HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI MINH HUYEN

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

ENCOUNTERED BY THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS
AT HUBT
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG KĨ NĂNG VIẾT TIẾNG
ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH
TẠI HUBT

HANOI, 2023
 HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI MINH HUYEN

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

ENCOUNTERED BY THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS
AT HUBT
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG KĨ NĂNG VIẾT TIẾNG
ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH
TẠI HUBT

Field: English Language

Name: Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen
Student’s code: 19145442
Course: GD24.03
Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh, M.A

HANOI, 2023
 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “A Study on Difficulties in English Writing Skills Encountered by
The Second-Year English Majors at HUBT” submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of English Language. Except
for the indicated reference, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgment in the text of the graduation paper.

Hanoi, 2023

Nguyễn Thị Minh Huyền

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Nguyễn Thị Phương Anh

Date: 11th, November 2023

i
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
During the process of implementing this graduation paper, I have
received a great deal of help, guidance and encouragement from my teachers,
my family, and my friends.
Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms. Nguyen Thi
Phuong Anh, M.A - my supervisor for her assistance and guidance during this
challenging process. She has generously given me valuable suggestions,
advice, and comments on my study. I find that this paper cannot come to an
end without her enthusiastic support.
Secondly, I would like to sincerely thank all the teachers of the Faculty
of English Language Studies at Hanoi University of Business and Technology
(HUBT), who have thoughtfully trained me in the past four years.
My special thanks also go to my dear friends who willingly helped me
in carrying out the survey and made a great contribution to my topic by giving
ideas, comments, suggestions which are very useful for my research.
Finally, I would like to give my wholehearted thanks to my family who
has stood behind me throughout this entire process.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iii
ABSTRACT vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATION vii
LIST OF TABLES AND CHART viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Design of the study 2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
1. MATERIAL COLLECTION 4
1.1. Theoretical background 4
1.1.1. Overview of writing skills 4
1.1.2. Types of writing skills 5
1.1.3. The criteria of writing skills for the second-year English majored
students 7
1.1.4. Problems in English writing skills of the non-native learners 7
1.1.5. Strategies to improve English writing skills 10
1.2. Research Methodology 11
1.2.1. Survey questionnaire 11
1.2.2. Participants 11
1.2.3. Research setting 11
2. DATA ANALYSIS 12
2.1 The situation of the second-year English majors at HUBT in writing skills 12

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2.2. HUBT second-year English majors’ problems in Writing skills 14
2.3. Suggestions to improve English Writing skills 16
2.3.1. Doing peer review exercises 16
2.3.2. Using technology 17
3. RESULTS 18
3.1. The second-year English majors’ difficulties in learning English writing
skills 18
3.2. Suggestions to improve English writing skills 19
PART C: CONCLUSION 21
1. Recapitulation 21
2. Limitation of the study 21
3. Suggestions for further studies 22

iv
 ABSTRACT

Along with the rapid development of globalization, English is considered

as the most common language used in almost all countries and in official
cases. Therefore, learning English becomes more essential now than ever,
especially writing skills. However, writing is the most difficult skills in
learning a new language.

This graduation paper aims at giving appropriate suggestions based on

the understanding about the difficulties in learning writing skills, in order to
find out the effective ways to improve English writing skills.

During the research stage, a group of fifty second-year English majors at

HUBT were surveyed to explore the difficulties in learning English writing.
They were guided to complete a questionnaire including some multiple-
choice questions about their perspective and experience.

It is found that HUBT second-year English majors face two main

problems in grammar and vocabulary - with articles, word forms and their
lack of topic vocabulary challenging them the most.

As the findings suggest, students should employ language learning

practices such as "grammar check application", "Peer review” and ultilize
unlimited online resources to improve their writing skills. The findings can be
referred for other learners all well, especially in ESL and EFL context. The
study will hopefully be useful for those who are interested in the topic as well
as for further research.

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATION

• CEFR: The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

• CV: Curriculum Vitae

• Dr: Doctor

• EFL: English as a Foreign Language

• ESL: English as a Second Language

• HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology

• IELTS: International English Language Testing System

• P: page

• PC: peer-checking

• VWT: Virtual Writing Tutor

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 LIST OF TABLES AND CHART

Table 2.1: Common writing practice of the second-year English majors at

HUBT in writing skills 12
Table 2.2: Students’ difficulties in English writing skills 13
Table 2.3: Grammar difficulties in writing skills 14
Table 2.4: Student’s difficulties in vocabulary 15
Chart 2.5: Frequency of doing peer review exercises 16
Chart 2.6: Frequency of using technology to improve English writing 17

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 PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study

Nowadays, writing plays a vital role in daily life. People write for
different purposes such as letters, academic purposes or obtaining necessary
information.

Writing skills is an important part of communication. Instead of verbally

exchanging ideas by speaking and listening, writing and reading can be done
on the page.

During my journey of learning English as foreign language at HUBT, I

have been faced with many difficulties in learning English writing skills,
because of lack of professional knowledge, confidence, as well as a proper
learning method. Besides, the passive learning environment from high school
with the repetitive boring lessons leads to defective results in learning writing
in university. Being an English major, I am aware that writing skills is very
important for me in the future to earn a job related to English major,
especially in the first step which is creating a CV or writing an email. During
my internship, I had a chance to work in a foreign company, where I had to
write weekly English reports to my managers, contact with supervisors and
customers via English email, etc. In my perception, English writing is one of
the most important and difficult skills that students should improve as soon as
possible during their time in university.

As research, I would like to present the thesis title “A study on

difficulties in English writing skills encountered by the second-year
English majors at HUBT” with the hope of helping students at HUBT to
overcome the difficulties in learning writing skills.

1
 2. Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims to find out difficulties faced by the second-year English
majors at HUBT, which includes two following objectives:

● To explore the students’ difficulties in learning English writing skills.

● To suggest some solutions to help students overcome the difficulties in

learning English writing skills.

3. Research questions

The study is conducted to answer the following questions:

1. What are the HUBT second-year English-majored students’ difficulties

in English writing skills?

2. What are some solutions to improve their English writing skills?

4. Scope of the study

The study is about learning English writing skills for second-year students
in HUBT. Due to the limitation of time and reference materials, this study
cannot cover the whole issue of writing skills. It only focuses on exploring
difficulties faced by students in writing skills. Moreover, the study could not
touch all the students. It is only confined to second-year students in the
Faculty of English Language Studies at HUBT.

5. Design of the study

The paper is organized as follows:

Part A: Introduction

This part shows the rationale of the study, aims of the study, research
questions, scope of the study, and design of the study, which are provided to
introduce and serve as a basis for the whole study.

2
 Part B: Development

There are three main sections in this part.

The first is Data collecting, which is delivered to the reader’s theoretical

background including definition of writing, the importance of writing, and
difficulties in learning writing skills. Besides, the collection of primary data is
shown in this section.

The next section is Data analysis which consists of two parts. Firstly,
some problems that HUBT English majors have to face in writing are shown.
Then comes the most important part of the thesis, which is the solutions to
improving English writing for the second-year English majors.

The last section is Results in which the answers to the two research
questions are presented.

Part C: Conclusion

This part contains a research summary, the limitations of the study, and
suggestions for further studies.

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 PART B: DEVELOPMENT

1. MATERIAL COLLECTION

1.1. Theoretical background

1.1.1. Overview of writing skills

A collection of visual signs that are connected to a certain level of

linguistic structure by convention are used in writing as a medium of human
communication. This definition emphasizes how writing can "map onto" or
represent any level of spoken language structure, including sentences, words,
syllables, and phonemes (the smallest units of speech used to distinguish one
word or morpheme from another). Writing is, in theory, the representation of
language rather than a direct representation of thought. In fact, the
development of writing has involved the identification and representation of
these spoken language structural levels to create an effective, all-
encompassing, and affordable writing system that could perform a variety of
useful societal roles. Competence with a writing system and the specific
purposes that written language serves in each community are requirements for
literacy.

Writing is one of the most important skills in English. Writing not only
improves an individual's writing skills and knowledge but also supports other
English main skills. Wen (2007, p.4) shows “writing is gradually becoming
an important issue nowadays in English.” According to Yakhontova (2003),
English academic writing is formal and useful. Writing serves various goals
for its population. He also indicates some important characteristics of
academic writing. They are “an important feature of academic written
discourse is a cautious manner of writing” and “English academic writing is a
tendency to choose more formal alternatives when selecting words of
different parts of speech”.

4
 Feldman and Usoff (2001) also agree that students’ awareness of the
importance of writing have to be heightened. That is the ultimate goal and is
also the first step to helping students write more effectively. In short, the
authors mainly affirm the importance of writing which affects most EFL
learners to help them succeed.

1.1.2. Types of writing skills

According to Lusine Avagyan (2012), there are four types of writing

skills: Expository, Narrative, Descriptive, and Persuasive.

Expository: An expository essay is an informative piece of writing,

where the writer explains a topic, using facts, statistics, and examples. An
expository essay never uses personal comments, thoughts, and ideas. It uses
only facts.

Example: The risks associated with drug experimentation depend on

various factors, such as quantity, frequency of use, combination used, and the
way a certain drug is taken.

Narrative: A narrative type of essay refers to a written composition

whose story is told from a defined point of view; that is to say narrative
essays are usually written in the first person (I, me). The writer concentrates
on his/her memories, life, thoughts.

Example: I was always afraid of the water, but I decided that swimming
was an important skills that I should learn. I also thought it would be good
exercise. What I didn’t realize was that learning to swim would also make me
a more confident person.

5
 Descriptive: Descriptive writing is a style of writing which focuses on
describing a character, an event or a place in great detail. The author
visualizes what he sees, hears, tastes, and feels.

Example: There’s something very calming about looking out over a

tranquil lake, its surface as smooth as glass, reflecting the beautiful summer sky.

Persuasive: Persuasive writing is a type of writing which contains

justifications and reasons to make someone understand an issue from their
perspective.

Example: Now, with the technological revolutions and discoveries that

made our history, we seem to pay little attention to nature, getting more and
more disconnected from it every day. However, the links we have with nature
cannot disappear. There are a number of key reasons in favor of the concept
that people should try to connect with nature more than they do today.

Rob van Tulder (2018) indicates that there are four levels of writing
skills including

Level 1

 Writing simple texts with acceptable argumentation

 The writing process is key (formulation gets most attention)

Level 2

 Writing a solid line of argument, based on a clear question, in an

acceptable amount of time.
 The argumentation is key (structure gets most attention)

Level 3

6
  Writing a publishable text, based on clear questions or hypotheses.
 The sophistication of the product and its contents are key (all
phases get equal attention)

Level 4

 Writing applicable texts for specific audiences

 The impact of the writing is key (all phases are important, but
often in a much shorter time span)

According to Cambridge English’s assessment on the writing

performance of B1-level learners, the text should be connected and coherent,
using basic linking words, and a limited number of cohesive devices.

1.1.3. The criteria of writing skills for the second-year English

majored students

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

(CEFR) is an international standard for describing language ability. It
describes language ability on a six-point scale, from A1 for beginners to C2
for those who have mastered a language.

According to the Faculty of English Language Studies at HUBT,

second-year English majors are expected to achieve level 3 at English
proficiency (equivalent to level B1 in the CEFR framework) by the end of the
course. After completing this level, students can write simple, connected
contents on familiar topics or personal interests; can describe experiences and
events, dreams, hopes and ambitions; giving reasons and brief explanations
for ideas and plans.
1.1.4. Problems in English writing skills of the non-native learners
According to Heaton (1979), the writing skills in a foreign language is

7
complex and difficult to learn, not only the ability to use structures, but also
the concept of varied skills such as stylistic and mechanical skills. Stylistic
skills is the ability to manipulate sentences and use language effectively
whereas mechanical skills is the ability to correctly use those conventions
peculiar to the written language such as punctuation and spelling.
The students’ difficulties in writing English can be influenced by a lack
of vocabulary and grammar knowledge, as well as a lack of written exercises
and ideas. This is supported by Sulasti (2003), the problems most learners
face are how to write, what to be written, and lack of vocabulary as well as
incompetence in structures.
Writing is a very difficult skills for learners because writing consists of
morphemes, syntax, grammar structure and how to combine the words to
make correct sentences. According to Bryne (1988): Writing is the act of
forming letters or a combination of letters according to certain conventions to
form words and the words must be arranged into sentences. It is generally
agreed that writing is the most difficult skills to master for foreign language
learners.
Bryne (1988) divided the problems that make writing difficult into three
categories. The first is Linguistic Difficulty. Linguistics aspects such as
grammar, vocabulary, language use and structures in writing must be fully
monitored. The second is Physiology Difficulty, which focuses more on the
writers’ adversity since there is no direct interaction and feedback from the
readers during writing. This leads to difficulty in developing written materials
or contents of composition. The third is Cognitive Difficulty. Writing has to
be taught through formal instruction like spelling, punctuation, capitalization
and paragraphing.
A study by Nga and Uyen (2023) found that English majored students at
Tay Do are faced with many difficulties in English writing skills in terms of

8
vocabulary, grammar, and background knowledge. According to them,
students find it very confusing to choose words, which leads to using simpler
and less interesting words in the paragraph. Take these two sentences as
examples:
 “Love you like a love song” is a song with a good melody and affection. (1)
 “Love you like a love song” is a catchy melody song and full of love
lyrics. (2)
Compared to sentence (1) which is simply written and mediocre,
sentence (2) is more expressive and richer in word choice. However, many
students end up producing sentences similar to (1) as a result of lack of
vocabulary.
Besides, the study by Nga and Uyen (2023) indicates that the gap
between Vietnamese grammar and English grammar poses a tough challenge
for students who are not familiar with intricate details such as English tenses
and word order. The first grammatical challenge for many students is the
usage of tenses. Since Vietnamese grammar includes a few indicators like
"sẽ" (future), "đã" (past) or "đang" (present continuous), it is easy to express
the tenses of circumstances or events in Vietnamese. Meanwhile, to match the
same context in English, some tenses must be used alternatively within one or
two sentences, which is confusing to non-native writers. For students with a
lack of basic grammar knowledge, using tenses is one of the biggest obstacles
to their writing.
The results of Phuong’s study (2021) showed that students basically face
seven challenges in learning English writing: vocabulary (1), grammar (2),
prior knowledge (3), organizing ideas (4), time management (5), teacher’s
instruction (6) and the dependency on mother language (7).
A growing mass of research has offered valuable insights into the
significance of this skills for academic success. Many researchers have studied

9
students’ writing problems. In some research, the authors identified
undergraduate students’ word and sentence level mistakes in English writing.
Therefore, many researchers have found that writing in a second language poses
many problems for most of the English as a foreign language (EFL) learner.
After studying, the author based on the study of Phuong’s study (2021)
with seven difficulties in writing related to vocabulary (1), grammar (2), prior
knowledge (3), organizing ideas (4), time management (5), teacher’s
instruction (6) and the dependency on mother language (7) to explore the
HUBT second-year English majored students.
1.1.5. Strategies to improve English writing skills
Peer Review is an appropriate technique to improve students' writing
skills. Peer review techniques are prevalent and have been applied in different
contexts (Conde et al. 2017). Peer review is one of the techniques in teaching
writing. Peer review is an important activity in students' writing process to
respond to each other's writing. Using peer review technique is very helpful
for students to improve their Written work because this technique allows
students to learn more with their classmates by exchanging ideas.
Students’ writing ability can be improved by fostering their interest,
motivation, and enjoyment for writing, through technology (Graham & Perin,
2007).
The arrival of computers and other technological devices led to the rapid
development of teaching and learning methods. They make learning other
languages more convenient than ever. Technology helps the students to
express their ideas with more confidence and without any worries of
handwriting and spelling errors. This technique allows the learners to receive
instant feedback from their instructors and it also hones the learners’
vocabulary skills. The online discussion forums support communication
among the learners and with their teachers which can also improve their

10
speaking skills. The major advantage of this technique is that, upon writing on
the computer or other devices, immediate alert will be given to the
grammatical and spelling errors so that the learners can make corrections in
no time. With a rich technology, English language learners can become better
readers and writers of English (Ismail, Al-Awidi&Almekhlafi, 2012).
1.2. Research Methodology
To conduct the study, the author employed both Quantitative and
Qualitative research methods, via interviewing students and using an online
survey questionnaire. The data was then synthesized and evaluated to help
identify student problems and give suggestions for improving their writing
skills.
1.2.1. Survey questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research tool consisting of a series of questions to
collect information from respondents. The questionnaire includes 6 questions
to help the author collect information for two research questions presented in
the very first part of this paper. All questions where students can circle the
correct answer.
1.2.2. Participants
The data utilized in this research paper was gathered from a survey
carried out among 50 students who are second-year students of Faculty of
English Language Studies at HUBT in March 2023.
1.2.3. Research setting
The questionnaire was created and formatted via Google Form on the
Internet. The link was sent to the intended audience between March 15 and
March 30. The subjects of the study are 50 second-year English majors, who
are engaged in learning at HUBT. They were guided to complete a list of
survey questions and submit it to the author by March 30, and the information
gathered was synthesized and analyzed in the next section.

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2. DATA ANALYSIS
2.1 The situation of the second-year English majors at HUBT in writing
skills
According to the Faculty of English Language Studies at HUBT, the
second-year English majors are to achieve English proficiency at level 3
(equivalent to level B1 in the CEFR framework) by the end of the course. To
meet the requirements of level B1, their writing must be connected and
coherent using basic linking words with a limited number of cohesive
devices. At students’ current level, they are supposed to be able to write
simple and complex sentences, short paragraphs of 100-150 words, some
formal and informal emails, and essays.

Question 1: What writing levels do you often practice? Frequency

(you can choose more than one options)

Sentences 100%

Paragraphs (100-150 words) 80%

Emails 32%

Assignments 52%

Essays 24%

Table 2.1: Common writing practice of the second-year English majors at

HUBT in writing skills

Table 2.1 shows the common writing practice of the second-year

English majors at HUBT. The data from Table 2.1 indicates that all
participants adopt the habit of writing English sentences in their daily life,

12
half of which (52%) via writing school assignments. Most participants (80%)
seek to practice with short paragraphs of 100-150 words. The formal and
informal emails account for 32% of their choice when it comes to writing
practice. Only one quarter (24%) of the participants practice writing longer
academic essays, due to its complications. To conclude, the most common
writing practices of second-year HUBT are sentences and paragraphs. A
possible implication from the results is the students’ unwillingness to try with
more complex types of writing, resulting from their lack of confidence and
writing skills. The subjects of the study are supposed to be capable of first-
year required skills such as rewriting the sentences, choosing the correct word
forms, using linking words, etc. However, as second-year English majors,
they are required to achieve a higher level in academic writing.

Question 2: What are our difficulties in English writing? Frequency

Problems relating to Vocabulary 92%

Problems relating to Grammar 100%

Problems relating to organizing ideas 40%

Problems relating to time management 20%

Problems relating to teacher’s instruction 4%

Problems relating to the dependency on mother language 28%

Table 2.2: Students’ difficulties in English writing skills

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 Table 2.2 displays different difficulties of HUBT second-year English
majors in writing English. As clearly seen from the table, Grammar and
Vocabulary pose the biggest challenge for the surveyed students, in which all
students encounter grammatical problems and most struggle with Vocabulary.
The others (organizing ideas, time management, teacher’s instruction,
dependency on mother language) make up smaller parts, from 4% to 40%,
with very few students having problems with teacher’s instruction (4%)

2.2. HUBT second-year English majors’ problems in Writing skills

Grammar problems

Question 3: What kinds of grammar difficulties do you Frequency

face in writing skills?

I face problems related to word forms (noun, verb,

62%
adjective, adverb)

I find it confusing to use the correct form of verb tenses 48%

I feel difficult to distinguish where the articles (a/an/the

80%
and zero article) are used

Others 20%

Table 2.3: Grammar difficulties in writing skills

It can be seen from Table 2.3 that second-year English majors at HUBT
are faced with many grammatical problems, including correct form of verbs in
different tenses, using articles, and others. Among these problems, distinguishing
articles is the biggest challenge to 80% of the participants. In fact, many students
face problems related to absence and misuse of articles in their writing. Absence

14
of articles occurs when an article is not used before a noun (concrete noun). For
example: Kiki and Toni saw a cat. The noun ‘cat’ must have an article ‘a’.
Misuse of articles occurs when an inappropriate article is put before a noun
(concrete noun). For example: They sat under the tree. Suddenly, they saw the
cat on the tree. The article ‘the’ before noun ‘tree’ is not suitable because it is
never mentioned in the previous part of the text.

The second biggest problem for students is choosing word form, which is
voted by more than half of the participants (62%). Regarding this, the wrong
forms of the parts of speech are used. ‘He gave it to his friend under the tree with
so careful’. The supposed adverb ‘with so careful’ is incorrectly used. The
correct sentence is ‘He gave it to his friend under the tree so carefully’. An
example of errors in singular and plural forms is ‘Iyan and Awan played football
two hour’. This sentence should be ‘Iyan and Awan played football two hours’.

The next adversity that nearly half of the participants (48%) encounter is
using correct verb tenses in English. Some shared that they were confused
between the future perfect continuous and the future perfect, between the simple
past tense and past perfect tense. Other students have problems with subject and
verb agreement of indefinite pronouns. They don’t know if they should use
‘have’ or ‘has’ in the example “Everybody have/has their own life”. In this case,
‘everybody’ is a singular pronoun, so ‘has’ is correct.

Meanwhile, one-fifth of the participants are faced with some grammatical

difficulties regarding modal verb, cleft sentence, adverbial clause, etc.

Vocabulary problems

Question 4: What kinds of difficulties relating vocabulary Frequency

do you face in writing skills?

15
 Lack of vocabulary about topics like cultural life, society,
90%
education, environment, etc.

Lack of idioms 80%

Word structure errors 30%

Table 2.4: Student’s difficulties in vocabulary

Table 2.4 displays the HUBT second-year English majored students’
difficulties in vocabulary when writing. As we can see that, they have three
main problems which are lack of vocabulary about topics like cultural life,
society, education, environment, etc., lack of idioms, word structure errors.
The highest choice comes from “lack of vocabulary about topics like cultural
life, society, education, environment, etc.”, which is voted by most of the
participants. The second rank is lack of idioms. Using idioms shows
familiarity with English. It demonstrates that users are comfortable with both
formal language and informal colloquialisms. When the writers want to make
their writing sound more conversational (informal vs. formal) like in emails,
etc., it should involve idioms because they can give the learners’ writing a
more relaxed tone.
Word structure errors stand in the last rank with 30% choices. It seems
to be not difficult for the second year English majored students when writing
skills; however, some participants recommend that sometimes they made
some errors in using “it’s” and “its”. Indeed, it is a possessive pronoun
meaning “belonging to it”. For example, “the dog chased its tail” while “it’s”
is a contraction of “it is”. Example “It’s a beautiful day in Hanoi”.

16
 2.3. Suggestions to improve English Writing skills
In order to find out whether the target population has employed
particular ways to improve their writing skills, the last questions in the survey
questionnaire were designed. The results are presented in this part.
2.3.1. Doing peer review exercises

Chart 2.5: Frequency of doing peer review exercises

Chart 2.5 shows a very high proportion of HUBT second-year students
who never practice peer review (70%) and rarely do it (20%). Only 4% of the
participants use peer review as a tool to improve their English writing. These
results indicate that the majority of the students do not perform or even do not
acknowledge peer review practice. Peer review is a very effective tool for
students to step into the role of objective readers, thus becoming more critical
and mindful of mistakes one might make when writing. By peer review,
students get to improve their proofreading skills and therefore, better spot and
correct their own writing mistakes. On the other hand, having peers’ feedback
on one’s draft can be advantageous: it helps to develop constructive feedback
skills, opportunities to receive helpful advice from a broader audience other

17
than a single instructor, and exposure to different approaches other students
have taken in responding to an assignment (Nunan, 2003).
2.3.2. Using technology

Chart 2.6: Frequency of using technology to improve English writing

As we can see in Chart 2.6, a big population of this study (70%)
“Sometimes” use technology to improve writing skills. Furthermore, 20% of
the surveyed “Rarely” take advantage of technology development in their
language learning in general and practicing writing in particular. These results
imply that the students have not really focused on the target of improving
English writing when they use the technology. It is no secret that technology
has become more central in our everyday lives than ever before; thus, it is
also an effective tool to enhance our learning, especially a new language. By
using the internet every day, students can expand their vocabulary as well as
exchange experiences with foreign peers and other English learners. Being
English majors, most participants are aware of using online resources and
websites to check their grammar mistakes and expand their vocabulary. It is
suggested that students should pay more attention to practicing English
writing skills by making proper use of online resources.

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 Here are some suggested useful websites that can help to identify
students’ grammatical errors: Grammarly, Error Correction Games, and
Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker. It is advised that students use
grammar-check applications to improve their writing quality.

3. RESULTS

3.1. The second-year English majors’ difficulties in learning

English writing skills

To sum up, the two main types of difficulties in learning English

writing encountered by HUBT second-year students include Grammar and
Vocabulary.

From the results of data analysis on grammar adversity, it can be seen

that the most challenging aspect found in students’ writing is ‘articles’
(a/an/the or zero) with 80% votes, and ‘word forms’ comes second with 62%.
HUBT students also struggle with verb tenses and other grammatical aspects
(cleft sentences, adverb clauses, etc.) Despite being English majors, students
are yet to master English grammar in writing. These results agree with the
study of Bryne (1988), that linguistic aspects such as grammar, vocabulary,
language use, and choice of sentences in writing must be fully monitored
since English is not our native language. Besides, lack of background
knowledge or prior knowledge including Grammar and Vocabulary restrains
students from writing effectively.

Regarding vocabulary, the main weaknesses in students’ writing skills

are lack of vocabulary about various topics (culture, society, education,
environment, etc.), leading to frequent repetitions in their writing. In fact, the
expected outcomes of writing skills for HUBT second-year English majors
are higher than the freshmen, as B2 in the Common European Framework of

19
Reference for Languages (CEFR). It requires second-year English majors to
write an academic essay about different topics.

3.2. Suggestions to improve English writing skills

The survey shows that some of the students have indeed implemented
some strategies to overcome the difficulties in writing and improve this skills
effectively. Here are some other suggestions to further help students manage
time and utilize the development of modern technology to improve their
writing performance.

First of all, students are recommended to use the Peer Check technique
to prevent errors. Error prevention is the principal function of the Peer Check
technique. Peer Check involves two people (performer and peer) self-
checking in parallel, agreeing on the action of performing on the correct
component. This technique takes advantage of another fresh set of eyes, not
affected by the performer’s mindset. The peer, an individual familiar with the
activity, may see the setbacks and errors that the performer does not see.

In addition, peer review exercises should be used more frequently to

maximize their benefits. Peer Check from teachers is included in various acts
such as good marks, great praise, encouragement, etc. Thanks to better time
management, students can be more motivated to write school assignments in
better quality, thus improving their writing over time.

The second recommendation is using grammar check applications such

as Grammarly or Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker. When writing,
students should use these websites to save time for checking errors. The
Virtual Writing Tutor can provide automated essay evaluation with a score
and formative feedback on a variety of writing assignments. Grammarly is a
popular online grammar check tool which is available on Google Chrome,
Firefox, and even Microsoft Edge. It effectively and quickly checks grammar

20
and spelling errors as you write your posts. Utilizing technology in writing
can help you save time, widen your grammar knowledge and so on.

Last but not least, online resources and websites are effective tools to
check grammar mistakes, expand vocabulary as well as exchange experience
with other English learners/ native speakers. The advances of technology
open the door to more opportunities to exchange information and learn
foreign languages.

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 PART C: CONCLUSION

1. Recapitulation

As stated earlier, English writing is challenging but it is extremely

necessary for the language learners. This study is based on quantitative
methods, which focuses on finding out the difficulties that second-year
English majors at HUBT often encounter and propose some solutions for
them. The data collected from a survey questionnaire implies that the target
population are faced with two main problems in grammar and vocabulary.
Regarding grammatical problems, the students are often challenged by
articles and word forms. In terms of vocabulary, the biggest adversity of
second-year English majors stems from their lack of topic vocabulary as well
as English idiomatic language. Based on the students’ experiences and
perception of using some techniques to improve their writing abilities, some
suggestions have been proposed. First, students must be aware of and be able
to employ certain language learning practices such as "grammar check
application", "Peer check" application, or peer review. Besides, there are
various websites and unlimited online resources that students should utilize to
improve their writing skills. Advanced technology offers useful tools to help
students check grammar mistakes, exchange experience, and expand
vocabulary by reading as well. Reading is thought of as a step-up from bad
writing, and it aids students in enhancing their writing skills at their academic
level, according to Paul and Graham (2007). Students feel more comfortable
expressing their own thoughts in writing when they have a strong vocabulary.

2. Limitation of the study

Though having accomplished its goals, the study has some limitations.
First, due to the time limitation, the primary data for this study was collected
only via a survey questionnaire. Instead, the data should be analyzed using

22
participants’ real written tests so that the results are more reliable.
Additionally, a triangulation approach is required for this case study to cross-
check the findings by delving deeper into other points of view from a bigger
group of participants, using a three-dimensional data gathering technique such
as interviews, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Second, the size of
the participant group is quite small. It cannot be denied that the larger the
sample, the more precise the results. However, the writer hopes that this paper
will serve as a useful source for students who seek to improve their writing
skills.

3. Suggestions for further studies

For subsequent research, it is encouraged that other researchers include

instructors on their surveys, owing to their direct involvement with students
and experiences from their work. Hopefully, after students have implemented
the suggested techniques, further exams will be conducted to check the
effectiveness of the above-mentioned solutions.

23
 REFERENCES

1. CEFR (2023), International language standards, Retrieved from

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/cefr/ on 28th,May 2023
2. Bryne, Donn (1988) “Teaching Writing Skills. London”: Longman Group
Limited
3. Feldmann, D. and Usoff, C. (2001). “Improving accounting students'
perceptions about the importance of writing”. Accounting Educators’ Journal,
2001.
4. Graham and Perin (2007). “Strong vocabulary makes the students confident in
describing their inventive ideas in writing form”
5. Heaton, J.B. (1979) Writing English Language Tests: A Practical Guide for
Teachers of English. 5th Edition, Longman, London, p.138.
6. Ismail, Z., Zakaria, H.M., & Aziz, Z. (2007). “The implementation of Internet
integration in the teaching of History subject in Putrajaya. Proceedings of the
1st International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention”, p.94-100.
7. Lusine Avagyan, (2012) Academic Help.net. Persuasive essay sample: Why
People Should Connect more with Nature. Academic Help.net
8. Nga H.T. Nguyen and Nguyen Thi Minh Phan (January, 2023), Some
Difficulties in Writing Skills of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do
University in Viet Nam. Vol. 4 No. 1(2023): British Journal of
Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies.
9. Nunan, D. (2003). “Practical English Language Teaching”. International
Edition, McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 88. PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explain, Link)
10.Thai Thu Phuong (2021). Difficulties in studying writing of english- majored
sophomores at a university in Vietnam
11.Rob van Tulder (2018) The book – Skills Sheets – An Integrated Approach to
Research, Study and Management - (2018, ISBN 9789043033503)

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12. Saiful Bahri (2009), Difficulties In Writing In Vocabulary And Grammar Of
The Second Year Students Of Smpn I Selong East Lombok West Nusa
Tenggara In The School Year 2008/2009
13.Sulasti, Yenny. 2003. The Structure of The Paragraphs Written. Universitas
Bengkulu
14.Wen (2007). “Dual publication and academic inequality”, p4
15.Yakhontova (2003), “English Academic Writing for Students
and Researchers”
16.https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/231794-cambridge-english-
assessing-writing-performance-at-level-b1.pdf
17.https://prep.vn/blog/thang-diem-ielts-writing/

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 APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
How to learn Writing skills effectively?

I am Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen, a student of the Faculty of English

Language Studies, Hanoi University of Business and Technology. I am doing
research on the difficulties of the second-year English majored students in
learning English Writing skills. This questionnaire is designed to help me
obtain data for my research project. I highly appreciate your opinions which
are apparently to the completion as well as the quality of my paper. I do
expect to get your actual understanding and perspective to help me find out
the most exact results. Thank you for your cooperation!

Facts and Opinions

Question 1: What writing levels do you often practice? (you can choose
more than one options)
1. Sentences
2. Paragraphs (100-150 words)
3. Emails
4. Assignments
5. Essays
Question 2: What are our difficulties in English writing?
A. Problems relating to Vocabulary
B. Problems relating to Grammar
C. Problems relating to organizing ideas
D. Problems relating to time management
E. Problems relating to teacher’s instruction
F. Problems relating to the dependency on mother language

3
Question 3: What kinds of grammar difficulties do you face in writing
skills?

A. I face problems related to word forms (noun, verb, adjective, adverb)

B. I find it confusing to use the correct form of verb tenses
C. I feel difficult to distinguish where the articles (a/an/the and zero
article) are used
D. Others
Question 4: What kinds of difficulties relating vocabulary do you face in
writing skills?

A. Lack of vocabulary about topics like cultural life, society, education,

environment, etc.

B. Lack of idioms

C. Word structure errors

Question 5. How often do you do your exercise on Peer check?
A. Always B. Often C. Sometimes D. Rarely
Question 6. How often do you use technology assistance to improve your
English writing skills? (Grammar checking, spelling detectives websites)

A. Always B. Often C. Sometimes D. Rarely

Thank you so much for your cooperation!

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