1. Hung Yen University of Education and Technology
Faculty of Foreign Language
“Difficulties in writing essay of the third-year
English major students at Hung Yen University
of Education and Technology”
By Nguyen Thi Nga
Supervisor: M.A Nguyen Thi Duyen
2. Presentation outline
1. Rationale
2. Aims of the study
3. Research questions *
4. Scope of the study
5. Methods of the study *
6. Results of the study *
7. Conclusions *
8. Limitations of the study
9. Suggestions for further study
3. 1. Rationale
Importance of writing essay at UTEHY
Difficulty of writing essay tasks
Impact of mother tongue language to
ESL writers strongly
4. 2. Aims of the study
To find out the problems relating to the essay
structure in writing essays
To give some suggestions for students to
solve these problems to help them write essays
better.
5. 3. Research questions
What are the problems relating to the structure of
the essays third-year English major students at
UTEHY?
What are some suggestions for students to solve
problems relating to the structure of essays to help
them to write essays better?
6. 4. Scope of the study
Focusing on difficulty relating to the structure
format in writing essays of the third-year
English major students at UTEHY.
7. 5. Methods of the study
Qualitative and quantitative methods: writing
analysis, questionnaire and interview.
Writing analysis: analyzing 27 essays of the third-
year English major- students of English
Department, UTEHY, reading to find the problems
8. 5. Methods of the study
1. The questionnaires: 13 questions, 3rd
year
students, 15’ - 20’ & collected right after.
2. The interview:
1st
interview: 4 opened questions, 2
teachers of English, 10’- 15’ & took note.
2nd
interview: 4 opened questions, 10
students of English, 5’- 10’ & took note
9. Subjects
83 third-year English major students
from the Department of Foreign
Language at UTEHY.
2 instructors teaching Academic Writing
5, semester 1, academic year 2015-2016
of English at the Department of Foreign
Language , UTEHY.
10. 6. The results of the study
Research question 1: What are the problems
relating to the structure of the essays third-year
English major students at UTEHY face?
The weakness in mastering the structure of
English essays (Table 1)
Effects of writing essays in the mother tongue
11. Research question 2:
Ways to achieve a good essay:
Mind-mapping ( example of mind-mapping)
tree diagramming (example of tree
diagramming)
Linear outlining (example of linear outlining)
12. 7. Conclusions
The study obtains its objectives.
- Covering the theories related to the study
- Finding out the answers for two research
questions
- Suggesting some solutions
13. 8. Limitations of the study
The present study could not conduct with the
larger number of participants.
This study is conducted in the second semester, it
could not reach the target participants.
Because this study is conducted in the second
semester, it could not reach the target participants.
The result of the study cannot be said that the
results are general to all Vietnamese students.
14. 9. Suggestions for future studies
It might be a good idea to do the same research
with experimental approach.
Further research should focus on the impact of
reading on essays in order to learn many things
such as: word choices in English style, how to
organize structure of the essay from native writers
through their writings