CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale:

English is known as an international language on over around the world. In

Vietnam, the number of learners who study English is increasing everyday. And if
we want to be fluent in English, there are four basic skills, which are the most
important skills for the learner to improve everday, they are: Speaking, listening,
writing and reading. Although Speaking is the most difficult skill to learn,
according to tuoitrenews.com, writing is the skill that Vietnamese students also
find it hard to study. Throughout nearly 9 years learning English at schools,
Vietnamese students rarely had chances to write, just because they focus on
vocabulary and sentences’ structures.

In IUH (Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city), there are two first years for
freshmen and sophomores who major is English studying writing skills in three
courses. As a senior English majored student, the writter himself as well as his
classmates usually find it very hard on studying writing skill, it is a result of some
factors that will be explained and detailed in the thesis, the writer knows the
important role of writing skills for English majored students in IUH. Throughout
four years learning in IUH, the writer witnesses the unmotivation in studying
writing skills of freshmen and sophomores influenced by some factors. So that he
launch the Thesis to find out the reasons so that the freshmen and the sophomores
can find it helpful to improve their motivation in studying writing classes.
2 Research goal (goals)

The thesis will launch an investigation on finding the factors influencing the
motivation of freshmen and sophomores on learning English writing classes (viết
thiếu ý thứ 2 duoc trình bày trong câu hỏi nghiên cứu 2). the writer hopes the
thesis would be helpful for the Falcuty of Foreign language and the teachers can
have a general look and deeper understanding in motivation in studying generally
and in studying writing skill particularly. Hence, they can change the way of
teaching by choosing effective methods that are suitable for their students. And
the students can find their own motivation on studying writing classes.

3. Research questions:

The research focuses on finding the factors that help students to be motivated on
studying writing. Here are the questions that help the writer to reach the aim of the
research:

1. What are FFL freshmen and sophomores’ motivations to improve their writing
skills?

2. What are factors influencing FFL freshmen and sophomores’ motivations to

improve writing skills?

4. Scope of the study

Because of the time limitation, the thesis would focus on the main factors that
influencing motivations to improve writing skill of freshmen and sophomores at
Falcuty of Foreign Language of IUH. The research will investigate on the first-
year and the second- year English majored students of IUH. The writer hopes that
the research will explore precisely the main factors to help the students to be more
motivated in learning writing.=> improving their writing skills