing it in detail

It is, therefore, necessary that the idea of looking into the actual experience of teachers

in implementing projects in general and EMA project in particular needs further investigation

English Magazine project has been applied as a part of the curriculum at Foreign Languages Faculty, Thai Nguyen University (FLF-TNU) for approximately five years The project was developed from the cooperation between Vietnam and Netherland in Education Eight selected universities in Vietnam have been taking part in the Profession-Oriented Higher Education (POHE) since 2005 The FLF-TNU was the first experiment of this Project It aimed at delivering better-trained graduates with a professional attitude Different from the old methods, this project focuses on students‟ competencies needed at workplace and takes them to be center of learning Therefore, it will provide students with

a professional higher education necessary for their career

During the time of taking part in the project, the students have to do various compulsory projects in which they role-play different careers, such as actors, journalists, advisers, tour guides, and master of ceremony These projects help them improve their linguistic skills and the ability to produce English in real life The students are free to choose one of the obligatory projects to finish within a term or a school-year Beside some necessary skills, working-in-group competence was appreciated The teachers play as supervisors, observers and evaluators of the students‟ process and products At the end of the year, the students have to make presentations to introduce and convince the audience of their products

EMA is one of the projects aiming at developing students‟ writing competence in English It has been officially included in the training program and students can register to take part in the course The prerequisite of the course is that students have completed their course in English Written Proficiency at intermediate level EMA is conducted at the same time with students‟ course in Advanced Writing

The Project is done on registered groups of students within one semester of 15 weeks During the first two weeks, teachers will guide students to work together to decide on the themes and main content of the magazine as well as break down their work into weeks (See Appendix 3)

During the following weeks, students work in their group to write the magazine columns They may set their group meeting time, go out to collect data and conduct peer-feedback within the group The class meets once a week so that teachers can give feedback

to his/her students‟ writing The class consists of around 35 students broken down into five

to seven smaller groups Therefore; the teacher would have at least seven drafts to revise each week The feedback is conducted during the class time of 100 minutes (2 periods) per week The teacher reads the drafts, detects students‟ problems in organization, punctuation, word choice, spelling and grammar He or she then suggests choices for better writing

2 Problem identification

Taking the role of an instructor for several groups of students during her three years

of working with the project, the researcher has found some problems that prevent the project from taking its effectiveness

One of the problems is that students‟ team work seems to be not quite effective They rarely do group-editing as required and rely too much on teacher‟s feedback Some even commit plagiarism As a result, little improvement was displayed in their writing

Another problem is time pressure on the part of teacher to give feedback to all groups of students The actual time for class contact seldom meets the need of editing The teacher, therefore, did a hard work not only in class but also at home so as to give essential feedback to students‟ articles

Inspired by those obstacles, ideas for changes were outlined and an action research was done in the researcher‟s class A new teaching plan was designed to increase students‟ activeness and their effectiveness in group work The plan was intended to consist of two parts: increasing the students‟ group-editing before handing in the paper to teacher for feedback and controlling students‟ work of writing, editing and reading through weeks by portfolios

3 Aims of the study

The study on “Methods to increase the English Magazine Project (EMA) power in the study of English written language for English major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University: An action reseach” was carried out with a view to:

- Finding out the main obstacles toward the empowerment of the project for both teachers and students

- Bringing the effective intervention to help improve students’ performance in the project

The research focused on the following research questions:

1 What problems do teachers and students face when working with the project?

2 What changes that might help enhancing the project revealed from the problems?

3 Can the teacher‟s interventions help save her time and improve students‟ performance in EMA project? If yes, to what extend?

4 Methodology

4.1 Participants

The subjects of the study were 30 students of English major at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University They have all achieved the intermediate proficiency level after their two years at the college These 30 students were in the same class and the researcher was the guide of the group during the project work

During the study, the researcher acts as a participant observer and other teachers cooperate with the researcher in the study

Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively

Some parts of the questionnaire were converted into statistics, numbers and percentage in the form of tables and charts for the purpose of comparing and analyzing The number of errors in students‟ writings was also calculated for comparison and contrast

Students and teachers‟ responses to interviews were collected in the form of notes; extracts from students‟ journal writings and collected readings were quoted as evidences for the analysis; classroom activities and students‟ reactions were observed and described

by teacher‟s diary

* Procedures:

Initially, informal interviews and a questionnaire were delivered to students and teachers at the faculty to see their attitude towards the project and the problems they met during the first four weeks of the course Students‟ articles within the first two weeks were analyzed to find out further problems

After changes were applied in the selected group of students, the interview was repeated among teachers and students Student‟s final drafts in their portfolios of the last two weeks were reviewed for comparison

5 Scope of the study

The study is limited to investigating the methods to increase the EMA project power in the study of English written language for English major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University The study only focused on written language competence of students and the target population of the study, therefore, was students who have achieved their intermediate level – the required proficiency for them to do the EMA project

The study was carried out on the subjects of 30 intermediate students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University

6 Significance of the study

The results of the study will bring about a successful implementation to the EMA project from which students could have their clear and logical plan for work, build up team spirit and group work skills and of course improve their writing competence Moreover, if the changes take positive effects, teacher‟s time work could be reduced and EMA project will be a truly interesting and practical field for students to practice

7 Structure of the study

This study consists of three parts

Part A: Introduction

This part provides an overview of the study, including the background, aims, the methodology, the scope, the significance, the structure of the study and the definitions of terms related to the research

Part B: Development

This parts includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review

This chapter presents the literature of Project Based Learning such as types of projects in learning written language, English Magazine Project, merits and the possible challenges of PBL and issues related to the implementation of portfolios in ELT

Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter is a detailed discussion of the method used in the study It presents a thorough justification for choice of an action research and gives a thorough description of the research‟s components, as well as the research program

Chapter 3: Findings

This chapter presents the findings of the study This part is apparently important because it justifies the effectiveness of the research

Chapter 5: Discussion and Implications

This chapter discusses the findings of the study, provides pedagogical implications, as well as presents limitations of the research It also makes recommendations for further research in the same field

8 Definitions of concepts

Project – based learning: Project-based learning is an instructional approach that

contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop (Donna, 1998)

English magazine project: This kind of project is typical for learning written

language In this project, students create their own magazine by designing, writing and applying community involvement and teamwork skills and critical thinking (Tal & Rishpi, 1998)

Group-editing: a teaching technique in which students work in groups, read, and

comment on each other's written work

Portfolios: Kemp and Toperoff (1998) specify that a portfolio is a living, growing

collection of student‟s work – each addition is carefully selected by the student for a specific reason which she/he will explain The overall purpose of the portfolio is enable the student to demonstrate to others learning and progress The greatest value of portfolios is that, in building them, students become active participants in the learning process and its assessment

9 Conclusion

Part A has provided an overview of the study, including the background information of the study, the aims of the study, methodology of the study, its scope, its significance and the structure of the study paper The next chapter, chapter 2, is a literature review in which the researcher would like to discuss some features of project-based learning, EMA project as well as the use of portfolios and group-editing in teaching writing from the literature of methodology and language teaching

Part B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In part A, the main content of the study was discussed In chapter 1 of part B, the researcher would like to present the theoretical background of the study including the basic concepts of Project Based Learning (PBL) such as types of projects in learning written language, English Magazine Project (EMA), merits and the possible challenges of PBL and issues relating to the use of portfolios in language teaching

1.1 Project-based learning

1.1.1 Definition of project-based learning

There have been several definitions of project-based learning Although they are under the outlook of different scholars, each has contributed to form typical features of Project-based learning

Donna and Duzer (1998, p.1) define “Project-based learning is an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop.” For example, learners may research adult education resources in their

community and create a handbook to share with other language learners in their program,

or they might interview local employers and then create a bar graph mapping the employers, responses to questions about qualities they look for in employees

Booth (1986, p.3) claimed that in a project work, at least four types of authenticity

are necessarily present: authenticity of language input, authenticity of task, authenticity of event, and authenticity of learner experience Therefore, project work provides one

solution to the problem of learner autonomy, of making the learner responsible for his all learning By its very nature, project work places the responsibility on the students, both as individuals and as members of a co-operative learning group Autonomy becomes a fact of life

Thomas (2000) wrote “Project-based learning (PBL) is a model that organizes learning around projects.” He defined projects as “complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making or investigate activities; give students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminate in realistic products or presentations.” (p.1)

The author of this research would like to state a definition which defines based learning as an approach which moves the classroom out in to the world by creating internal motivation and giving students products to develop The approach, therefore, helps

project-shorten the gap between the classroom language and the lively language in the real world which is needed for their future work

1.1.2 Advantages of project-based learning

Booth (1997) appreciated the benefits of PBL in terms of its practical effect as to help bridge the gap between the language the students are taught and the language they in fact require Mean while, Thomas et al (1999) emphasized that PBL could meet the demands of learners who own diversified skill levels and learning styles

Gallacher (n.d.) stated ten advantages of project-based learning as follows:

Increased motivation Learners become personally involved in the project

All four skills Reading, writing, listening and speaking are integrated

Autonomous learning is promoted as learners become more responsible for their

own learning

There are learning outcomes Learners have an end product

Authentic tasks and therefore the language inputs are more authentic

Interpersonal relations are develop through working as a group

Content and methodology can be decided between the learners and the teacher

and within the group themselves so it is more learner-centered

Learners often get help from parents for project work thus involving the parents

more in the child‟s learning If the project is also displayed, parents can see it at open days

or when they pick the child from school

A break from routine and the chance to do something different

A context is established which balances the need for fluency and accuracy

(Haines, 1989)

1.1.3 Steps in project work

In order to have a good product, a project needs to follow a number of steps Stoller (1995) provide a ten-step project to maximize the benefits of project work The ten steps are described as follows:

Step 1: Students and their instructor agree on a theme for project:

Students choose their own theme and discuss with their instructor to come to an agreement Teachers might make reference on readings, videos, discussions, and classroom activities, which helps students choose their theme of project and shape their own work

Step 2: Students and their instructor determine the final outcome of the project:

The teacher will explain what the students have to do and report their result with some suggestions (e.g., bulletin board display, written report, debate, brochure, letter,

handbook, oral presentation…).In addition, they negotiate the most appropriate audience for their projects (e.g., classmates, other students, parents,…)

Step 3: Students and their instructor structure the project:

Students and their instructor work out project details from the beginning to the completion of the project In this step, students assign themselves with different roles, responsibilities in groups Consensus is also inevitable in choosing themes, timing for each step in the process

Step 4: Instructor prepares students for the demands of information gathering:

It is necessary to prepare students for language, skills and strategy demands associated with information gathering Basing on the students‟ level and theme, the instructor chooses an appropriate way to give instructions and prepares skills for students

Step 5: Students gather information

Students use different methods, such as interviewing, letter writing; using the library and internet to gather information The instructor can also suggest some resources for students to gather information

Step 6: Instructor prepares students to compile and analyze data:

Students use some skills to compile, analyze and synthesize the information they have just collected The instructor prepares some skills for students, for example: categorizing, making comparisons or using graphic organizer to perform their information

Step 7: Students compile and analyze information

Working in groups, students organize information and discuss the value of data that they have collected They can decide to keep some and reject others The information must

be useful for their goal of project

Step 8: Instructor prepares students for the language demands of the final activities

At this step, the instructor designs some language activities for the students to help them successfully present the final outcome of the project Those activities may focus on oral language skills, written language skills, editing or persuasive skills

Step 9: Students present the final product

In groups, students present the final outcome of their planned project

Step 10: Students evaluate their project

At this last step, students must have a reflection on their work: what is good? What could be better? They also need the instructor‟s feedback about their language and content learning so that they can succeed in similar projects in the future

Although there may be various way to carry out a project due to the distinctive features of each subject, these ten steps of project work are preferred by most students and have been considered to be the ten basic and most effective steps in doing project

1.2 Different types of project in learning written language

Project is a kind of creative work Therefore, each instructor is free to design his own class project so long as his projects are suitable for the students and the framework of the course However, all projects have to reach some criteria (Foss and Carney, 2006):

1 Encourage the development of four English skills

2 Encourage the building of educational technology skills

3 Be focused on the relationship between science and ethics

Following are the descriptions of two different types of projects that I myself have taken part in Although the two projects have merits and demerits, they are considered one

of the best activities to learn written language:

1 The Magazine Project

2 The Literature Project

The Magazine project

This kind of project is typical for learning written language In this project, students create their own magazine by designing, writing and applying community involvement and teamwork skills and critical thinking (Tal & Rishpi, 1998) Reading and creating magazines give students a chance to extend their reading and writing skills and even the literary skills This is an interesting job which requires patience and motivation Therefore, when students can interact with the outside world in their second language to help them publish their own product, they will realize the benefits of learning written language Furthermore, this project also demands flexibility because students must act as journalists They must not only have a perfect writing without error but also choose for their magazine hot topics, themes and attractive headlines In addition, this type of project allows various levels of English, from intermediate to advance

For the purpose of this program, the researching, interviewing, writing and editing components of magazine project must ensure that all the four English skills, especially written language skills, are used Also, the designing process needs technological skills to

be used flexibly

The Literature Project

Similar to the magazine project, this type of project pays much more attention to reading and writing skills than speaking and listening skills In this project, students have a

chance to study the most typical and famous novels in the world They choose for themselves a novel, a theme or a historical period of time in the literature development of a nation or language for analysis and review However, this project seems to be more difficult and requires a higher level of reading and writing skills than the above mentioned project Therefore, students who like outdoor activities will probably be bored with this kind of project Another disadvantage of this project is that it does not demand high technological skills Students just need to know some basic skills and the way to use Microsoft Word to produce their writing

After choosing their topics, it is important to search for materials on the Internet or the library This work requires patience because students can find a huge number of references online or in the library However, they need a lucid mind when choosing for themselves reliable resources In addition, reading and understanding the novel also take students a lot of time Nonetheless, when doing this project, students are free to show their personal ideas and criticism about the novel they have chosen That may be a new discovery, personal feelings, ideas or even the ideas of some famous critics published long before Finally, they build their own writings using writing skills that the instructor or their teachers have prepared for them

1.3 The necessity of English Magazine Project to the study of written language

Learning written language is generally considered the most difficult and boring skill for the learner to master, especially the written foreign language It is the traditional methods which have been used in teaching language for a long time that make most learners feel unmotivated and bored A severe request of the accuracy in grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary makes the learners frustrated Specially, to produce writing, students need

to process many complicated stages which lead to confusion easily Thus, it is important to require a new interesting method that helps the learner feel excited about learning written language

Lack of motivation and interest is a common problem for learning written language Thus, although written language plays an important part in learners‟ future careers, they still tend to give it up It is generally agreed that motivation must originate from students‟ interest and needs Many researchers demonstrate the benefit of focusing on students‟ needs and interest in developing language lessons because they will probably stimulate their motivation and interest in learning (Kendir, 2005)

English Magazine Project may, therefore, be the suitable choice for the case Paralleled with the formal writing lessons in class, the project is a useful ground for students to perform not only their writing competence but also their interest and creativeness on a variety of text genres

1.4 Challenges of project-based learning

Booth (1986) presents certain problems that teachers may face These are:

1 Organization Projects do create extra work The teacher may find it difficult to

keep up with regular lesson planning and with the preparation and marking involved Projects require additional commitment, e.g in establishing contacts, finding suitable sources for material, etc

2 Monitoring Students using language outside the classroom need a teacher to

keep track of what they are doing This means that strategies have to be devised for checking systematically on what the student has heard, learnt and understood And, of course, what he or she may have said while conducting the project

Some of the burden of monitoring can be shifted onto the students themselves,

by providing checklists (e.g for new vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, etc) and project report forms Where available, audio and video recording equipment can also be used to help in assessing the students‟ performance

3 Personal problems The teacher needs to be ready to help the students deal with

difficulties such as the following, which may arise at any stage of the project Lack of interest or motivation among certain members of the group; a general loss of motivation resulting from “overkill”, i.e too intense a pace during the early stages of the project; fear of being unable to cope with the new language demands; disappointment with specific features of the work, e.g unsuccessful interview

Thomas (2000) reported three kinds of challenges involving students, teachers and school factors

1 Challenges encountered by students

Thomas reviewed the studies by Krajcik, Bluemenfeld, Marx, Bass, Fredrick and Soloway (1998) and Edelson, Pea and Gordon (1999), in which the commonly reported challenges for students were skills to conduct a scientific study such as generating meaningful scientific questions, managing complexity and time, transforming data, and

developing a logical argument to support claims Other problems found in those studies include access to technology necessary for the accomplishment of the project and failure to work in a team

2 Challenges encountered by teachers

Marx et al (1997) described teachers‟ problems in the implementation of project-based learning as follows:

* Time Projects often take longer than anticipated In addition, teachers have to

compromise the official requirements of the schools, or curriculum with the time to carry out in-depth approaches such as Project-Based Learning

* Classroom management In order for students to work productively, teachers

must balance the need to allow students to work on their own with the need to maintain order

* Control Teachers often feel the need to control the flow of information while at

the same time believing that students‟ understanding requires that they build their own understanding

* Support of students’ learning Teachers have difficulty scaffolding students‟

activities, sometimes give them too much independence or too little modeling and feedback

* Technology use Teachers have difficulty incorporating technology in the

classroom, especially as a cognitive tool

* Assessment Teachers have difficulty designing assessments that require students

to demonstrate their understanding

3 Challenges associated with school factors

Not every school or educational institution is primarily designed for implementing PBL Therefore, the challenges associated with school factors are reported in almost all projects Some of these are fixed and inadequate resources inflexible schedules, and incompatible technology (Edelson et al, 1999), class size and composition, the circular policy (Bluemenfeld et al, 1994), limitations on time available for learning, and the perceived need on the part of teachers to structure time in order to cover other academic subjects (Hertzog, 1994)

I would like to conclude, however, on a positive note Problems and difficulties do exist and vary in certain circumstances of classroom, but they must be seen from the right perspective For PBL, particularly EMA project in my teaching context, I do feel certain

problems that might or might not be identical to those stated above and that require additional work of the teachers to detect and learn ways to cope with them

1.5 Portfolios in writing

In this section, the researcher would like to discuss some theoretical background of portfolios in writing including the definition of portfolio, its content and some principles in developing portfolios

1.5.1 Definition of Portfolio

The development of portfolios in education has been shown in a wide variety of definitions by different researchers Some considered portfolios simply as a summary of a student‟s learning accomplishments; others focus on their purposes and features, including the merits of the strategies, their content and their implementation (Wiener and Cohen, 1997; Richter, 1997; Karoly, 1996; Snider and Devito, 1994)

In the view of portfolios as a part of an assessment program, Arter and Spandell in

1992 defined portfolios as “a purposeful collection of student‟s works that tells the story of student‟s efforts, progress or achievement.” Freeman and Lewis (1998) viewed portfolios

as “a collection of materials assembled by students to demonstrate achievement.”

Much broader in scope, other definitions suggested that portfolios should be a comprehensive, self-reflective record of a student‟s strengths and weaknesses

Within the scope of our study, we would like to offer a definition for our students‟

writing portfolios that is a collection of students’ work in which their efforts and process in learning can be seen The portfolios includes the group‟s first draft of one or more

magazine column(s), an article of the similar type to the column, comments and error corrections from other group members and students‟ final draft of the magazine column Portfolios will be collected on a weekly basis

1.5.2 The content of portfolios

A number of researchers have discussed the instance of portfolio content However, it should be noted that the actual content of portfolios depends on certain classroom context as well as the intended purposes which are normally initiated teachers

On discussing generic portfolios, Freeman and Lewis (1998) included completed assignments, copies of learning contracts, notes, drawings, diaries, project reports, charts, posters, software, certificates and students self-assessment in their list of assemble materials Karoly (1996) listed on her case study not only drafts of essays, stories and research projects, written and illustrated book reports, photograph displays, quizzes and

exams but also a variety of constructed items such as pyramid, stool, Indian village and weathervane accompanied by written narratives on their construction

In 2001, Bailey and Guskey suggested that the content of portfolios should have relationships with students‟ selection of portfolios contents and student self-reflection Students were involved in identifying strengths in their work, tracing the process they experienced, identifying the feedback they received, and identifying the distinctive qualities of their work

Nunes (2004) listed the five categories of portfolios which include found samples, processed samples, revision of samples, reflections and portfolio projects

According to Kemp and Toperpff (1998), a portfolio must include all of the followings: (i) cover letter

(ii) table of contents

(iii) entries

(iv) dates

(v) drafts

(vi) and reflections

In brief, the content of portfolios is varied according to different specific studies However, as stated before, the content of a certain portfolio should base on the real context

of the classroom and the intended goals of the course

1.6 Conclusion

Chapter 2 has reviewed some theoretical issues of project-based learning, English magazine project and the challenges of carrying out a project work

In short, project-based learning in general and English magazine project in particular seem

to be an advantage and a solution to the learning of English written language However, in order to have an effective project work, teachers and students need to prepare themselves for the possible problems and then find ways to eliminate them as discovering more about the project during the implementation

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

In the following part, the researcher provides a detailed description of the researcher‟s methodology Firstly, the justification for the use of an action research will be presented

2.1 Rationale for the use of an action research

Teachers in general and teachers of English in particular actually carry out action research for most of their time Whenever s/he identifies a problem which is happening in the class, it is his/her task to find ways to solve that problem Therefore, action research is inevitably a very common practice

As defined by Kemmis & McTaggart (1988) “action research is deliberate, solution oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted It is characterized by spiraling cycles of problem identification, systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem redefinition.” The linking of the terms "action" and "research" highlights the essential features of this method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving

curriculum, teaching, and learning

Mettetal G stated that “Classroom Action Research is research designed to help a

teacher find out what is happening in his or her classroom, and to use that information to make wise decisions for the future Methods can be qualitative or quantitative, descriptive

or experimental

Nunan (1992) defines the framework of a research as consisting of seven steps:

 Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

 Step 2: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

 Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research questions)

 Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

 Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)

 Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshops or issuing a paper)

 Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)

Action research is conducted widely due to its advantages that cannot be denied When comparing it with other kinds of research, we can see its advantages more clearly

Table 1: Differences between Action Research and Formal Research

Topic Formal research Action Research

Training needed by

researcher

consultation Goals of research Knowledge that is

Sampling approach Representative sampling Students or clients with

whom they work

Research design Rigorous control, long time

frame

Looser procedures, change during study; quick time frame; control through triangulation

Measurement procedures Evaluate and pretest

measures

Convenient measures or standardized tests

Data analysis Statistical tests; qualitative

techniques

Focus on practical, not statistical significance; present raw data

Application of results Emphasis on theoretical

significance

Emphasis on practical significance

(http://mypage.iusb.edu/~gmetteta/Classroom_Action_Research.html#Differences)

One of the most significant features of an action research is it is very situational, which means it appears to provide specific solutions to specific problems in each context While other types of researches focus on experimenting or testing a pre-assumed theory or concept, action research aims at “improving the situation” Therefore, it is very beneficial

to the teaching and learning process

When thinking of choosing an appropriate methodology, the researcher, who is also

a teacher, found out that action research is the best choice for the purpose of intensify the effectiveness of the EMA

First of all, action research means “act upon research” It is impossible to assume problems that students and teachers are having without having adequate amount of observation An action research enables the teacher to have a thorough investigation on these problems on a weekly basis Thanks to this, the findings would be up to date and mostly reliable The teacher can have a thorough look and is able to work out a detailed analysis on the students‟ performance during the progress of the research In short, an action research helps the teacher to reset her assessment which is most suitable to the class and therefore benefits students to the most

Secondly, in this action research, the data is taken from every group and treated individually Therefore, the teacher can see students‟ progress easily S/he will be able to get the most up-to-date information and make sensible changes if necessary to the research while applying it to meet the demand of the students For common mistakes encountered

by all group members that persist for a long time, the teacher can spend more time on it by paying more attention when giving feedback to students Performance of students is collected weekly, and any potential problems can be solved in time

Last but not least, by using an action research on the use of portfolios to keep track

of students‟ reading and group work, the researcher gives the student a strong sense of themselves When portfolio is evaluated every week, each group can receive a thorough care from the researcher The students‟ awareness as well as their gratefulness for the teacher‟s effort will serve as a strong motivation to make progress in their work

Despite the obvious advantages, the research has some shortcomings compared to other types of research, such as an experimental one It is sometimes claimed that action research has limited application This comes from one of its typical characteristic, which is situational This means the research program may work well in one class but cannot be applied to other classes in different context If the same research is carried out in another class, the result may not be effective as expected In other words, action research lacks generalization

However, the reality is that this action research is very applicable in a wide range of classes This is explainable by two reasons Firstly, students at the FLF were sorted in

different classes randomly There were no categories to classify them into different classes, such as basing on their hometowns, or the marks acquired at the entrance university exam Therefore, each class consists of students coming from many parts all over the country This also means students who learned in the same high schools may be scattered over a number of classes at the department In addition, due to random sorting, it can be assumed that there is an equal division of students‟ level of English proficiency in different classes Obviously, there may be the possibility that some classes may have more students whose English is better than others However, this is the common practice in any language classes Therefore, it should not be treated as a major cause for the impossibility of generalization

2.2 Background of the study

2.2.1 Participants

The participants of the research were selected on the basis of cluster sampling The researcher, who is also a teacher, was in charge of an EMA class during the first semester

of the school year 2010-2011 Naturally, they became ideal samples for the research

With the method of cluster sampling, the research ensures the variety of the students‟ background, which varies from one to another as the group was chosen by chance This also enables for a wider range of application to other classes, which, to some extent, shorten the limitation of an action research

The researcher reached the final number of 30 students whose performance would

be appropriate data provider for the research They were the one who participated thoroughly in the research from the beginning to the end

Further observation, investigation and talks with the students revealed more information about them Most of the students are of the age of 20-22 They are living in the hostel or rented accommodation and many of them have a laptop or personal computer

As for language competence, all of the students had achieved their intermediate proficiency level after their two years at the college They had finished the two writing courses namely English Written Proficiency – Intermediate 1 which focuses on paragraph writing of such genres as description, narration and explanation and English Written Proficiency – Intermediate 2 which aims at essay writing of such genres as cause-effect, comparison-contrast, and letters

By the time working with the EMA project, students were taking their course in Advanced Writing – 1 in which they got familiarized with such genres as summaries, reports and reviews

In general, the students had undergone rather basic training in academic writing and

on the whole their writing for academic purpose met the requirements However, it appears that they did not have much access to the more „lively‟ language of magazine

2.2.2 The English Magazine Project program

A semester at the FLF, TNU lasted 15 weeks Two periods per week (accounting for 100 minutes) was devoted to class contact In the following part, we would like to present the content of the program

* Basic objectives of the project:

- To improve language skills via language activities which are part of the magazine project

- To improve skills of IT applications in learning via related activities

- To enhance students‟ confidence, responsibility in learning and teamwork spirit

* Timeframe for implementation of the project:

Time allocation:

- Planning and designing timetable: 2 weeks

- Implementing the project (for students): maximum 13 weeks

* Structuring of the content

Table 2: Structure of content

contact hrs

Concrete objectives

Suggestions to teacher(s)/

coaches

Correlation with other subjects

~2 hours - Decide on the

theme and design the work plan

plan as proposed

* Teaching methods and activities

Basic methods: discussion, guidance

Teacher’s activities: The tutor meets the learners weekly, helps them solve their problems

and monitor the process to ensure that they are working around the clock and in the right way

Student’s activities: Students are supposed to work in groups and complete the tasks they

register for each week and hand in their weekly products

* Organization and implementation

Group contacts/ theoretical teaching/ practical training: Tutors and groups of learners meet weekly to discuss and solve the problems they meet

Individual homework: Each student is to work in groups If there happens to be any individual work, it is the work alternation they assign themselves within their group

Workload integrated in project(s): All the activities related to the magazine project must cover all four basic language skills (reading, speaking, listening and writing) and other necessary skills like computing and conducting a survey

* Teaching means, aids and materials: sample professional magazines, sample articles

and Internet surfing skills

observation on students‟ performance It also provides the researcher with a deep insight into how the research project was going

* Questionnaires

A questionnaire was conducted at the first four weeks of the research During this time, students were required to complete their first 2-week magazine columns and the teachers did not ask them to hand in their collections of documents or portfolios but only their final product The questionnaire aimed at collecting personal information of the students, particularly that related to their learning competence, their attitudes towards the project and the troubles they had while working with it (See appendix 1) By doing so, the researcher was in the hope of finding possible obstacles that students met and that prevented the project from taking its effectiveness The questionnaire, in cooperation with some interviews, which were taken later, could help the researcher identify possible reasons for students‟ poor performance in their work

* Interviews

Three interviews were used during the research Two were delivered to students and one to the four teachers working with the project during the semester (See Appendix 2)

Two interviews were conducted with individual students throughout the research so that the researcher could be able to find explanations for the students‟ choices when they answered the questionnaire, and get a deeper understanding of the problems that the students had

The first interview was delivered right after the students did the questionnaire It was aimed at finding evidence for the students‟ choices over some questions, such as “I have problems in group work.”, or “I find it hard to express my ideas.” In the interview, the researcher asked the students to explain their choice by providing evidence for that For example, when a student claimed that she was very confused at selecting terms to write the articles, the researcher checked this by asking her to list the terms she used and those that she was not sure about By this way, the teacher could have a closer look at whether it was

a real problem that the students had or not

The second interview was conducted at the end of the research in the hope of justifying the effectiveness of the interventions and also finding reasons for the students‟

remaining problems The result, therefore, was much beneficial to work out a more effective implementation of the project

Another interview was delivered among the teachers at the faculty to find out the problems they had during the time tutoring EMA groups as well as their suggestions for a more successful class

* Analysis on students’ journals

During the research program, students‟ journals were analyzed and the frequency of mistakes would be calculated

Firstly, the groups‟ final drafts over the first four weeks would be closely examined The criteria for the author to look at were:

- Organization

- Language use (grammar, structures, spelling and punctuation)

- Linguistic benefits (vocabulary, expressions and style)

By the end of the semester, students‟ final drafts after conducting portfolios were analyzed again to compare with their performance at the initial weeks These articles were

of similar topics and text length to the first analyzed collection The criteria for assessment were also repeated

2.4 Research program

The research was conducted in 15 weeks, corresponding to the 15 weeks of the first semester, from September 16th to December 28th, 2010 The focus of the research was English magazine project

With three years of teaching English as a foreign language for Vietnamese students and working with EMA project, the researcher found out that she had suffered from a lot of hardship in giving feedback to students‟ writings As stated previously, students often assigned weekly magazine columns in alternation without any peer-editing before consulting the teacher‟s advice In addition, their writings revealed a number of mistakes, both from their carelessness and their poor knowledge of magazine language

As the researcher herself found that portfolio could be a good solution to the problems, she made full use of this to assess students, forcing them to increase their reading input as well as time for group-editing

The detailed program of the research was divided into two periods: The first period was within the first four weeks of the semester in which two weeks were devoted for course introduction and planning and the other two were for the first two magazine columns (See Appendix 3)

2.5 Procedures

The chronological steps of the study are summarized as follows:

- Study the literature to form the theoretical background for the study;

- Work out the methodological framework of the study;

- Apply the research program on the experimental group;

- Collect all the data for analysis;

- Analyze the data for findings; and

- Yield conclusions, implications and suggestions for further study based on findings

2.6 Conclusion

Chapter 3 has provided the basis methodological ground of the research The reasons for an action research were presented first followed by the detailed description of research methods including the background of the study, data collection instruments, the research program and research procedures The issues discussed in chapter 3 were the essential basis to guide the whole study and justify its effectiveness

in EMA project, despite the fact that they had covered two courses in academic writing In addition, she also wished to lessen the amount of time teachers had to spend on the project Therefore, she decided to distribute a questionnaire and carry out interviews to find out possible explanations for this After she got the information from the questionnaire, she conducted interviews with the students to justify their choices

Students’ learning competence

When considering the factors that affected students‟ unsatisfied performance in study, their competence was seen as of great importance Therefore, we included two questions to ask the participants: question about their Grade Point Average (GPA) and question about their scores on the previous writing course – English written proficiency Intermediate 2

The average scores of students were summarized at the following table:

Table 3: Students’ learning competence

Question 2: Students’ learning competence in general

As can be seen, students‟ most common GPA score was mark C (60%) which corresponds to the range from 5.00 - 6.49 in the ten mark scale On average, the majority

of students did not have high scores in their study With 70% of the students received a C

or a D compared to 30% of those who got an A or a B, it can be said that students‟ leaning competence was not very satisfying, and this can be an obstacle to their performance in classroom in general

Question 3: Students’ competence in academic writing