Experimental Research on the Effect of Self-monitoring Technique on Improving Writing Skill among English-major Freshmen at a University in Hanoi

• Main Author: Mạc, Thị Huyền
• Other Authors: Trần, Thị Thu Hiền
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: ĐHNN 2017
• Online Access: http://repository.vnu.edu.vn/handle/VNU_123/40410
• Institution: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

This experimental research was conducted at a university in Hanoi within 5 months.The participants consisted of 58 English - major freshmen. The research aims at investigating the efficiency of self-monitoring technique to student writing performance and explore the students’ attitudes toward this technique. Self-monitoring in writing was understood as a new learning method in which students annotate their texts with any doubts they have during the writing process and the teacher can give feedback not only on the finished draft but also reply to the students’ questions. Pretest, posttest, four writing tasks and semi-structured interview are allinstruments employed by the researcher. The findings reveal that the students can be trained to use self-monitoring effectively. The annotations they made in their compositions grew both in quantity and quality in terms of content, organization and language form. Self-monitoring was successful in improving student writing proficiency. Their writing scores significantly increased from pretest to posttest. The majority of the students took a positive attitude toward self-monitoring. They believed in the efficacy of self-monitoring in spite of some difficulties at the beginning and recommended the continuation of self-monitoring for the next school year with more training time as well as more self-monitoring models. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future studies are drawn out based on the research findings.