HUE UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

------------

Research Methods

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Title

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN WRITING CLASS  BY

ENGLISH-MAJOR SOPHOMORES AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, HUE UNIVERSITY
(HUFLIS).

Instructor: Dr. Tran Quang Ngoc Thuy

Student(s): Nguyễn Thị Hoài Thương
Trần Xuân Thanh
Group number: 3.5.2

THUA THIEN HUE, 2023

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 CONTENT

Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………....3
1.1Background of the Topic…………………………….. 3
1.2Problems Statement…………………………………...3
1.3Research Objectives and Research Questions……….3
1.3.1 Research Objectives…………………………….....3
1.3.2 Research Questions………………………………..3-4
1.4. Scope and Limitations of the Study…………………4
1.5. Significance of the Study…………………………….4

Chapter 2: Literature Review………………………………..4

2.1 Main content…………………………………………...5
2.1.1 Studies explored in Asia…………………………....5
2.1.2 Studies explored in Southeast Asia………………..5-7
2.1.3 Studies explored in Southwest Europe……………7-8
2.2 Summary Gaps…………………………………………8

Chapter 3: Research Methodology……………………………8

3.1 Research design…………………………………………8-9
3.2 Participants……………………………………………...9
3.3. Instruments for data collection ……………………….9
3.3.1. The questionnaire …………………………………..9-10
3.3.2. Interview…………………………………………….10
3.4 Piloting …………………………………………………..10-11

Chapter 4: Time Line……………………………………………….11-12

Chapter 5: References………………………………………………12-13

Chapter 6: Appendixes……………………………………………….13
6.1. Appendix 1………………………………………………..13
6.2. Appendix 2………………………………………………..13-15

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.

1.1 Background to the topic:

Writing skill is one of the most important skills for English-major students at
University because not only is writing an academic lesson, but it is also a crucial skill
that translates into any career field. However, many sophomores at Hue University of
Foreign Languages and International Studies are not aware of the importance of
writing skill and the number of them who are successful in this writing skill is too
small. In addition, there are also a lot of mistakes in writing skill. This comes from the
less concentration on writing skill in most sophomores . This research mainly
concentrates on the problems that English-major sophomores often have in writing
class, the reasons that lead to these problems and useful ways to help them overcome
these problems. 

1.2 Problem Statements:

English-Major sophomores at Hue University of Foreign Languages and
International Studies (HUFLIS) often struggle with developing strong English
writing skills. Many of them struggle with grammar, punctuation, and sentence
structure, which can make it difficult for them to effectively communicate their
ideas in written assignments. Additionally, some students may find it
challenging to organize their thoughts and ideas in a coherent and logical
manner, leading to disjointed and confusing writing. Without proper guidance
and support, these writing difficulties can hinder students' academic progress
and impact their future success.
1.3 Research Objectives and Research Questions:

1.3.1. Research Objectives:

This research aims to investigate problems in the writing class of English -

majored sophomores at Hue University of Foreign Languages and International
Studies. Thanks to recognizing their own problems, they are able to find some
suitable solutions for themselves.

1.3.2 Research Questions:

Question1:What are the common problems that English-major

Sophomores at Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies
face in writing class?

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 Question2: What are the useful ways for  English-major Sophomores at
Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University
to overcome these problems ?

1.4 Scope and Limitations of the Study:

This study is conducted to explore the difficulties encountered by English-major

sophomores at HUFLIS in writing class. The study will concentrate on the
common challenges faced by English-major sophomores like grammar,
vocabulary, getting started on writing assignments, organizing ideas, arranging
the sentences. Moreover, the research will also explore the main causes of the
difficulties, as well as suggest ways to overcome them.

1.5 Significance of the Study:

This study will analyze the common problems faced by English-majored

sophomores in writing English class. Therefore, research will explore the
difficulties that almost English-majored students face. From there, some
solutions are given to help them to solve these problems so that they can
achieve good results in English writing class.

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

In this day and age, in the context of globalization and technology revolution
4.0, the level of the fluent use of foreign languages brings a huge advantage for
people. Therefore, English has always been one of the most popular languages
from time immemorial and it has become an important language, possibly the
most important in international communication. Learning English provides
learners with a lot of advantages and satisfies lots of people’s needs, from
individual’s needs to organizations’ recruitment needs or companies’
recruitment needs (Phuong, 2022). Nevertheless, it is not easy for learners to
learn English well, especially in writing English class because it is always
regarded as the most difficult skill compared to the remaining skills including
listening, reading, speaking and writing. In this research, we will make inquiries
and summarize as well as give comments about our discoveries.

Definition of Writing
- Writing is something that has been written or printed.
(Collins dictionary)

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 - Writing is a cognitive activity involving neuropsychological and
physical processes and the use of writing systems to structure and translate
human thoughts into persistent representations of human language.
(Wikipedia).
- Writing is the act of putting pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard...or even
thumbs to phone pad. Any time you record language in script, whether that's a
tweet or the next great American novel, you're writing.
(Vocabulary.com)

2.1 MAIN CONTENT:

There are 6 studies we have investigated that comprehend parallel contents.

Correspondingly, we divide them into three main sections related to its regional
studies:
1. Studies explored in Asia
2. Studies explored in Southeast Asia
3. Studies explored in Southwest Europe

2.1.1 Studies explored in Asia

Certain investigations were conducted in Asia to explore writing difficulties
encountered by learners. We can go through the study of Ibnian (2017).
Ibnian explored difficulties that university students face when they write in
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and solutions to help EFL learners
overcome writing difficulties. He used a questionnaire which was regarded as
the instrument of the study. This questionnaire also included an open-ended
question on suggestions and solutions that can help the students overcome
writing difficulties. There were 82 English majors from the World Islamic
Sciences and Education University in Jordan. The students were randomly
chosen from the third and fourth year English majors. He found that “lack of
ideas” topped difficulties faced by Jordanian EFL students in writing class,
followed by “the incorrect use of mechanics of writing”. In addition, he also
found that “lack of clear assessment instruments and marking schemes”
occupied the third rank, while “time restriction” ranked fourth.

Gaps:
The strength of Ibnian’s study is that it clearly identifies University students’
writing problems. Moreover, this research also attempted to explore solutions
that can help students overcome writing difficulties.

2.1.2 Studies explored in Southeast Asia

Specific explorations were executed in Asia, especially two countries in the
South East of this region, Indonesia and Vietnam, to survey the students’

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difficulties in writing class. Here are featured studies from Ambarwati &
Listyani (2021); Phuong (2021); Lanh & Dung (2022); Nga & Uyen (2023).
Firstly, Ambarwati & Listyani (2021) investigated the problems faced by
students in writing Procedural Essays as well as the strategies to overcome the
problems. They used two instruments to conduct their research which are open-
ended and close-ended questionnaires and interviews. There were a total
number of 27 students for this research in all three classes of the Procedural
Writing course. They found that there were three problems experienced by
students in writing Procedural Essays including the problems of topic
development, problems with vocabulary and problems with grammar. In
addition, they discovered the strategies used by students to overcome those
problems such as receiving feedback from the teachers, making an outline
before writing and asking some friends for help.

Secondly, Phuong (2021) studied the students’ difficulties in learning English

writing skills. The instruments used in this research were two questionnaires
and an interview. There were 3 males and 47 females who participated in the
study. And their ages ranged from 20 to 27. More especially, they all spoke
Vietnamese as their first language and English as their foreign language. She
found that the students had seven difficulties in learning English writing such as
difficulties with vocabulary, problems with grammar, problems with prior
knowledge, troubles with organizing ideas, problems with allotted time,
difficulties with teacher and difficulties with mother tongue.

Thirdly, Lanh & Dung (2022) investigated some common problems writing
essays of English majored Sophomores at a University in the Mekong Delta.
They were questionnaires and interviews. There were 93 students; however,
only 85 students participated because 8 students were absent. There were 27
males and 58 females. Their ages ranged from 18 to 23. They found that the
students’ problems in linguistics, including grammar and vocabulary, writing
styles, idea arrangement, background knowledge and other problems.

Fourthly, Nga & Uyen (2023) explored the challenges in writing such as
vocabulary, grammar and background knowledge facing second-year students at
Tay Do University. They collected the data by using the survey tool as the
questionnaire. There were 84 English majored sophomores randomly chosen
from Tay Do University, especially, most students are at the age 18 to 25 years
old. They found that three main causes including vocabulary, grammar,
structures, background knowledge are the challenges that cause English majored
sophomores unsuccessful write in English.

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 Gaps:

- The strength of Ambarwati and Listyani’s study is that it clearly shows the
problems which students in writing Procedural Essays are facing like topic
development, vocabulary and grammar. Besides, this research also fully shows
the strategies helping students overcome those problems in writing class.
Nonetheless, this study also has some limitations. Firstly, this research only
focused on student’s problems and strategies in writing Procedural Essays.
Another limitation is the instruments used in this study. The students’ data were
collected through questionnaires and interviews.

- The strength of Nga and Uyen’s study is it clearly shows that English majored
second-year students at Tay Do University have faced a lot of troubles in
mastering writing skills, particularly problems in vocabulary, grammar,
background knowledge.
- The strength of Phuong’s study is that it clearly shows students’ difficulties in
learning English writing including problems with vocabulary, problems with
grammar, problems with prior knowledge, problems with organizing ideas,
problems with allotted time, problems with teachers, problems with mother
tongue.

- The strength of Lanh and Dung’s study is that it clearly shows the most
common problems that they had in writing essays. They were problems about
knowledge branches, including grammar, vocabulary, and style; idea
arrangement; and additional problems consisting of background knowledge
learners’ anxiety, mechanics, references, and time management. However this
study also has some limitations. In fact, some mistakes in the research are
unavoidable because this is the first time ever a researcher has conducted such
real research. Specifically, the limitations of this research were the lack of
material references and limited knowledge of the topic. In addition, the
reliability of this research can be affected because some participants did not
focus on fulfilling the questionnaire.

2.1.3 Studies explored in Southwest Europe

Besides Southeast Asia, there could be specific research to find out the students’
difficulties in writing class in Europe, especially one country in the South West
of this region, Spain. The below investigations are found by Badi (2015).

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Badi (2015) surveyed the academic writing challenges of ESL learners through
a small-scale investigation. Data of this study was collected by two
questionnaires. Particularly, questionnaire 1 contains closed questions which
were given out to 18 students including four sections: students’ biodata,
students’ writing strategies and behavior, learners’ attitudes towards writing
assignments and the references they prefer to use and finally the difficulties they
face when writing. Questionnaire 2 was given out to 2 students. There were 20
postgraduate international students of four nationalities (namely Korean,
Chinese, Taiwanese and Omani) who were studying a prerequisite course called
Graduate Certificate in TEFL before they started their masters' degree in
TESOL at a University in Australia. This study found four major problems
reported by the respondents are listed and discussed preceded by a brief
description of their attitudes towards academic writing including easy, difficult,
very difficult and neither difficult nor easy.

Gaps:

The strength of Badi’s study is that it clearly shows some solutions which can
be suggested to avoid writing difficulties presented above, thus improving
writing proficiency. Various basic points should be taken into consideration
when dealing with academic writing especially in EFL contexts. However, this
study also has some limitations. This research only investigated the challenges
of a small number of postgraduate international students of TESOL
specialization in an English-speaking country. In addition, learners in EFL
contexts could have different difficulties and different external and internal
factors causing the difficulties in academic writing.

2.2 SUMMARY GAPS:

In conclusion, the above studies obviously showed the difficulties and

challenges of students' writing class. Most of these studies used questionnaires
and interviews. Notwithstanding, these researches only signified the challenges
and difficulties in students’ writing class but did not give solutions as much to
help students overcome these difficulties. Moreover, these examine too widely
and there has not been centrally conducted in any specific Universities in Hue,
Vietnam, especially in HUFLIS. Encompassing all, we will fill these gaps in
our research so as to focus on HUFLIS second-year students further and find
out certain proper solutions for this situation.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design:

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The study is carried out to discover the difficulties that English majors at Hue
University of Foreign Languages and International Studies face in writing class.
The questionnaire and interview is given out to students to investigate their
viewpoints. From that, we can achieve both the purpose and the answers to the
research questions. Because combining the methods of quantitative and
qualitative approaches is our tool for collecting data. According to the findings,
the researchers can identify various challenges in the writing class of English
major second-year students.

3.2 Participants:

We will manage our research through group “K18 Đại học Ngoại ngữ” to select
the participants majoring in English. All participants will join in our research
voluntarily and their responses will be kept confidential and will be used for the
research purpose only. In  this  study,  the  participants in the questionnaire are
100 English-major  sophomores  at Hue University of Foreign Languages and
International Studies. In addition, 20 English-major sophomores including 10
males and 10 females. They will have been found by applying our research form
which we will upload on the “K18 Đại học Ngoại Ngữ” fan page of Facebook.
Moreover, three out of 20 participants, having the closest relationship to us
throughout the time of studying in HUFLIS will be chosen for the interviews
after we have authorization from them and their educators. Moreover, all of
them are English-major sophomores and most of them have learned English
writing skills for at least two years at University, so it is confirmed that they
encountered lots of difficulties with learning in writing class.

3.3. Instruments for data collection:

The two main instruments used for data collection are Questionnaire and
Interview.

3.3.1. The questionnaire (See Appendix 2 for questionnaire)

Questionnaire is chosen as compared to other methods, it has some pre-eminent

benefits. First, the questionnaire offers an easy way to gather information from a
large audience and get the results quickly. One advantage of employing a
questionnaire is that it can save the researcher both time and money. Since
participants only need to take a couple of minutes to complete the questionnaire,
it saves a lot of time as well. In particular, it takes approximately 5 minutes to
complete this questionnaire. More specifically, with a big number of
participants, it is significantly easier to collect data in a short period of time. It
also covers every aspect of the research that makes the analysis procedure

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become easier. Moreover, the questionnaire allows respondents to maintain
their anonymity that encourages them to answer truthfully. The researcher can
swiftly and precisely examine the data acquired with the use of computer
software (SPSS). Respondents can complete the questionnaire at their leisure,
answering questions in any order that makes them feel at ease. The researcher
may also discover more by analyzing the responses to open-ended questions.
Participants are asked to read 23 statements in Appendix 2 and give their ideas
by putting an X to the most appropriate among five options of Likert’s scale
(those are completely disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and completely agree).
Because participants in the investigation are English-major, the questionnaire is
designed in English only .They are also required to give their personal
information at the beginning of the paper including their names, ages, and sex.
Those requirements are necessary since they serve the purposes of the current
study.

3.3.2. Interview:

To sort out the responses for students’ mentalities toward the difficulties in
studying English writing skill, interviewing will be utilized to gather
information for our examination since it can investigate keen and dependable
data. Twenty students (ten boys and ten girls) are randomly selected to answer
questions, which are composed based on the difficulties in writing class that
they have encountered. The structured interview will be used, in light of the fact
that, with the plan and question foreordained, it will get directly to the primary
concern of examination without burning through a great deal of time. Through a
direct question-and-answer strategy based on interview questions between the
questioner and interviewees, it gives quick and precise data and guarantees a
high recuperation rate. Their answers will be recorded and used to synthesize
the findings obtained. Each interview lasts from 5 to 10 minutes. Those
questions are designed with the following order:
1) Problems with Grammar.
2) Problems with Vocabulary.
3) Problems with getting started on writing assignments.
4) Problems with Organizing ideas.
5) Problems with Arranging the sentences.

3.4 Piloting:

The questionnaire is piloted with three volunteer sophomores students

selected through applying the volunteer form on the “K18 Đại Học Ngoại
Ngữ” fan page of Facebook. They are interviewed to give their advice on the
questionnaire. Their feedback will be used to revise the questionnaire.
Specifically, we add the option “Other” in the question about gender (the first

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question of Part one). As far as the completion time, the first participant will
complete the survey in eight minutes. The subsequent individual will
complete it two minutes later than the apportioned time (ten minutes). At last,
the third participant will finish the test in precisely ten minutes.

All three volunteer students are interrogated after they have finished the
survey to comprehend if there are any issues with the questionnaire.
Regarding the content of the questions, three participants will answer that the
questions are interesting, and they will precisely reflect the queries which
they are committing in real-time. Likewise, they will guess that the time
allowance is adequate for them to do it mindfully and modify their answers.
With the reactions from the three members, we can briefly reason that the test
is able to be applied as an information authority for our investigation.

CHAPTER 4: TIMELINE

Tasks Dates

Finding the Research topic and

rationale, references. July 2023

Designing research questions and

identifying research subjects,
methods and tools place July 2023
conducting the research.

Writing review of literature

chapter. August 2023

Designing Questionnaire Table and

Interview Questions.
August 2023

Data Collection
September 2023

Analysis Data October 2023

Completing and Submitting11

the
research November 2023
 CHAPTER 5: REFERENCES

Phuong,  W.T.N.P. (2021). Difficulties in studying writing of English-majored

sophomores at a University in Vietnam. European Journal of Education
Studies, 8(10), 313-330.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
356477439_DIFFICULTIES_IN_STUDYING_WRITING_OF_ENGLISHMAJ
ORED_SOPHOMORES_AT_A_UNIVERSITY_IN_VIETNAM 

Mohamed,  R.H.M. (2017).Writing Difficulties Encountered by Jordanian EFL

Learners . Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 5(3), 197-206.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/SalemIbnian/publication/
349139131_Writing_Difficulties_Encountered_by_Jordanian_EFL_Learners/
links/602252ac92851c4ed55bbc1b/Writing-Difficulties-Encountered-by-
Jordanian-EFL-Learners.pdf
 
Lanh, L.V.L., & Dung, D.T.B.D., & Kha, N.K. (2022). Some common
problems in writing essays of English major sophomores at a university in the
Mekong Delta, Vietnam.  European Journal of English Language
Teaching,7(3), 126-150.
https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejel/article/view/4323 

Ambarwati, S.A., & Listyani, L.L. (2021). Procedural essay writing: Student’s
Problems and Strategies. A Journal on Language and Language Learning,24(2),
364-379.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
360143421_PROCEDURAL_ESSAY_WRITING_STUDENTS'_PROBLEMS_
AND_STRATEGIES 

Nga, N.T.H.N., & Uyen, P.T.M.Y. (2023). Some Difficulties in Writing Skills
of English Majored Sophomores at Tay Do University in Viet Nam. British
Journal of Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies,4(1), 68-86.
https://bjmas.org/index.php/bjmas/article/view/266/713

Badi, I.A.L.H.B (2015). ACADEMIC WRITING DIFFICULTIES OF ESL

LEARNERS.  The 2015 WEI International Academic Conference Proceedings ,
65-76. 

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
280696919_ACADEMIC_WRITING_DIFFICULTIES_OF_ESL_LEARNERS 

CHAPTER 6: APPENDIX

6.1 Appendix 1: Interview questions:

1. Do you have any difficulty in English writing class? (grammar,
vocabulary, structure, idea.)
2. (What are the grammar mistakes that you often encounter while
writing a paragraph?)
3. What are the grammar mistakes that you often encounter while
writing an essay?
4. What are the vocabulary mistakes that you often encounter while
writing a paragraph?
5. What are the vocabulary mistakes that you often encounter while
writing an essay?
6. In your opinion, why should not writer use “extreme words” words
while writing a passage or an essay?
7. In your opinion, while writing a paragraph or an essay, is the
repetition of keywords a problem that needs to be overcome?
8. Are you be limited in terms of ideas while writing a paragraph or an
essay? How do you overcome it?

6.2. Appendix 2: Questionnaires

Questions Completely Agree Neutral Disagree Completely

agree Disagree
1. You think that
you will use the
writing skill more
than the other
skills after you
graduate.
2. You really want
to improve your
writing skill but
you do not know
how to start.
3. You can use

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contractions such
as can’t, don’t,…
4. You do not use
the second
person in a
paragraph
5. Sometimes
people
misunderstand
what you want to
write because
you use the word
not being proper
to the text.
6. You should use
linking words
clearly
7. You should use
the varied
structures
8. You think your
mistake are
because you
don’t have many
ideas for your
articles.
9. You should not
write too long or
too short
10. You need to
avoid using words
like “Really”,
“very”, “a lot”,
“so”, “of course”.
11. You should
use ACTIVE
VOICE instead of
PASSIVE VOICE.
12. Using a high
level of
vocabulary is an
important element
in writing English
skill.
13..You should
use the personal
writing style.
14. Poor
vocabulary, you
cannot express
your ideas easily.
15. You often
make a simple
sentence

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16. You often
make a so
complicated
sentence
17. You often
make two
sentences don’t
have the logic
each other
18. In terms of
the grammar, you
cannot
discriminate
clearly between
the past simple
and present
perfect tenses.
19. Sometimes
you cannot
choose which
tenses to use.
20. Using simple
structures make
you be low mark
in writing class
21. You often use
vocabulary that is
not in the right
context.
22. You are a
perfectionist so
you blame
yourself when
speaking
something wrong.
23. Sometimes,
you don’t identify
the main topic
that the task
requires.

WORK ALLOCATION:

Name Student Code Work Allocation

Nguyễn Thị Hoài Thương 21F7010191 1. Introduction

15
 2. Literature Review
3. Research Methodology
4. Timeline
Trần Xuân Thanh 21F7510905 5. References
6. Appendixes
7. Table of contents

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