Download Luận văn The research focused on the problem of “inactiveness” in group discussion in pre-Writing stage of essay-writing practice lessons
To solve the problem "inactive participation", Alfred, a secondary school English teacher mentioned in the article "Helping teacher to conduct action research in their classroom" written by Tsui (1993), rearranged the seats so that inactive students sat next to an active student, to encourage good pair or groupwork. He tried to give inactive ones the chance to speak but acknowledge the enthusiasm of the volunteers at the same times. He also avoided competition in class since the winner was likely to be an active student.
Davies (2000) mentioned the difficulties and risks associated with groupwork (also with pairwork):
- the learners may be confused about the tasks and not do it properly.
- the noise level may rise (though seldom more than in choral repetition)
- the learners may start talking about whatever they like in L1
- the learners may make and repeat many errors
- you may not be able to get the learners' attention again and lose control of the class.
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How many paragraphs an essay should consist of depends entirely on the complexity of the topic. However, the essays written in class or in an exam paper in a school or college should contains from four to six paragraphs, with the most common number of five: one paragraph for introduction, three ones for the body and the last one for the conclusion. The number of words in an essay of this kind (also named short essay) should be ranged from 150 words to 250 words for the time allowance of 45 minutes.
4.4. Types of essays
Essays can be classified by their aims. According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were 8 types of essays: Illustration, Narrative, Descriptive, Process, Definition, Comparison or Contrast, Classification and Persuasive. In Illustration essays the writer used specific examples to support a thesis or to prove a statement. Narrative essays required the writer to retell a meaningful incident, an event or personal experience. The writer had to describe something such as a place, a product, a piece of equipment or cells under a microscope, etc in a Descriptive essay. Describing a process or steps in the procedure of doing something was the aim of a Process essay. In Definition essays students had to define a scientific term such as Disk Operating System in computer studies or DNA in biology etc. When writing a Comparison or Contrast essay, students might be asked to compare to find the similarities and differences between two things or two people. They could also use some criteria to contrast two things or two people to discover which features this person or a thing had but the other one did not have. Differing from the above-mentioned types of essays, Classification essays required the writer to use some criteria to classify some things or people or divide them into groups under some standards. In a Persuasive essay the writer had to take a stand on an issue and tried to convince others to agree with him or her. In the Persuasive essay the writer was often asked a question like this “Do you agree or disagree?” He had to choose to agree or disagree with the given topic.
Differing from Fawcett and Sandberg, Smalley and Ruetten (1986) gave out only 5 types of essays with different names: Example Essay, Comparison and Contrast Essay, Classification Essay, Process Analysis Essay, Cause-and-Effect Analysis Essay and Argumentative Essay. Among those, a Cause-and-Effect essay was not mentioned by Fawcett and Sandberg. In Cause-and-Effect essay the writer identified the causes of a phenomenon, a problem or something or predicts its good or bad effects. However, in some cases the writer did both of these actions.
These five types of essays given by Smalley and Ruetten (1986) are the most common types of essays which were taught to ESL students as the authors stated in their book. They are also chosen to teach to Major English students in Hong Duc University, Thanh Hoa because of their suitability for ESL students.
4.5. Essay writing process
According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were four main steps in the essay-writing process: writing the thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay, writing and revising short essays.
Step 1: Writing the thesis statement.
In this step there are two sub-steps: Narrowing the topic and Writing the thesis statement. These are the first important sub-steps before writing an essay.
1. Narrowing the Topic:
The essay writer often starts with a broad subject and then he narrows it to a suitable scale. Due to the limitation of the time for writing in class or the length of the essay, the writer should list possible narrowed subjects (sub-topics) of the given topic on a paper. Any one of these sub-topics is narrow enough and specific enough to be the subject of a short essay. Then he will consider each of them to choose one he could best develop into a good essay.
2. Writing the thesis statement
The thesis statement further focuses the subject because it must clearly state, in a full sentence, the writer’s central point: the main idea or opinion that the essay will support and discuss. The thesis statement should be as specific as possible. By writing a specific thesis statement, the writer focuses on his/her subject and give himself/herself and his /her reader a clearer idea of what will follow in the body of the essay.
Step 2: Gathering Ideas for the Body
This step also consists of two sub-steps: brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups and write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs. Now the writer should make a plan that includes the following things:
- Two to four main ideas to support the thesis statement
- Two to four topic sentences stating these above ideas
- A plan for each paragraph in the body
- A logical order in which to present these paragraphs
1. Brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups.
The essay writer should try to jot down any ideas that develop the thesis statement, including main ideas, specific details, and examples, all jumbled together. Only after creating a long list do they go back over it, drop any ideas that do not support the thesis statement, and then plan paragraphs.
2. Write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs
Sometimes a writer can compose his/her topic sentences directly from the thesis statement without extensive jotting first if the thesis statement itself shows how the body will be divided or organized. Such a thesis statement makes the work of planning paragraphs easy because the writer has already broken down the subject into supporting ideas or parts. The order of paragraphs should logically follow the order in the thesis statement, discussing first the problem and then the solution.
Step 3: Ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay
1. Ordering paragraphs
An essay should have coherence. That is, the paragraphs in an essay should be arranged in a clear, logical order and should follow one another like links in a chain. In order to keep the paragraphs in the essay in a logical order the writer has to use his/her common sense and plan ahead. He/she should not order his paragraphs randomly.
Types of order such as time order, space order, and order of climax can sometimes be used to arrange paragraphs within an essay. Essays about subjects that can be broken into stages or steps, which each step discussed in one paragraph, should be arranged according to time. Space order is used occasionally in descriptive essays. A writer who wants to save the most important or convincing paragraph for last would use order of climax.
2. Linking paragraphs
There are four ways to links paragraphs:
- Repeat key words or ideas from the thesis statement.
- Refer to words or ideas from the preceding paragraph.
- Use transitional expressions.
- Use transitional sentences.
Step 4: Writing and revising short essays.
1. Writing the first draft
The writer should make sure that he/she has a clear plan or an outline from which to write the first draft. This plan should contain his/her thesis statement, two to four topic sentences that support it, details and facts to develop each paragraph, and a logical order. When writing the first draft he should leave room for later corrections.
2. Revising
The essay writer reads the first draft slowly and carefully to himself and underlines trouble spots, draws arrows and writes in the margins or corrects directly any kinds of errors in the essay draft on his paper. He may ask a trusted classmate or a friend to read his paper and give feedbacks.
3. Proof reading and writing final draft.
The writer should proof read the draft for grammar and spelling errors and try to correct them. Finally, he types or writes the final draft to hand in.
5. TEACHING WRITING ESSAYS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY, THANH HOA PROVINCE
5.1. Teaching writing skills to Major English College students.
According to the Programme of Training English Teachers for Junior High Schools, writing skills is taught in 5 terms of the whole training course:
Table 1: Teaching writing skills to Major English College Students
Terms
TERM 1
TERM 2
TERM 3
TERM 4
TERM 5
Time
45 periods
60 periods
60 periods
60 periods
30 periods
Contents
Sentences and writing sentences
Authentic-Task Writing
Writing paragraphs
Writing essays
Writing essays
(continued)
Details
+ Sentence structures and sentence components
+ Types of sentences
+ Sentence building
+ Writing notes and memos
+ Writing personal letters
+ Writing telegrams, personal ads and instructions
+ Writing reports on incidents and events
+ Form-filling
+...
Download miễn phí Luận văn The research focused on the problem of “inactiveness” in group discussion in pre-Writing stage of essay-writing practice lessons
To solve the problem "inactive participation", Alfred, a secondary school English teacher mentioned in the article "Helping teacher to conduct action research in their classroom" written by Tsui (1993), rearranged the seats so that inactive students sat next to an active student, to encourage good pair or groupwork. He tried to give inactive ones the chance to speak but acknowledge the enthusiasm of the volunteers at the same times. He also avoided competition in class since the winner was likely to be an active student.
Davies (2000) mentioned the difficulties and risks associated with groupwork (also with pairwork):
- the learners may be confused about the tasks and not do it properly.
- the noise level may rise (though seldom more than in choral repetition)
- the learners may start talking about whatever they like in L1
- the learners may make and repeat many errors
- you may not be able to get the learners' attention again and lose control of the class.
Để tải bản DOC Đầy Đủ xin Trả lời bài viết này, Mods sẽ gửi Link download cho bạn sớm nhất qua hòm tin nhắn.
Ai cần download tài liệu gì mà không tìm thấy ở đây, thì đăng yêu cầu down tại đây nhé:
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Tóm tắt nội dung:
opic. The body consists of one or more paragraphs. Each of them develops a subdivision of the topic. The conclusion is a summary or review of the main points discussed by the body.How many paragraphs an essay should consist of depends entirely on the complexity of the topic. However, the essays written in class or in an exam paper in a school or college should contains from four to six paragraphs, with the most common number of five: one paragraph for introduction, three ones for the body and the last one for the conclusion. The number of words in an essay of this kind (also named short essay) should be ranged from 150 words to 250 words for the time allowance of 45 minutes.
4.4. Types of essays
Essays can be classified by their aims. According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were 8 types of essays: Illustration, Narrative, Descriptive, Process, Definition, Comparison or Contrast, Classification and Persuasive. In Illustration essays the writer used specific examples to support a thesis or to prove a statement. Narrative essays required the writer to retell a meaningful incident, an event or personal experience. The writer had to describe something such as a place, a product, a piece of equipment or cells under a microscope, etc in a Descriptive essay. Describing a process or steps in the procedure of doing something was the aim of a Process essay. In Definition essays students had to define a scientific term such as Disk Operating System in computer studies or DNA in biology etc. When writing a Comparison or Contrast essay, students might be asked to compare to find the similarities and differences between two things or two people. They could also use some criteria to contrast two things or two people to discover which features this person or a thing had but the other one did not have. Differing from the above-mentioned types of essays, Classification essays required the writer to use some criteria to classify some things or people or divide them into groups under some standards. In a Persuasive essay the writer had to take a stand on an issue and tried to convince others to agree with him or her. In the Persuasive essay the writer was often asked a question like this “Do you agree or disagree?” He had to choose to agree or disagree with the given topic.
Differing from Fawcett and Sandberg, Smalley and Ruetten (1986) gave out only 5 types of essays with different names: Example Essay, Comparison and Contrast Essay, Classification Essay, Process Analysis Essay, Cause-and-Effect Analysis Essay and Argumentative Essay. Among those, a Cause-and-Effect essay was not mentioned by Fawcett and Sandberg. In Cause-and-Effect essay the writer identified the causes of a phenomenon, a problem or something or predicts its good or bad effects. However, in some cases the writer did both of these actions.
These five types of essays given by Smalley and Ruetten (1986) are the most common types of essays which were taught to ESL students as the authors stated in their book. They are also chosen to teach to Major English students in Hong Duc University, Thanh Hoa because of their suitability for ESL students.
4.5. Essay writing process
According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were four main steps in the essay-writing process: writing the thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay, writing and revising short essays.
Step 1: Writing the thesis statement.
In this step there are two sub-steps: Narrowing the topic and Writing the thesis statement. These are the first important sub-steps before writing an essay.
1. Narrowing the Topic:
The essay writer often starts with a broad subject and then he narrows it to a suitable scale. Due to the limitation of the time for writing in class or the length of the essay, the writer should list possible narrowed subjects (sub-topics) of the given topic on a paper. Any one of these sub-topics is narrow enough and specific enough to be the subject of a short essay. Then he will consider each of them to choose one he could best develop into a good essay.
2. Writing the thesis statement
The thesis statement further focuses the subject because it must clearly state, in a full sentence, the writer’s central point: the main idea or opinion that the essay will support and discuss. The thesis statement should be as specific as possible. By writing a specific thesis statement, the writer focuses on his/her subject and give himself/herself and his /her reader a clearer idea of what will follow in the body of the essay.
Step 2: Gathering Ideas for the Body
This step also consists of two sub-steps: brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups and write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs. Now the writer should make a plan that includes the following things:
- Two to four main ideas to support the thesis statement
- Two to four topic sentences stating these above ideas
- A plan for each paragraph in the body
- A logical order in which to present these paragraphs
1. Brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups.
The essay writer should try to jot down any ideas that develop the thesis statement, including main ideas, specific details, and examples, all jumbled together. Only after creating a long list do they go back over it, drop any ideas that do not support the thesis statement, and then plan paragraphs.
2. Write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs
Sometimes a writer can compose his/her topic sentences directly from the thesis statement without extensive jotting first if the thesis statement itself shows how the body will be divided or organized. Such a thesis statement makes the work of planning paragraphs easy because the writer has already broken down the subject into supporting ideas or parts. The order of paragraphs should logically follow the order in the thesis statement, discussing first the problem and then the solution.
Step 3: Ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay
1. Ordering paragraphs
An essay should have coherence. That is, the paragraphs in an essay should be arranged in a clear, logical order and should follow one another like links in a chain. In order to keep the paragraphs in the essay in a logical order the writer has to use his/her common sense and plan ahead. He/she should not order his paragraphs randomly.
Types of order such as time order, space order, and order of climax can sometimes be used to arrange paragraphs within an essay. Essays about subjects that can be broken into stages or steps, which each step discussed in one paragraph, should be arranged according to time. Space order is used occasionally in descriptive essays. A writer who wants to save the most important or convincing paragraph for last would use order of climax.
2. Linking paragraphs
There are four ways to links paragraphs:
- Repeat key words or ideas from the thesis statement.
- Refer to words or ideas from the preceding paragraph.
- Use transitional expressions.
- Use transitional sentences.
Step 4: Writing and revising short essays.
1. Writing the first draft
The writer should make sure that he/she has a clear plan or an outline from which to write the first draft. This plan should contain his/her thesis statement, two to four topic sentences that support it, details and facts to develop each paragraph, and a logical order. When writing the first draft he should leave room for later corrections.
2. Revising
The essay writer reads the first draft slowly and carefully to himself and underlines trouble spots, draws arrows and writes in the margins or corrects directly any kinds of errors in the essay draft on his paper. He may ask a trusted classmate or a friend to read his paper and give feedbacks.
3. Proof reading and writing final draft.
The writer should proof read the draft for grammar and spelling errors and try to correct them. Finally, he types or writes the final draft to hand in.
5. TEACHING WRITING ESSAYS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY, THANH HOA PROVINCE
5.1. Teaching writing skills to Major English College students.
According to the Programme of Training English Teachers for Junior High Schools, writing skills is taught in 5 terms of the whole training course:
Table 1: Teaching writing skills to Major English College Students
Terms
TERM 1
TERM 2
TERM 3
TERM 4
TERM 5
Time
45 periods
60 periods
60 periods
60 periods
30 periods
Contents
Sentences and writing sentences
Authentic-Task Writing
Writing paragraphs
Writing essays
Writing essays
(continued)
Details
+ Sentence structures and sentence components
+ Types of sentences
+ Sentence building
+ Writing notes and memos
+ Writing personal letters
+ Writing telegrams, personal ads and instructions
+ Writing reports on incidents and events
+ Form-filling
+...