English Major

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

15. Thanks for your attention!

16. Chart 1: students’ attitude toward some kinds of
English essays .

17. Chart 2: The factors affect students’ writing
style

18. Chart 3: Students’ frequency of getting
mistakes relating to essay structure

19. Chart 3.4: The challenging part in an essay

20. Chart 3.5: Factors making a coherent essay

21. Chart 6: Students’ feeling about using four
strategies before writing

22. Chart 7: Methods applied in an essay

23. Chart 8: Ways of organizing a Cause- Effect
Essay (CEE)

24. Chart 9: Ways of writing a Comparison Essay
(CE)

25. Chart 10: The structures for the
Argumentative Essay (AE)

26. Chart 11: Factors including in an
argumentative conclusion.