Teaching essay writing to the first-year English major students at Thuongmai University

Abstract

Essay writing has always been considered an important and indispensable skill of learning language in general as well as of learning English in particular. Although the first-year  English majors at the Thuongmai University are aware of this, they still face many difficulties in the process of learning how to write essays. This study aims to find out the current status of students’ perceptions of the usefulness of teachers’ activities of teaching essay writing and whether those activities have met students’ expectations or not. The survey subjects were 60 first-year students K58N in Writing Skills Class 1 and Class 2 and 12 lecturers teaching Writing skills at the Faculty of English, Thuongmai University. The research shows that the majority of students express a strong interest in the teachers’ writing class activities and clearly find them helpful to their writing skills. In addition, the results of the study also reflect that, although students have a positive perception of the lecturers’ essay teaching activities, there is also a significant mismatch with students’ learning expectations. After collecting, analyzing the data, and presenting the results, the author also suggests the effective solutions to help students develop essay writing skills