HOW TO MOTIVATE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN WRITING CLASS

By: Hong Th Thanh Tm Hong Dim Thu V Thanh Thu Introduction Nowadays, the needs of politics, diplomacy, technology, science exchange and other fields are ever increasing all over the world. Yet, how to communicate with each other? It would take the politician, the scientists, the diplomats and the leaders a lot of time to learn foreign languages. English, which was found out as a global solution, has rapidly become an international language and ended all the trouble. It has been the most popular language of the communication between countries and many fields of human endeavor.

English is now very familiar with almost every person including Vietnamese people. It is being taught and learnt in many parts of our country and given a fit priority in schools as well as in the society. Many pedagogic research and discourse analysis have been done in order to improve and enhance the teaching and learning process and many have impressively born fruits. Yet to a great number of learners as well as new and inexperienced teachers, of all the four skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing, the last is always the biggest challenge to master. Fresh teachers often get stuck at how to encourage students to love writing whereas English learners find it very boring when it comes to writing lessons. The problem here is that even though learners have a good command of English, they are still reluctant to write as expected. Thus, the role of teachers is of great importance to boost learners interest in writing. But how to do that is a headache to many. There have not been many proper studies into this matte except for a few methodology books which deal with the matter of motivating students on the merit surface. As a result, motivation in writing class is still a question that is really in need of being answering.

We are, for good reason driven by such motive, to work on this research to better our performance in writing classes, at the same time, to contribute something to help other colleagues to improve their work as well as to help students really get involved in their writing. Methods The basic instrument for the current study was survey. In order to probe situation of writing class motivation, a questionnaire was designed. (Appendix I) The questionnaire comprises of nine questions. The nine items were divided into the following three groups: four questions were pre-coded with show-card, factual (question one, two, four and seven); four questions were simple pre-coded factual (question three, five, six and nine) and one question was attitude statement (question eight). The first three questions focused on approaches of class motivation for pre-writing stage. The next three questions and the last three ones dealt with ways of class motivation for while-writing and post-writing stages respectively. The study involved subjects from English learning classes at Hanoi University of Foreign Studies. Questionnaires were given out a hundred first-year students of full-time courses. The respondents were asked to fill in the questionnaires. Finally, the total of one hundred questionnaires was returned. Literature review It cannot be denied that motivation plays a very important role in improving study effectiveness. In other words, this approach helps encourage and motivate students in language-learning classes. Therefore, students will feel eager and interested in lessons if motivation activities are applied in classes. As a matter of fact, there have been many studies focusing on class motivation so far. In "Teaching by principles" (H. Douglas Brown, 1994), there are two chapters including chapter III and chapter XIX concentrating on motivation. In chapter III "Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom", the author mostly discusses motivation
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definition and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. However, he really expressed his interest over the intrinsic motivation in language-learning classes. For H. Douglas Brown, "motivation is the extent to which you make choices about (a) goals to pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to that pursuit". He also gives out some kinds of motivation definitions. In chapter XIX, the author focuses on creating interactive, intrinsically motivating tests. This chapter is very practical and useful for teachers to apply in language-learning classes. H. Douglas Brown analyzes the importance of tests and how teachers can use tests to motivate students in classes. He also mentions many kinds of motivating tests in this chapter, which is very necessary for teachers. In general, Douglas Brown in this book mostly presents intrinsic motivation in classes. Another discussion on motivation is the book "The practice of English language teaching". In this book, the author deals with definition and types of motivation as well as motivated differences. In the definition of motivation, he defines it as "some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action". Furthermore, he states two main kinds of motivation comprising of extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. According to him, extrinsic motivation is concerned with factors outside the classroom and intrinsic motivation discusses what takes place inside the classroom. Especially, he gives detailed analysis on factors affecting intrinsic motivation. Those factors are physical conditions, methods, teachers and success. He not only explains the theory but also gives examples to demonstrate the function of intrinsic motivation in classrooms. What's more, "The resourceful English Teacher" (Trevor Sylvester, 1999.) brings us an overview of activities that teachers should take to encourage students in classes to participate in lessons. In other words, in two parts including "Icebreakers and Welcoming Activities" and "Warmers and Fillers", Trevor Sylvester concentrates on describing activities which can be used by teachers in classes to stimulate students' interests before the lesson starts. In addition, there is an article about motivation when teaching English under the heading of "Free Speaking" (David Heathfied, 2004.). In the article, the writer not
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only mentions some speaking teaching approaches but also explains and instructs each activity very carefully in order to enhance students' speaking skills. He considers free speaking one of the good ways to motivate students in classroom. Obviously, letting students freely speak through certain activities not only makes them feel interesting to learn but helps them improve their skills as well. "Tasks for language teachers" (Martin Parrott, 1993.) also deals with Motivation and learning. In the first section, this book raises the issue of motivation definition. In the second section, it looks at ways in which a teacher can affect motivation. When defining motivation, the author explains two related terms: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. Besides, Martin Parrott also lists many measures that teachers should follow if they want to activate and motivate students in classes. In another article "Leave them alone!" (Magdalena Kubanyiova, 2004.), one way of motivation is stated. The teaching approach suggested by the author is that teachers should let students do something by themselves with careful and clear instructions. In the article, she mentions an activity motivating students. She explains each step very obviously and gives her own opinion on the method's result. Other book also mentioning motivation is "A course in language teaching" (Penny Ur, 1991.). The author in this book discusses the importance of motivation and characteristics of motivated learners as well as different kinds of motivation. Especially, in the part of "Characteristics of motivated learners", he lists seven typical characteristics with very careful explanation for each, which helps teachers a lot find out proper activities to apply for each student. In addition to above-mentioned studies, "Conditions for second language learning" (Bernal Spolsky, 1989.) has one chapter dealing with the relationship between motivation and attitudes. Basing on summarizing results of studies by other people, the author analyzes many aspects related to motivation and tries to figure out the relationship between motivation and attitudes.
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In short, it can be said that most of those above-mentioned studies concentrate on motivation in aspect of learning and teaching language in general or in some areas in particular. However, none of them focuses on motivation in writing classes. Therefore, in this research, we aim to explore some approaches to stimulate students in writing lessons during different stages of pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing. According to our survey, most students are not fond of writing lessons, resulting in bad marks. When being asked, they said that they have ever felt like learning writing skill. And we have found out that lacking motivation is one of reasons for this problem. That's why we are really interested in motivation in writing classes in this research in order to partly improve the current situation.

Findings and discussions I- An overview of motivation: 1. What is motivation in class? We would like to embark upon this part by giving the general definition of class motivation. In general terms, class motivation refers to a students willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in their learning process. (Bomia et al., 1997, p.1) There is a fact that getting students to involve in class is an issue with which teachers perennially grapple. Our group aims at unearthing the factors that motivate students to participate in writing class activities. Apart from some factors that draw students to attend class such as: materials, high-quality teachers, classroom environment, etc., the ability to motivate students ranked among the top qualities of exceptional teachers noted by our group members. Thus, students perceive that the time in writing class is interesting and productive.

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Types of writing class motivation: Motivation in class in general and writing class in particular is often

divided into 2 categories: a. Extrinsic motivation: A student can be described as extrinsically motivated when he or she engages in learning purely for the sake of passing exams or getting high scores. For many students, writing is probably the least important of the 4 skills, they are more likely to need to listen to, read and speak English than to write it. Their need for writing is most likely to be for study purposes and also as an exam skill. The writing class becomes an instrument in their attainment of such a goal. Another factor affecting the attitude of students is their negative view of their writing. For one reason, they have negative feelings about their English

writing. Their language is poor and inadequate. For another reason, it is the common thought that writing can be practiced at home by students themselves. Therefore, students are not stimulated to go to writing class. What can teachers do about extrinsic motivation and students attitude? It is clear that we cannot create it since it comes into the classroom from outside. It is clear, too, that students have to be prepared to take some responsibility for their own learning. But with that in mind we can still do our best to ensure that students view the language and the learning experience in a positive attitude to the language, and we can try to be certain that were supportive and encouraging to our students rather than critical and destructive. b. Intrinsic motivation: A student can be described as intrinsically motivated when he or she is motivated from within: Intrinsically motivated students actively engage themselves in learning for curiosity, interest or enjoyment, or in order to achieve their own intellectual and personal goals. As far as writing class is concerned, we can consider some factors affecting intrinsic motivation, namely physical conditions, teachers methods. Firstly, the term physical condition refers to the classroom environment (e.g., facilities, equipments and materials). It is clear that this factor has a great effect on learning and can alter a students motivation either positively or negatively. As a matter of fact, teachers should presumably try to make their writing classrooms as pleasant as possible. Even where conditions are bad such as plain handouts, it may be possible to improve the atmosphere with posters, pictures, etc. Secondly, though we do not have a desire to discuss much the area of teachers method into which we will go deeply later on, we have to say that the method by which students are taught must have some effect on the motivation. If they find it clearly boring they will probably become de-motivated. Consequently, perhaps this is the most difficult area of all to be certain of, and this is the matter that we, the junior teachers want to focus on this study.

3.

The importance of motivation in writing class: What would you think of a person who goes fishing and does not put bait

on the hook? A bare hook dangling in the water is not appetizing to a fish. Yet, many teachers do the same thing in their teaching. They teach class with bare hooks. They are trying to hook students to learn and to develop an interest in the topic but they don't do anything to get or retain the attention of the student. Teachers typically do little to motivate students to learn. Most teachers realize that motivation is important, but many insist it is not possible to motivate students. "You can lead a horse to water," they say, "but you can't make him drink; motivation is internal and people have to motivate themselves." Well, you can't force a horse to drink, but you can make a horse want to drink by giving it plenty of salt. The same line of reasoning applies to students. You can't force them to learn, but you can make them want to learn by "salting" your teaching with techniques for creating student interest. We can cite some scholars words to show how important class motivation is in teaching. In 1880 Hughes wrote, "There is and there can be no teaching where the attention of the students is not secured. The teacher who fails to get the attention of the students fails totally." Several decades earlier, Horace Mann, Secretary of Education in Massachusetts, stated rather quaintly, "A teacher who is attempting to teach without first inspiring the student to learn, is hammering on cold iron." Teachers do have an influence on whether or not students are motivated to learn. While it is true that some motivation is internal, there are techniques teachers can use to get students ready to learn. A master teacher will know these techniques and employ them. Research indicates that students learn more, there are fewer classroom problems and teachers feel better about their teaching when students are motivated
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to learn. Motivation is a highly significant factor and greatly facilitates learning. Highly motivated students are likely to be learning at or near their intellectual capacities. Poorly motivated students are likely to be learn well below their capacities. II- Findings and discussions An ability to write appropriately and effectively is, however, something which evades many of us, in our mother tongues or in any other languages we may wish to learn in spite of the many years which are frequently devoted to the development of the skill. It is, furthermore, the one in which relatively few people are required to be expert. The teaching of writing, therefore, has long been a central element in all educational systems. Each teacher has their own way of going about it, but in general not much success has been circulated. This is proved by learners reluctance to write and their odd behaviors in writing class. The careful survey carried out on 100 reliable respondents shows that the statistics in this research are valid. Theres no bias in the questions and answers. 1Pre- writing:

Pedagogically, the concept of writing does not mean jotting down ideas only, but more than that. It includes three basic steps which requires a lot of critical thinking from writers, both native and non- native, namely pre- writing, whilewriting, and post- writing. In this section, the discussion focuses on pre- writing step which is often ignored by most writing classes in Vietnam. So what is pre- writing? Common knowledge about this notion is that it is the step in which preparation such as topic choice, topic limitation, brainstorming, etc., for the would- be- product is carefully made. Or metaphorically, pre- writing is like the stage you choose flour, seasoning and the like to make a potentially delicious
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cake. If not careful, you may choose the substandard flour, or mixing the wrong recipe of dough and seasoning which results in an awful cake. The same thing goes with pre- writing step, that is if wrong topic limitation or uninterested topic is produced, learners may find themselves in a dilemma of handing in a good piece of writing. The research was firstly, therefore, carried out to help both teachers and learners to find way to be successful with the pre- writing stage. The respondents, however, were not of a single mind- on the style of brainstorming, the form of teachers aid and the freedom of topic choice. The majority of freshmen preferred to work in groups in terms of brainstorming (45%) while a sizable number (27%) believed they would work best as a whole class. 15% of the respondents were inclined to perform the task in pairs and 13% others loved working individually. (See the chart below)
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 By your own In pairs In groups As a whole class

What can we draw from the result? The motivation for students to get themselves involved in writing process varies from student to student. Each approach has its own pros and cons and this research will look closely at each approach to find the final solution for teaching activities. First, lets look at the preference for working alone. When students work by their own, they can develop the ability to think independently. They can also avoid being disturbed by their friends idea and therefore can protect their own way. Of course this way of working has disadvantages. Since students keep their own thinking, they lose the chance to

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compare with others work and fail to realise their mistakes. Therefore, those students are susceptible to errors without acknowledging it. In terms of working in pairs, here a saying goes: Two heads are better than one. A student can enrich his knowledge about the subject by discussing with his friend. Cooperating in pairs may increase students interest since they have a good opportunity to show off what they have accumulated and learn what they havent heard from their partner. However, as witnessed, in a multitude of cases, there are students who play a passive role, just listen to their superior friends without making any contribution to the task. The reasons for this are many. Maybe the passive students fear of making mistakes since they are afraid of being laughed at. Or maybe they have nothing to say because the more intelligent partners have done it already. Thus, a problem arises. The talkative students will surely improve their English and vice versa, the ones who dont dare to speak out their ideas may not be successful in any skill of English, probably including writing skill. As of working in groups, there are a great deal of viewpoints applauding this type of language learning. Performing a task in groups means that students should put forward their opinion and try to defend themselves and in many cases they have to make concession if they are persuaded by the others that their opinion is better. Students often feel more excited working in groups since they can talk to a relatively large number of people, and the exchange of knowledge is bigger than the previous approaches. This preference can be illustrated by the percentage of choice for working in groups which accounts for 45% of the total number. However, this approach also helps lazy students become lazier since these students can rely on the others in his/ her group. They may not do anything, contribute no idea but listen to the others or fall asleep in the middle of the conversation and in the end they still share the result of the group working as a whole. Last but not least, it comes to the form of brainstorming with the whole class in chorus. The number of respondents who feel this one motivating is not very small which occupies 27%. If teacher brainstorms with the entire class, students may
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bravely contribute their ideas, sometimes very proudly, to the topic on the account of the fact that there is no obligation, that is they tell what they know, not what they dont know. If their contribution is appreciated by the teacher, they may be at high clouds and eager to speak out their thinking. On the other hand, working as a whole class has some problems, too. This type of activities may be useful for some elite students and may be a useless for weak students who just sit still at their table, having nothing to say. Thus, as teachers, we should know all good points and bad points of each approach with the view to applying the best strategy in our class. The suggestion of this researchs authors is somehow not new at all which calls for teachers flexibility in their writing class. Teachers should base on the topic and base on the style of learning of their students to decide which approach to apply. For easy writing topics such as describing people or places, working alone approach can be exploited. And for more complicated ones like giving directions for using telephone cards or how to win someones heart, it is better to apply group discussion or class as a whole. Or when notice that the students are getting bored with the lesson they are going to fall asleep, teachers should ask them to stand up and find a new partner different from the one next to them. With regard to teachers aids, an outstanding number (47%) ticked at the form of games to be the thing motivating them best in a writing class. Meanwhile 35% of their peers thought that pictures would do the job. The two other forms namely teachers spoon feeding ideas and articles account for 10% and 8% respectively.

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Teacher's hints Pictures Articles Games

A close look at the reasons has found out that many students love playing games in classroom since it brings them fun and more energy at the same time with learning something new. They are more eager to write when they feel they are not working but having fun. Common sense has it that students perform better when they are relaxed and free to develop their own likes. The more they laugh, the more they are easy to be told to do the tasks assigned by teachers. I myself have an experience to share. During some first days of the course, a student in my writing class always sat quietly when I asked her to contribute her ideas to the topics and then she did not write anything down though all her classmates did so. One day, I told the class that they did not learn that day but play only. When the game started and went on, I saw the quiet girl join the game very noisily and when I asked the class to write down a topic based on the game, together with others, the girl worked very industriously on her writing. From the case, it can be noted that having fun in classroom sometimes creates very encouraging results. Paralleling with games, pictures were the choice of many respondents and the reason is obvious. When looking at the pictures, students can pick out many details and see clearly what they can develop on certain topics. Pictures make students have the feeling that they are working on real things with real English. However, teacher should be careful not to overuse the two approaches since that may make students depend too much on fun without really focusing on study; or in some cases, students are serious, and are not clearly told about the usefulness of

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games or pictures, they may feel it a waste of time. The advice is that once again teachers should be flexible and choose the appropriate time to use any of the approaches or in other words, combine them to make the best use. Finally, lets look at the aspect of choosing topics. An overwhelming majority of students preferred to select topics for their own writing (62%) whereas 27% agreed to have the topics assigned by the teacher. The others remained neutral.

100 80 60 40 20 0 No No ideas Yes

Since students have free choice of the topics of the writing- to- be, often the things they are interested in, they may be more motivated to do the task than being told to work on a theme they dont like or do not have enough information about. To some extent, it is good in terms of giving students a sense of being independent and a feeling of being a grown-up. However, if giving students too much freedom of selecting their writing topics, it may leads to negative outcomes. That is students get used to choosing their own topics, when they take examinations or deal with compulsory topics such as business letters, notices, or formal announcements, they may find it hard to produce a worth- reading- piece of writing. So this means teacher should assign the topics for their listeners? On one hand, assignments are good for both students and teachers. Students who often cope with assigned topics may feel its quite normal when they are asked to write about something they dont like much. And teachers find it easier to compare the products among students and

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therefore easier to evaluate them. However, there stands a problem. Sometimes, being given topics by the teacher, students may feel passive and they may not be willing to write, which, no doubt, means they are discouraged. Thus a question arises. How to encourage students effectively without indisciplining them? Good advice is that to motivate students in writing class, teachers should recognize when is appropriate to use this method and when to use that method. If they depend too much on a certain way, it may bring about adverse effects. One thing we can learn from this section is that every step requires teachers flexibility since no approach is perfect. As teachers, we should learn how to combine them worthily and make the best out of it. 2While-writing:

A fact that all teachers have to accept is that most of our students are rather reluctant to write a paragraph or an essay in the class as well as at home. This is the biggest problem teachers have to cope with. In other words, how to encourage students to write is most concerned about whenever we mention writing lesson. By carrying out the survey on students' opinion and attitudes, we to some certain extent have found out reasons and solutions to the problem. In the previous part, we have discussed some methods teachers can use in pre-writing teaching stage. And in this part, we will deal with some methods applied in while-writing teaching stage. One of the methods we have discovered is that teacher should map out clear dimensions for students before they really get involved in writing papers. This means that teacher will be the one who decides the working style of students. For example, teacher can ask students to work in different forms such as work in pairs, in groups, work as a whole class or work individually. This factor much depends on real situations in each class. In a class with highly independent students, teacher can let students write individually whereas teacher cannot manage it in a class with lazy students. According our survey's results, forty per cent of respondents when

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being asked about the form of writing in the class are favor of developing their own ideas in pairs. This causes a big surprise! Result:
50 40 By your ow n 30 20 10 0 In pairs In groups A+B+C

Ss opinion on ways of developing ideas during while-writing process

When we asked students the reason for their choice, they said that their writing becomes more effective if it is done by two people at the same time. Of course, we have taken this idea into consideration. And we have also applied this method in some writing class. The result has satisfied our expectations. Most of students when being asked to write a paragraph in pair seem to be more eager to do their task. Their writing is more perfect with fewer mistakes and more interesting contents. This means when two people work together, they will support each other by correcting mistakes immediately and using perfect words or phrases. That is the reason why they can produce a perfect writing. So we can come to conclusion that students prefer to write in pairs. This helps us in particular and teachers in general a lot when teaching writing skill. From the result, we will know how to take activities in the class to make the lesson most effective. What must teacher do? With obvious dimensions before writing, teacher also can organize the class by dividing it into small pairs and tell students limited time to write. In order to avoid the situation in which two excellent or two weak students are in a group, teacher can use different ways of forming groups, e.g. teacher asks students to count from 1 to 2 and make pairs of number 1 and pairs of

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number 2. In addition, to enhance effectiveness of writing in pairs, teacher will have to give them common topics which most of students have something to share with their partners. Students cannot work in pairs to write a topic like "Describe the person you like most". Besides, teacher should limit time, the length of the writing and give clear organization for all of students when they work in pairs to avoid uneven level because the excellent pairs are likely to lengthen their writing. However, developing ideas in pairs is sometimes not easy to do. For instance, that students are always asked to work in pairs can bring about bad marks in the final test. The reason for this is students have to do the test individually meanwhile they are allowed to write with friends during practice. This is the problem that teacher should consider. Work in pairs is good to some extent but not effective when teacher does not know how to get benefits from it. Sometimes in writing lesson, teacher should let students write by their own. And sometimes working in groups is also useful. Thus, to get a very effective writing lesson, teacher should combine all forms of teaching to apply in each class in a proper way. Another method teacher can use is that students can be awarded if their writing is well done. This is considered a very wonderful teaching strategy because we have realized that most of students are eager and excited about writing. The following statistics has shown this very clearly.

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Ss opinion on the effect of awards given by Ts during lesson

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Yes No No ideas

The above highest column represents the percentage of respondents who agree with the fact that there should be always presents for the best writers. The reason for this result is that students will feel more attracted when they know there are gifts waiting for them. In fact, all people like being presented with gifts. Whenever someone is gifted, they also will be happy and sometimes it is very easy to ask them to do something. Moreover, it cannot be denied that if teacher brings gifts to the class and declares the competition with the prize, students certainly will be very curious and think that they will do their best to gain gifts from teacher. Therefore, present brought to the class is very effective way in order to encourage students to get involved in writing. It suits the psychology of students who really want to get gifts. Furthermore, this method also creates a competitive atmosphere in the class. All students will think that they must make great effort to get presents. Because they do not want to get left behind their friends. Obviously, awards such as small books, stories.... can stimulate students' eagerness to lessons in general and to writing lesson in particular. In general, this is the effective teaching tip. However, teacher must consider the way of taking activities because not all students are hardworking or eager to write. In some cases, some still refuse to write even though there are presents to award the best students. In these circumstances, teacher must be tactful. Teacher can divide the class into small groups. In each group, there are excellent and lazy students working together. When being in groups, maybe lazy students will have a spirit of team. And because of team spirit, these lazy students will cooperate with their group's partners to gain the prize. Clearly, this way not only helps students enhance their writing skill but also improve their responsibility. Thus, teacher always plays a very significant role in the lesson because only she or he knows how to control and adjust the class into the right orbit. The third method teacher should take into consideration is the teaching tools or materials. When being asked about materials students like to use in writing lessons, 72 per cent of respondents are interested in using special papers and pens to write.

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Plain papers and pens Special papers and pens

Ss agreement to the use of teaching tools distributed by Ts in classes

The reason they have given is very simple. They said that special papers and pens can make them feel more interested in writing. And their writing at that time seems to be a work. Moreover, some students emphasize that they will feel more responsible when writing on beautiful papers with different special pens such as colored pencils, crayons, etc. So the different teaching materials can help teacher a lot encourage students to write. We will give an example to illustrate its positive sides. During the time attending REI's class - a teaching approach class we have observed the various ways of teaching writing skill. The teacher prepared small pieces of cards and many boxes of crayons. Those cards are in different colors, which attracted all of us. We remember that we had to learn the ways of writing a paragraph about meals. At first, teacher gave each of us a card with favorite color. She asked us to use crayons to draw pictures showing our favorite dishes. Teacher only gave us five minutes drawing. We realized that all of us really concentrated on our work. We chose suitable colors to draw on their favorite cards. After five minutes, we were required to exchange cards. At this time, teacher asked us to write a short paragraph describing partner's favorite dishes. This was very interesting work for us to do. Because we are not only had a chance to admire the "drawing ability of our friends" but also had opportunities to improve our writing skill. Finally, teacher asked us to exchange the cards once more time to correct mistakes. In this step, we
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were given a chance to see pictures and read paragraph as well as enhance our ability to analyze words or structures to finish peer correction. Then cards were given back to their owners. So one thing we can learn from American teacher is that she is very creative when using beautiful teaching materials which easily catch students' eyes. This makes students feel enjoyable and stimulate their desire to write. Moreover, choosing their favorite cards and colored pens also makes them think that they are concerned. They do writing with pleasant attitudes without feeling of any compulsion. This is the most important thing when teaching any subject especially teaching writing skill. When we do anything without feeling of compulsion, we can reach the target easily. That's why teacher should prepare carefully to work out their plans in the class so as to arouse attraction, funs and eagerness to students whenever they get into writing process. In addition to three above-mentioned methods, teacher can use other ways to encourage students to write during lesson. But the important thing whenever teacher gives out an activity is whether his or her activity is suitable with students' levels. If it does not proper, we get nothing at the end of the lesson. Therefore, teacher must always pay attention to this point. For example, with elementary level, when teaching students to write a postcard to be sent to their friends, teacher first must show a model postcard to students. She or he should explain the way of writing contents, the form that students can imitate. Especially, teacher has to emphasize on using suitable words, phrases or structures. And then teacher can give each student a postcard and ask them to write basing on the model one. However, at intermediate level, teacher can use way of altering dictation. It means that teacher will dictate some sentences about her or his habits or interests. But when listening to the teacher, students must change each sentence to suit their own interests. Obviously, this helps students develop both listening skill and writing skill. In short, there are many methods teacher can use to encourage and motivate students during writing process. But to achieve a very effective lesson, teacher must consider carefully before taking any activity. The consideration here means
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whether teacher's activity draws on students' attention or suits students' level or not. This is the most significant and decisive factor to help teacher succeed in her or his lesson.

3- . Post-writing: No doubt, giving feedback is a sensitive issue that teachers should lay stress on. When you receive written book, we normally correct and comment on it and give it back. The question is what we should do to avoid de-motivating students next writing. This part discusses various problems associated with how teachers can give feedback on original writing in English without any de-motivation and discouragement of students. Such questions as What should feedback be mainly on: Language? Content? Organization?; Should learners rewrite, incorporating corrections?; Should all mistakes be corrected?; Should we let students correct or give feedback on each others written work?; How do teachers comments affect students writing interest? are of great concern. However, for the limited scope we study, the three last questions should be focused on. 1. Teachers comments:

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% yours e lf your clas s m ate your te ache r

Ss opinion on ways of checking mistakes in classes

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As can be seen in the above bar chart, most of students prefer to have their teacher check (nearly 80), whereas the percentage of students would like to have their work checked by themselves and by their classmates are equal, only 11%. The number shows that Vietnamese students take up this habit when they are at school. Moreover, this can be explained by the aspect of psychology. They may feel shy when their mistakes are exposed. In fact, correcting written work is very time-consuming particularly if we have large classes. One possible solution is to let students correct and edit each others. They may not be able to see or define all the all the good qualities or shortcomings of an assignment, but they, but they will detect at least some of them. The problem is: will students feel uncomfortable correcting, or being corrected by their peers? Will they accept criticism (positive or negative) from each other? In general, peer-correction can be a time saving and useful technique; also, critical reading for style, content and language accuracy is a valuable exercise in itself. This does not release teachers from the duty of checking and evaluating students writing; but it can be a substitute for first draft reading. Students can work together on their first drafts, giving each other feedback on content, language and organization; they then rewrite and give in the final version to the teacher. The question of personal relationships, trusts and willingness to accept criticism and help from one another remains. This is not a problem that can be solved by particular teaching techniques; it depends on the general classroom climate, which in its turn is created by the attitudes of both students and teachers.

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2. Should all mistakes be corrected?

60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% disagree agree no ideas

Ss attitude to the number of mistakes checked in lessons The majority of students (60%) disagree with correcting every mistake in written work; however, a small number, accounting for 35%, believes teachers should correct all mistakes. The rest had no ideas. If we accept that language (including punctuation) should be corrected; another problem arises: should all language mistakes be noted, even if therere so many that the page will be covered with corrections? If not, how do we judge which to relate for which not? The problem is one of potential conflict between two of our functions as teachers: Language instruction versus support and encouragement of learning. The correction of mistakes is part of the language instruction but too much of it can be discouraging and demoralizing. Also, over-emphasis on language mistakes can distract both learners and teachers attention from the equally important aspects of content or organization. Some kind of compromise is obviously called for, which will vary according to context. In principle, it would seem reasonable to say that language mistakes should be ignored if there is a danger that to correct them would hinder learning more than help it. We might correct only mistakes that actually affect meaning ( that is), might lead to misunderstanding or confusion on the part of the reader),
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and / or those which are very basic; or of course, vary our response according to individual need. 3. How should teachers correct the written work?

50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

positively negatively not at all

Ss opinion on the influence of Ts comments on their writing The number of students thinks teachers comment had positive and negative influence on students writing interest are 49% and 46% respectively. The others remain neutral. Figures indicate that this matter is of great controversial, thus, it is necessary for teachers to find out solution. Most students find it very dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is covered in red ink, underlining and cross-out. It is a powerful visual statement of the fact that their written English is terrible. Of course, some pieces of written work are completely full mistakes, but even in these cases, over-correction can have a very de-motivating effect. As with all types of correction, the teacher has to achieve a balance between being accurate and truthful on the one hand and treating students sensitively and sympathetically on the other. One way of avoiding the over-correction problem is teachers tell their students that for a particular piece of work they are only going to correct mistakes of

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punctuation, or spelling, or grammar etc. This has two advantages: it makes students concentrates on that particular aspects, and it cuts down on the correction. Another technique which many teachers use is to agree on a list of written symbols ( S = spelling, WO = word order etc). When they come across a mistake they underline it discreetly and write the symbol in the margin. This makes correction look less damaging. However many mistakes you want to identify, it is always worth writing a comment at the end of a piece of written work - anything from well done to this is a good story, but you must look again at your use of past tense - see X grammar book, page 00. Two last points: correcting is important, but it can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially when it is difficult to know what the mistake is because it is unclear what the student is trying to say. Common sense and talking to students about it are the only solutions here. The other really important point is that correction is worthless if students just put their corrected writing away and never look at it again. Teachers have to ensure that they understand the problem and then redraft the passage correctly.

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Conclusion When English is increasingly used globally, the need to learn it also upsoars. In the process of acquiring a language of learners, teachers play a vital role. Apart from mastering English, they should learn how to motivate their learners. Sometimes motivation is indispensable to the success of students, especially in terms of writing ability. We want to conclude our research by displaying an opinion about good teachers: Good teachers are those in some way push me to want to give of my best!

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References 1. Penny Ur. A course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 2. Bernal Spolsky. Conditions for Second language learning,1989. 3. Martin Parrott. Tasks for Language teachers. Cambridge University Press, 1993. 4. Jonathan Chandler, and Mark Stone. The resourceful English teacher. Oxford University Press, 1999. 5. Brown, H.Douglas. Teaching by principles. Prentice Hall Regents, 1994. 6. Harmer, J. How to teach English. Longman, 1998. 7. Paul, D. & Eric, P. Success in English teaching. Oxford University Press, 2000. 8. Snow, M. A. Teaching English as a Second Foreign Language. Heine & Heine. 9. Freeman & Larsen, D. Techniques and Principles in language teaching. Oxford University Press, 2000. 10. Doff, A. Teach English. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

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Appendix Questionnaires 1. When brainstorming, you prefer to work A. by your own C. in groups A. Teachers ideas C. Articles assigned by your teacher? A. Yes A. by your own C. in groups B. No ideas B. in pairs D. all A + B + C C. No 4. While writing, you would like to develop your ideas B. in pairs D. as a whole class B. Pictures D. Games

2. In terms of teachers aid, which of the following would motivate you best?

3. Among a range of ideas on the same topic, do you want to use the ideas

5. Do you think you are more likely to get involved in writing if you receive an award for the best written afterwards? A. Yes papers and pens? A. Plain sheets of papers and normal pens B. Special papers and colored pens Please clarify your answer: 2. After finishing your writing, do you want it to be checked by: A. yourself A. Yes A. positively B. your classmate B. No B. negatively C. your teacher C. No ideas C. Not at all 3. Should all mistakes be corrected? 4. How do teachers comments affect your writing interest? B. No ideas C. No 6. Would you prefer to use plain sheets of papers and normal pens to special

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Appendix 1. Brainstorming ideas By your own In pairs In groups As a whole class 27%

13%

15%

45%

Table 1: Ss ideas on ways of brainstorming during while-writing process 2. Motivating factors Teachers ideas 10% Pictures Articles Games

35%

8%

47%

Table 2: Ss opinion on the impact of motivating factors given by teachers writing classes 3. Ss opinion Yes 27% No 11% No ideas 62%

Table 3: Ss opinion on using topics assigned by Ts

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4. Developing ideas (A) By your own 26% (B) In pairs 47% (C) In groups 18% All (A) + (B) + (C) 9%

Table 4: Ss opinion on ways of developing ideas during while-writing process 5. Ss ideas opinion Yes 77% No ideas 9% No 14%

Table 5: Ss opinion on the effect of awards given by Ts during lesson 6. Teaching tools Plain papers and normal Special papers and pens pens 28% 72%

Table: Ss agreement to the use of teaching tools distributed by Ts in classes

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7. Mistake correction By yourself 11% By your classmate 11% By your teacher 78%

Table 7: Ss opinion on ways of checking mistakes in classes 8. Ss attitude Yes 35% No 60% No ideas 5%

Table 8: Ss attitude to the number of mistakes checked in lessons 9. Ts comments on Positively Sswriting 49% Negatively Not at all

46%

5%

Table 9: Ss opinion on the influence of Ts comments on their writing N.B.: Ss = Students Ts = Teachers

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