(Estimated research content)
Writing
argumentative essays is a very important skill in acquiring and mastering
writing skills, and it is being faced by Vietnamese students more frequently
than ever. These days, students, especially EFL students, have had their
English language competence including their writing skills evaluated through
popular international testing systems like IELTS, TOEFL or CEFR tests (Common
European Framework for Reference) for employment and learning opportunities.
Among the skills and knowledge of English being tested for writing tests, the
argumentative writing skill has often accounted for a larger proportion of the
total score. At the College of Foreign Languages, this skill has been taught
for second-year students in Writing 4 and for fourth-year ones in Advanced
English. Also, this has recently introduced as a writing task in the University English
Achievement Test so it is essential
that students have a good command of writing argumentative essays. However,
many of them, in fact, fail to give satisfactory written performances as
expected, and their imminent problem is they demonstrate weak coherence between
ideas and sentences, which means they may hardly convey their perspectives
effectively to readers. Therefore, an investigation into the coherence degree
of English Department students’ argumentative essay writing skills should be
implemented to verify students’ existing problems, evaluate their writing
skills and suggest the implications for teaching activities and curriculum
design.
|