The effectiveness of task-based language teaching to improve writing skills for non-majored English students - A Vietnamese case study at Ho Chi Minh City Open University

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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TRAN XUAN TRANG

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED

LANGUAGE TEACHING TO IMPROVE WRITING

SKILLS FOR NON-MAJORED ENGLISH STUDENTS:

A VIETNAMESE CASE STUDY AT

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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TRAN XUAN TRANG

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED

LANGUAGE TEACHING TO IMPROVE WRITING

SKILLS FOR NON-MAJORED ENGLISH STUDENTS:

A VIETNAMESE CASE STUDY AT

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Major code: 8 14 01 11

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: VO THI HONG LE, Dr.

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ

THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC

CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM

Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc

GIẤY XÁC NHẬN

Tôi tên là: TRẦN XUÂN TRANG

Ngày sinh: 02/12/1989 Nơi sinh: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh

Mã học viên: 1981401111023

Tôi đồng ý cung cấp toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ về bản quyền cho

Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Thư viện trường đại học Mở

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh sẽ kết nối toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống

thông tin khoa học của Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Ký tên

ii

Statement of authorship

I attest that my thesis, “The effectiveness of Task-based Language Teaching to

Improve Writing Skills for Non-majored English Students: A Vietnamese Case Study at

Ho Chi Minh City Open University”, is entirely original work. As a thesis for the

Master’s in TESOL program at the Ho Chi Minh City Open University, it is based on

my personal study.

Each and every source utilized to support this thesis has been listed. No one else’s

work has ever been used without proper credit.

At the Ho Chi Minh City Open University or elsewhere, this thesis has never

before been presented for evaluation in any subject or course.

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2022

Trần Xuân Trang

iii

Acknowledgements

The following individuals deserve my deepest thanks; without them, my thesis

would not have been feasible. I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr.

Vo Thi Hong Le for her unwavering guidance and supervision during my research and

thesis writing. Without her expert guidance and support, I would not have been able to

finish this thesis.

I was able to enrich my intellectual and professional life for my professional

development because of their enthusiastic contributions. In addition, I want to thank the

other members of the HCMC Open University staff who always provide for our needs

as students.

I would also like to express my gratitude to my dear classmates. During the MA

in TESOL degree, we experienced both good and difficult times together. We did form

a team, and everyone on it motivated and inspired the others to keep going toward the

goal. Furthermore, I want to express my gratitude to my supportive colleagues at the Ho

Chi Minh City Open University who helped me a lot when I implemented this study at

the university.

Last but not least, I owe my family a huge debt of gratitude for all of their help

both before and during my studies for the Master’s in TESOL degree. I wouldn’t have

been able to get that far without my parents, my son and my soulmate.

iv

Abstract

This study explores how teachers and students have changed the methods to teach

and learn English in recent times. Writing has always been perceived as a difficult task

for English Foreign Language (EFL) students at Ho Chi Minh City Open University

(HCMC OU), are at elementary level of English with significant challenges in writing,

including lack of confidence in communicative skills resulting in their inability to

communicate efficiently in authentic out-of-class scenarios. In line with recent empirical

scholarship on EFL pedagogies, Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is proposed as

an effective approach that facilitates both the teaching of communicative skills and

engagement through the use of the target language and tasks in an authentic manner as

used outside of the classroom.

This paper, drawing on a mix-methods case study with 60 Vietnamese non￾English major EFL students who are learning English as a compulsory subject at

elementary level (A1-A2) at HCMC OU, examines what to extent TBLT can help

improve writing skills for these non-English major students at the tertiary level. The

control group included 28 participants, whereas the experimental group included the

remaining participants. The data were collected via questionnaire, writing tests, and

teacher’s observation. For data analysis and statistical inference, Statistics Package for

the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used. The findings indicate that the

implementation of TBLT tasks in writing lessons provided by the teacher resulted in

crucial improvements in students’ writing performance in terms of accuracy and fluency

in the classroom. In addition, learner’ attitudes generally were positive toward writing

lessons via TBLT in the classroom. This study thus reaffirmed the educational benefits

of TBLT in terms of students’ writing abilities.

v

Table of contents

Statement of authorship .........................................................................................................................ii

Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................iii

Abstract...................................................................................................................................................iv

Table of contents.....................................................................................................................................v

List of figures and tables .....................................................................................................................viii

List of abbreviations..............................................................................................................................xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Background to the study............................................................................................................. 1

1.2. Statement of the problem ........................................................................................................... 4

1.3. Research objectives..................................................................................................................... 6

1.4. Research questions...................................................................................................................... 6

1.5. Research hypothesis.................................................................................................................... 6

1.6. Significance of the study ............................................................................................................. 7

1.7. Organization of the study ........................................................................................................... 7

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................ 9

2.1 Writing.......................................................................................................................................... 9

2.1.1 The definition of writing....................................................................................................... 9

2.2.2 Principles of teaching and learning writing...................................................................... 10

2.2.3 Writing performance .......................................................................................................... 10

2.3 Assessment of learners’ attitudes toward using TBLT........................................................... 11

2.4 The integration of TBLT in writing ......................................................................................... 12

2.4. Task-based language teaching ................................................................................................. 13

2.4.1. Communicative language teaching................................................................................... 13

2.4.2 The characteristics of Task-based language teaching...................................................... 14

2.4.3 The frameworks of task-based language teaching ........................................................... 16

2.4.6 The benefits of TBLT vs traditional method .................................................................... 18

2.5 Empirical studies on TBLT and English writing teaching..................................................... 19

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................... 21

3.3 Research design.......................................................................................................................... 21

vi

3.3.1 Test data analytical framework ......................................................................................... 22

3.3.2 Questionnaire data analytical framework ........................................................................ 22

3.3.3 Observation data analytical framework ........................................................................... 22

3.2 Research site ............................................................................................................................... 24

3.3 Participants................................................................................................................................. 26

3.4 Instruments: ............................................................................................................................... 27

3.4.1 Writing Tests (Pre-test and Post-test) ............................................................................... 27

3.4.2 Questionnaire ...................................................................................................................... 29

3.4.3 Observation.......................................................................................................................... 31

3.5 Reliability and validity issues.................................................................................................... 32

3.5.1 Writing test.......................................................................................................................... 32

3.5.2 Questionnaire ...................................................................................................................... 33

3.5.2 Observation.......................................................................................................................... 33

3.6 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 34

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................... 35

4.1 Data analysis............................................................................................................................... 35

4.1.1 Writing test results.............................................................................................................. 35

4.1.2 Survey results ...................................................................................................................... 45

4.1.3 Teacher’s observation......................................................................................................... 62

4.2 Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 65

4.2.1 Research question 1 ............................................................................................................ 66

4.2.2 Research question 2 ............................................................................................................ 67

4.3 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 67

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION......................................................... 69

5.1 Conclusions................................................................................................................................. 69

5.2 Contribution of the study .......................................................................................................... 70

5.3 Implications................................................................................................................................ 71

5.3.1 Recommendations for teachers.......................................................................................... 71

5.3.2 Recommendations for students.......................................................................................... 72

5.4 Limitations.................................................................................................................................. 73

vii

5.5 Suggestions for further research............................................................................................... 73

5.5 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 74

References............................................................................................................................................. 75

Appendices............................................................................................................................................ 81

viii

List of figures and tables

Table 2.1: Three aspects of language production ......................................................... 10

Table 2.2: Willis’s Task-based language teaching framework (1996) ......................... 16

Table 2.3: Ellis’s Task-based language teaching framework (2006)............................ 17

Table 2.4: The benefits of TBLT vs. traditional methods............................................. 18

Table 3.1: Observation’s objectives and tools.............................................................. 23

Table 3.2: Key points of observation checklist............................................................. 24

Table 3.3: Data collection’s procedure ......................................................................... 30

Table 4.1: The case processing summary in the Pre-test ...............................................36

Table 4.2: Tests of Normality of pre-test scores............................................................37

Figure 4.1: Normal Q-Q Plot for the pre-test results .....................................................37

Table 4.3: Descriptive Statistics of the pre-test results..................................................38

Table 4.4: Hypothesis Test Summary for the writing Pre-test results...........................39

Figure 4.2: The distribution of the writing pre-test results............................................39

Table 4.5: The case processing summary in the Post-test .............................................40

Table 4.6: Tests of Normality of post-test scores ..........................................................40

Figure 4.3: Normal Q-Q plots for post-test results ........................................................41

Table 4.7: Descriptive Statistics of the post-test results ................................................41

Table 4.8: Hypothesis Test Summary for the writing post-test results..........................42

Figure 4.4: The distribution of the writing post-test results...........................................42

Table 4.9: Descriptive Statistics of the control group....................................................43

Table 4.10: Descriptive statistics of the experimental group.........................................44

Table 4.11: Questionnaire’s reliability statistics of the control group...........................45

ix

Table 4.12: Questionnaire’s reliability statistics of the experimental group .................45

Figure 4.5: Participants’ ideas before the writing lessons start. ....................................46

Table 4.13: Means of items for participants’ feelings toward the writing exercises in the

textbook..........................................................................................................................47

Table 4.14: Frequencies of items for participants’ feelings toward the writing exercises

in the textbook................................................................................................................48

Table 4.15: Means of items for participants’ ideas on working in pairs/groups ...........48

Table 4.16: Frequencies of items for participants’ ideas on working in pairs/groups...49

Table 4.17: Means of items for participants’ ideas on teacher’s support in classroom.49

Table 4.18: Frequencies of items for participants’ ideas on teacher’s support in

classroom........................................................................................................................50

Table 4.19: Means of items for classroom environment................................................51

Table 4.20: Frequencies of items for classroom environment.......................................51

Table 4.21: Means of items for participants’ opinions about further

exercises/homework.......................................................................................................51

Table 4.22: Frequencies of items for participants’ opinions about further

exercises/homework.......................................................................................................52

Figure 4.6: Participants’ ideas on warm-up activities....................................................54

Table 4.23: Means of items for participants’ opinions about the tasks .........................54

Table 4.24: Frequencies of items for participants’ opinions about the tasks.................55

Table 4.25: Means of items for participants’ opinions on working in groups...............55

Table 4.26: Frequencies of items for participants’ opinions on working in groups......56

Table 4.27: Means of items for participants’ opinions toward teacher support ............57

Table 4.28: Frequencies of items for participants’ opinions toward teacher support....58

x

Table 4.29: Means of items for classroom environment................................................58

Table 4.30: Frequencies of items for classroom environment.......................................59

Table 4.31: Means of items for participants’ ideas on final exercises in class and

homework.......................................................................................................................59

Table 4.32: Frequencies of items for participants’ ideas on final exercises in class and

homework.......................................................................................................................60

xi

List of abbreviations

. CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

. CG: Control group

. DM: Direct Method

. EFL: English as Foreign Language

. EG: Experimental group

. GTM: Grammar Translation Method

. HCMC: Ho Chi Minh City

. L2: Second Language

. PPP: Present-Practice-Production

. SD: Standard deviation

. SLA: Second Language Acquisition

. SPSS: Statistics Package for the Social Sciences

. SRL: Self-regulatory learning

. SD: Standard deviation

. TBLT: Task-based language teaching