European Journal of English Language Teaching

ISSN: 2501-7136
ISSN-L: 2501-7136
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu

DOI: 10.46827/ejel.v6i2.3518 Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020

DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED

SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyeni,

Thu Uyen Pham,
Thi Minh Uyen Phan
Tay Do University,
Vietnam

Abstract:
Writing skill is an important part of communication, which helps people express ideas,
experiences, and feeling exactly. Good writing skill allows them to communicate their
message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or
telephone conversations. However, students often face some difficulties when writing.
This survey research presents the process of the study of “Difficulties in writing essays of
English majored sophomores at Tay Do University”. It was conducted to find out some
difficulties in learning writing of 53 sophomores from 12A and 12B classes at Tay Do
University. The questionnaire, interview questions, and essay samples were instruments
of this research. The results showed that sophomores had many difficulties in writing
essays such as vocabulary, grammar structures, idea arrangement, background
knowledge, and others. Basing on the research results, students could recognize their
difficulties and find ways to overcome them.

Keywords: writing essay, difficulty, English majored sophomores, university

1. Introduction

Chapter 1 shows the rationale, significance, and organization of the study.

1.1 Rationale
Language plays an important role in life because it is one of the main ways to help people
communicate, interact with others around them. English is an example; it is the global
language and has become the most important language to people in many parts of the
world. It is most widely used in communicating around the world, also it is spoken as
the first language in many countries. English as a lingua franca in many fields, including
business, politics, science, technology, learning, and entertainment, etc. English is also

i Correspondance: email [email protected]

Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

© 2015 – 2020 Open Access Publishing Group 118
 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

the working language of many international organizations, like NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization and the European Union), WHO (World Health Organization), and
it is easy to see that most advertising posters and slogans of famous brands in the world
often use English. It is also the most-used language of the Internet. Learning English is a
way that helps people get access to a broader range of information, connections, and
opportunities.
In the last 20 years, English is considered an important foreign language,
especially for the Vietnamese young generation. It is included in the curriculum of most
schools and universities. Therefore, if wanting to have a good job with a high salary in
international companies after graduation, students need to improve their English skills.
However, English is not an easy learning skill for students, especially writing skills. This
is a skill that requires a lot of practice to improve. According to Klein (1985) “Writing is
the ability to put pen and paper to express ideas through symbols. This way, representations on
paper will have meaning and content that could be communicated to other people by the writer”.
Writing is considered a way to express ideas, experiences, and emotions in written form.
Writing is powerful. The influence of words is known as no limits. “Communicating by
written language is a good way to allow you to express your message, your idea with clarity and
ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversation” Cited said
(2005). Students can be good at speaking or listening skills but writing is a great challenge
for them.
From the study “Difficulties in writing of English-majored sophomore at Tay Do
University” conducted by Nguyen Thi Thu Thao – course 8 in May 2017, sophomores
faced difficulties because of many reasons. First, lacking vocabulary made them unable
to accurately convey their ideas and thoughts. Second, grammatical errors made their
essays lacking incoherence. They had many interesting ideas, but they did not know how
to organize ideas that led to long and redundant essays. Besides, when faced with
unfamiliar topics, they felt confused due to a lack of background knowledge in many
fields. Therefore, the survey “Difficulties in writing of English majored sophomores at Tay Do
University” was carried to check whether the current second-year students faced these
difficulties in learning writing essays.

1.2 The aims of the study

The purpose of this study is to find some difficulties encountered by English majored
sophomores in writing essays. The implication of the findings contributes to the
understanding of students’ writing difficulties, besides, the obtained information helps
students have appropriate solutions to overcome difficulties and have good essays. The
study was conducted to deal with the research question:
• What are the difficulties in writing essays of English majored sophomores at Tay
Do University?

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 119

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

1.3 The significance of the study

This study shows that writing is an important skill in many contexts in life that needs to
be cultivated. Moreover, students face many difficulties in writing, but they do not
recognize the causes. Therefore, the research helps them to find common mistakes when
writing.

1.4 The organization of the study

This thesis is presented in five chapters including:
• Chapter One is the introduction of the study which states the rationale, the
purpose, and the significance, as well as the organization of the research.
• Chapter Two includes the definitions and the importance of writing. The next part
indicates the definition and types of writing essays. The last part indicates the
difficulties of sophomores in Writing.
• Chapter Three focuses on the research methodology which consists of participants,
instruments, and the procedure.
• Chapter Four is the results and discussion.
• Chapter Five includes conclusions, limitations, implications, and
recommendations.

2. Literature review

This chapter presents the definition of writing, the definition of essay-writing and types
of essay, and the importance of writing. It also consists of difficulties during the process
of writing (vocabulary; grammar structures; ideas arrangement and background
knowledge and others).

2.1 Definition of writing

“Writing as a productive skill is one of the four basic skills of the English language. Writing is a
comprehensive ability involving grammar, vocabulary, conception, rhetoric, and other parts of the
language” according to Zhang and Chen (1990). Therefore, in the process of writing, the
writer focuses on producing language output rather than receiving it. Writing is the
creative ability of students in forming a message through creating some signs (commas,
slashes, quotation marks, etc.), forming letters and words, and then linking them together
to create sentences in an essay. Just like speaking, writing is a way of communicating a
message to others; however, when writing writers can edit the text many times according
to their thoughts until they feel satisfied and not under pressure as when speaking.
Writing is a means of expressing thoughts, ideas, and feelings in written form. Thanks to
writing, writers can relieve sadness, thereby finding empathy from readers and give their
thoughts, ideas, share experiences, or feelings.
Writing is considered an act of coding ideas, thoughts, reflections, it is a process
of converting thoughts into words. This skill requires the writers to arrange ideas and
words to exactly convey their messages. Also, writing is more rigorous than speaking

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 120

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

because it is required for learners to practice and experience. Also, writing is more
rigorous than speaking because it requires learners to practice, experience, and have a
wide vocabulary to be able to use the right word immediately. The writers also need to
understand the meaning of many words and situations that they are used to. The writers
also have to know how to construct sentences in an essay, so the essay becomes coherent
and linked through rhetoric measures. Brown (2001:335) stated “Written products are often
the result of thinking, drafting, and revising procedures that require specialized skills, skills that
not every speaker develops naturally”, and also drew conclusions, “Students should learn how
to generate and organize ideas coherently, how to revise text for clearer meaning, and how to edit
text for appropriate grammar”. Hence, it is considered a difficult skill to acquire for students.
Furthermore, Richards and Renandya (2002:309) said that “written language is complex at
the clause level”, it includes many components such as content, organization, originality,
style, fluency, accuracy, or using appropriate rhetorical. Gower, Philips, and Walters
(2008:113) also argued that “Writing involves many different aspects which include spelling,
punctuation, sentence construction, organization, cohesion, and register/style”.
In short, writing is a means of conveying messages into written form through
vocabulary, grammar, rhetorical measures, and background knowledge.

2.2 Definition of essay

An essay often has a particular subject such as argue an issue or advance a specific idea
or describe something. Besides, Wikipedia defines “An essay is, generally, a piece of writing
that gives the author's argument — but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a paper,
an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. The essay has traditionally been sub-classified as formal
and informal”. Essays are not fictional but may be subjective opinions of the individual.
Essays can be literary criticism, perspective on a certain issue, describe daily life,
recollections, and reflections of the author. The basic structure of an essay is usually three
parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay which introduces the topic to
be discussed and the central idea or the thesis statement of the essay. It is the first
impression the readers receive and explain the main point of the paper. The introductory
paragraph usually ends with a thesis statement that is one sentence that sums up the one,
main point that the essay is making about its topic.
In the second part, the body is at the heart of an essay. It is the longest and most
important part of the essay because its purpose is to provide ideas and support for the
thesis statement. This support can come in the form of examples, facts or statistics, short
narratives about the personal experience of the author, or simply more details explaining
what you mean. The body supports the main ideas of the thesis statements. The body of
an essay usually contains at least three paragraphs and often more. Each paragraph
discusses one idea that supports the thesis statement.
The conclusion is the last paragraph of the essay. It completes the essay by
summarizing or repeating the most important ideas. The conclusion can also include an
opinion, a prediction, or a solution to a problem.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 121

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

2.3 Types of essay

Having good writing skills in different types of essays is very useful and necessary for
learning as well as in life. Essay writing is a popular school exercise, part of the standard
test and requirements for college applications. To distinguish between the types of
essays, we need to identify the writer's purposes such as personal experience, describe
something, share knowledge, explain a problem or convince readers to accept a mandate
certain points. There are many types of essays, so students are easily confused. However,
there are four main types of essays, with variations forming the rest.
Firstly, a Narrative essay is a story about a real-life experience. The essay requires
the students to think and write about themselves. In writing a narrative essay, writers
should try to involve the readers by adding sensory or emotional details to make the story
more vivid and attractive. The narrative essays engage the readers by the feeling of
experience and immersion in the story. A good narrative essay should be developed
towards drawing a conclusion or making a personal view.
Secondly, a Descriptive essay describes a person, place, object, or even special
significance memories. This type of essay communicates a deeper meaning through the
description. In the essay, the writer should show, not tell, through the use of colorful
words and sensory details.
Thirdly, an Expository essay explains or defines a topic, using facts, statistics, and
examples. The expository essay can be the comparison and contrast essay, the cause, and
effect essay. Expository essays are based on facts, not personal feelings, and are concise.
The writers do not show their emotions and write in the first person.
Lastly, a Persuasive essay is to convince the readers to accept the writer's point of
view or recommendation. The writers have to build a case using facts and logic, as well
as examples, expert opinion, and sound reasoning. The writers give all sides of the
arguments but have to be able to communicate and without equivocation why a certain
position is correct.
Expository and Argumentative essays are usually required in academic writing to
English majored sophomores at Tay Do University.

2.4 The importance of writing

Galuh (2008) stated that: “Writing is one of language skill with the help given an important
contribution to human work". Writing is an important skill in many contexts of life such as
schools, workplaces, and communities. Good writing skill helps people to deliver their
message with clarity and ease. The better the writer writes, the more easily readers can
understand. Writing can be considered as a tool to express oneself and convince others,
also, the skill helps writers put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form and to
mentally interact with the message.
Furthermore, writing is the ability to compose text effectively for various
purposes. Writing is a tool for communication and learning that allows people to collect
and circulate detailed information. People might be called upon to write a report, plan,
or strategy at work; a well-written CV or résumé with good spelling or grammatical

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 122

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

structures is essential if wanting a new job. Having a good command of English will
greatly increase the opportunities for a well-paid and interesting career. Being able to
speak and write in English solves one of the communication barriers between people
from different countries. Being able to speak and write in English solves one of the
communication barriers between people from different countries. Having a good
command of English will greatly increase the opportunities for a well-paid and
interesting career. English writing is important in future career because when dealing
with international clients and suppliers, the company will rely on the employee who
knows how to speak and write in English to interpret the day-to-day operations, also,
when working in an international company it is a need for communication through
emails written in English.
In universities, students have to construct essays, project reports, and thesis in
English. In academic writing and foreign references are often written in English. Thanks
to writing skills, students at Tay Do University can expand their vocabulary, master the
grammar structures, and be able to express their ideas and thoughts exactly, also,
students will learn how to make a logical argument.
Therefore, students need to understand clearly the importance of writing and
improve their writing skills.

2.5 Difficulties in writing skill

When speaking can not prove to be clearly or directly, writing becomes more effective to
express thoughts, feelings. However, some people especially students face many
difficulties in process writing. English majored sophomores at Tay Do University do not
have good essays because they lack the vocabulary, grammatical structures, background
knowledge about various fields. Moreover, they do not know how to organize ideas.

2.5.1 Vocabulary
Richards J.C. and Renandya (2002: 252) stated that: “Vocabulary is a core component of
language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners listen, speak, read and
write. Without an extensive vocabulary… learners often achieve less than their potential and may
be discouraged from making use of language”. Vocabulary is an important component to have
good essay writing. However, students often lack the necessary vocabulary when they
write, this is a reason why they cannot express thoughts clearly and understandably.
Thornbury (2002) said that “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed”. Lack of large vocabulary is one of the most difficult things that
students face, they do not have enough vocabulary to express ideas, thoughts, feelings
exactly, they just keep them inside. The knowledge meaning of the word is large, students
have to know the meaning and understand how to use it. Lack of vocabulary makes them
be confused when demonstrating a topic. So before writing an unfamiliar topic, students
have to find new words and search the topic to write better.
Moreover, the students also do not know how to choose appropriate words in
contexts. It is easy to see that a word often has more than one meaning and many

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 123

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

synonyms, so students are easily confused in choosing words to write correctly.

“Vocabulary knowledge is considered as having two main dimensions such as breadth and depth”
Read (1988, 1989). The meaning of the word sometimes depends on the situation so it is
very important to choose the right words for each context. The wrong choice of words
can lead to misunderstandings or not express the author's thoughts clearly. The choice of
words will make the sentence a beautiful one. Thus, students need to have a rich
vocabulary to express what they think.
Besides, the students have to keep in mind collocation. A collocation is made up
of two or more words that are commonly used together in English such as “get a job”,
“make a promise”. Using collocations in writing makes the sentences more natural and
easier to understand. There are many collocations to remember the meaning and they
have no clear rules and no specific regulation to follow. Therefore, students do not know
exactly what the collocations mean, the way words go together, and the meaning. This is
one of the difficulties that students often faced.
In short, having a large vocabulary is a good way to express ideas more attractive
and the essay will be understandable and successful.

2.5.2 Grammar structures

Grammar plays an important role in having a good essay. As Jame (2005) said, “Grammar
is a study of the structure of the language and describes the way of putting words together to make
meaningful sentences". Grammar is very important in writing skills because it provides
information that helps the reader’s comprehension. It is the structure that conveys precise
meaning from the writer to the audience. Eliminate grammatical errors from our writing,
and reward our readers with clear communication. Good grammar is one of the ways to
express knowledge.
English tenses are tools helping the writers to express time in the language. There
are three main tenses: past tense, present tense, and future tense. It is necessary to
determine various aspects in terms of English verbs, such as the state of being, continuing
action, or completed action. Using appropriate tenses helps to express ideas clearly and
effectively and allows the readers to comprehend accurately what has written using
tenses. It is necessary to know how to conjugate verbs properly by focusing on the
structures of tenses and modal tenses to create exact and effective sentences. When
students are weak grammar, their sentences can be ambiguous that makes readers unable
to understand what they want to write or the sentence can be changed in meaning.
Therefore, if the students want to have a successful essay, they have to understand how
to use appropriate tenses.
Moreover, part of speech is a great challenge when writing. All words in the
English language can be classified as one of the eight different parts of speech.
Understanding the different parts of speech is important in understanding how words
can and should be joined together to make sentences that are both grammatically correct
and understandable. An understanding of the parts of speech is also important for
knowing how to correctly punctuate sentences. The eight parts of speech are nouns,

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 124

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. If the

students do not know the functions and rules of part of speech, they can misuse the
function of the word that makes the readers cannot understand or the sentence is wrong
meaning.
Finally, the subject-verb arrangement is also a difficulty for students. The subject-
verb agreement simply means the subject and verb must agree in number. This means
both needs to be singular or plural. However, students often do not know that the subject
is singular or plural so there is no subject-verb arrangement will lead to the fact that their
sentences are ungrammatical. Some words when acting as subjects can confuse students
such as Compound Subjects, Collective Nouns, Inverted Subjects, Indefinite Pronouns,
etc. Thus, students should pay attention to grammar because grammar is important in
writing skills.

2.5.3 Ideas arrangement

Idea arrangement is also a problem for students in writing the essay. Interesting and
logical ideas will attract readers, but it is not easy to organize and develop ideas when
writing. If the students have no idea or do not understand the topic clearly, they may be
getting out of the topic or failing to convey the main message. Besides, developing ideas
and arranging information in a certain way can help to keep the readers centered on the
focus of the essay.
Students do not know how to arrange ideas logically or lack the main idea or topic
sentence in paragraph and essay. Also, sometimes they have too many ideas when
writing that lead to sentences that are long, redundant, or unnecessary. Thus, the essay
uses the correct grammar, rich and natural vocabulary is not enough because if students
make mistakes about how to organize and develop the ideas, the essay will be long,
confused, and unattractive.

2.5.4 Background knowledge

Background knowledge is very essential when writing. The most obvious being is that it
improves the flow of the essay, creates interest and helps readers understand the points
to express. If the students want to have a good essay, they need to have a rich knowledge
of various fields. Poor knowledge makes them unable to understand the topic or unable
to organize their ideas well. They will feel nervous when they face unfamiliar or hard
topics because they do not have practical experiences in social life.

2.5.5 Other difficulties

Besides the above difficulties in process writing, students sometimes make mistakes with
other problems.
First, orthography including punctuation, spelling, and contraction are
difficulties, which students often face. Marks of punctuation play a very important role
in giving intended meaning to the language. Using the wrong punctuation or even the

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 125

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

wrong placement of the mark of punctuation can change the meaning of the sentence
completely and sometimes even convert the sentence to complete nonsense.
Second, misspelling a word might seem like a minor mistake, but it can reflect very
poorly on a writer. It suggests one of two things neither the writer does not care enough
about his essay to proofread it nor knows his topic well enough to properly spell words
related to it. Either way, spelling errors can make readers less likely to trust the writer so
that if the students want to write good essays and make sure they get their meaning
across clearly, it is important to get their spelling right.
Third, contractions in English have two types; negative contractions (isn’t, don’t,
etc.) and verb contractions (I’m, they’ve, etc.). Contractions are used mostly in speech and
informal writing, and most teachers discourage using them in essays, so they are not used
much informal writing, such as a business letter, business email, or essay. However, due
to the habit of speaking, the students do not understand that essays need to be in the right
form, they often use contractions in essay writing.
Finally, time is also a problem for students. They have to complete an essay of
about 250 words in class in a short time that makes them feel stressed and nervous
because sometimes the topic is unfamiliar and they have no idea to write. This is also one
of the reasons why they do not get good marks, do not have good essays. Also, students
have rarely spent time practicing writing skills at home because it is a difficult skill and
they have no passion so that they cannot write well.
To sum up, four main reasons made students face difficulties when writing an
essay are vocabulary, grammar structures, idea arrangement, background knowledge,
and some other difficulties.

3. Research methodology

This chapter presents the design, participants, and procedures of the research.

3.1 Design
The research was carried out to find out the problems that the sophomores had faced in
learning English writing. The researcher used the survey method to collect data. The
reliability and validity of the research results were based on the instruments as
questionnaire and interview questions, and essay samples. The main key to this research
was participants. They were fifty-three English majored sophomores who would be
delivered the questionnaire to get the information about their difficulties in writing. This
survey was a combination of quantitative and qualitative research.

3.2 Participants
The participants of this study were 53 sophomores of 12A and 12B English majored
classes at Tay Do University. There were 39 females and 14 males. They ranged from 19
to 21. Most of them have been learning English for 8 years and a few had 11, 13 years of
learning. The reasons for choosing these participants were based on the subject they are

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 126

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

learning, the length of their English learning, their competence in English as a foreign
language, and their psychological age. Their age and learning process are nearly the
same, so they have the same ways of thinking and have faced some similar difficulties,
therefore it is easier during the process of collecting data. Most of them said that they
encountered some difficulties in writing English.
In the first year, Writing 1&2 provided English majored freshmen with the ability
to develop ideas from paragraphs into an essay with kinds of different essays such as
argument (advantages and disadvantages), compare and contrast, the descriptive and
narrative essay. Besides, students were practiced skills to write the thesis statement in the
opening paragraph, how to write the introductory paragraph to attract more readers,
how to develop ideas, and outline each type of essay. They worked in pairs or
individuals, the length of the passage was unlimited. The curriculum was Book Pavlik,
C., & Segal, M. K. (2007). Interaction 2 Writing. Mc Graw- Hill. There were chapters such as
Overview of an essay, Global Connections, Language and Communication, etc.
In the second year, sophomores would learn Writing 3, the curriculum was Book
Blass, L. and Pike-Baby, M. (2007). Mosaic 1 Writing Silver Editor. McGraw- Hill, there are
many chapters in it; however, the researcher only chose three chapters as examples to
analyze such as Money, Heath, and Leisure, Immigration. They learned how to present an
essay, how to look for and develop ideas, and how to write a standard outline of the
essay. In each chapter, students were given the topics then students would read essays
related to the content of chapters such as “Advantages and Disadvantage of having money”,
“Effects of happiness on our health”, and “Why cities are becoming overcrowded” and finally,
they would do exercises to find ideas for topics that the teacher would ask them to write,
while the teacher also provided some ideas and new words for students. The length of
the essay was about 200-250 words. They would write the essays at home and returned
them later, sometimes they had to complete the essay writing in class.

3.3 Instruments
The instruments of this research were a questionnaire, interview, and 30 essay examples.
The questionnaire is useful when collecting information from students as it helps to find
out exactly the difficulties they encounter in writing. Besides, the interview was another
helpful tool used for getting more specific details. Thanks to answering questions,
students know their difficulties in writing and find ways to overcome them.

3.3.1 Questionnaire
The questionnaire is very important in this study because it clearly shows the difficulties
students. It consists of 12 questions and 18 statements that divided into 3 groups.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 127

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Table 1: The Content of the Question Group

Group Summary of the content of the question group
a. From 1 to 6 Students’ background
b. From 7 to 12 Students’ attitude toward writing
c. From 13 to 29 The difficulties in writing that students faced

3.3.2 Interview
The purpose of using interview questions is to understand students’ attitudes when
learning writing. The paper interview is a very useful tool when collecting information
from students because when answering questions, they clearly expressed their
difficulties, their attitudes towards difficulties and along with the researcher suggested
some solutions. The research chose randomly six students (three girls and three boys) in
a total of fifty-three sophomores to answer interview questions. The paper interview
consists of five questions such as the first two questions are the attitude of students when
learning writing, the following three questions are the difficulties students encounter,
and propose some solutions to overcome.

4. Results and Discussion

This chapter presents the results obtained from questionnaires, interviews, and sample
essays. The statistics are clear evidence to prove the difficulties in essay writing of English
majored sophomores.

4.1 Results
This section presents the findings of sample questions, interviews, and essays. The results
were analyzed based on the information and data collected from the second-year
students divided into two result groups: the results of the question, essay samples, and
the interview.

4.2 Results of the questionnaire

The finding of the questionnaire was divided into two main parts including students’
background and students’ difficulties when writing.

4.3 Students’ background

Thanks to the survey about the time students learning English, the researcher can
evaluate the basics of their abilities and knowledge during their writing. In question 1,
“How long have you studied English?” there were 30 students have learned English for
9 years, constituting 57%, this shows that most of them learned English from grade 6 until
entering the university. About 32% (17/53) of the students have learned English for 12
years. Also, the remaining students who have studied English for 14 years accounted for
11% (6/53). Most students have learned English for a long time so their English skills can

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 128

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

be good, especially writing skills. Early access to English can help them gain more
knowledge and improve their writing skill.
Nowadays, most students try to improve their English skills because they have
understood the importance of English as well as English writing. In question 2 about the
importance of learning English, there were 84.9% (45/53) of them thought that English is
important, 15.1% (8/53) of the remaining students believed that English is very important
because if they want to find a good job with a high salary, travel to countries around the
world or work at international companies, they should try to improve their English skill.
In question 3 “What is your favorite subject?” about 43.4% (23/53) of the total students
said that they like speaking skills, 32.1% (17/53) chose listening skills. Unfortunately,
there were 17% (9/53) said that they like writing skill, it was a low percentage because
many students thought that this skill was very difficult.
Most of the life contexts (schools, workplaces, and communities) need English
writing skills but learning writing is not easy.

Figure 1: Students self-assess the difficulty level of writing skill

The evidence is in question 4 "What do you think about writing skill?", there were
50.9% of participants who thought that writing was difficult, 35.8% of them rated writing
as very difficult. Moreover, in statement 13 "You have faced difficulties in the essay
writing", the percentage of students strongly agreed was 33.9% and agreed with 66.1%.
Writing is a skill that takes a lot of practicing time to improve.
In question 5 "How often do you spend practicing English writing skill at home?”
50.3% of the sophomores admitted that they rarely practiced writing skills, it was a high
percentage of the answer. Also, there were 37.8% of them who sometimes practiced
writing at home. Unfortunately, 11.9% of the remaining students who usually practiced
writing, no one always writing skills at home. Students often spend less time practicing
it at home, so they faced difficulties when writing and did not achieve good grades. To
have good essay writing, they should usually write at home and then thank teachers
correct it so students could learn experience from errors.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 129

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Students were very honest when evaluating their writing skills in question 6 "How
is your writing skill?" There were 19% of the participants thought their writing skill was
good, 75% of them answered that they had an average writing skill. Besides, 6% of the
remaining students admitted that their writing skill was bad. The chart showed that the
percentage of “Average” and “Bad” were too high, which means that students have
difficulties and their essay writing often makes many mistakes.

4.4 The common difficulties of sophomores when learning English writing

Some common difficulties of sophomores in writing were vocabulary, grammar, ideas
arrangement, background knowledge, and others. Let’s see Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: The common difficulties of sophomores when learning English writing

As can be seen from Figure 2, students who faced difficulties in grammar were
41.5%. It is the highest percentage that shows grammar is a great problem for students in
writing. There were 22.6% of the participants admitted that they faced difficulty in
vocabulary. Besides, students who claimed that they were not good at idea arrangement
with 13.2% percentage. About 15.1% of them chose difficulty in background knowledge.
Moreover, 7.6% of the remaining students had other difficulties in the process of writing.
In general, the rate of difficulties does not have too much difference, but the percentage
of grammar is quite high. Therefore, they cannot have good essays because they faced
many difficulties in writing such as vocabulary, grammar, idea arrangement, background
knowledge, and others. It is also the main purpose of this research; the researcher needs
to find out their mistakes and helps students improve their writing skill.

4.5 Vocabulary
Vocabulary is an important component to have good essay writing. However, students
often faced difficulties in vocabulary when writing.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 130

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Figure 3: Difficulties in vocabulary

Vocabulary accounted for 22.6% of the difficulties in writing. Specific difficulties

that students faced in vocabulary were lacking words, word choices, and collocation. The
chart showed that the students lacked words were 58.5% (31/53) of them, it was the
highest percentage. Besides, about 24.5% (13/53) of the total participants chose word
choices and 17% (9/53) of remaining sophomores admitted that they made mistakes about
collocation in vocabulary. Let’s see table 2 below.

Table 2: Difficulties in vocabulary

Strongly Strongly
Statements Agree Neutral Disagree
agree disagree
14. Lack of vocabulary makes you
cannot express your thoughts clearly 28.3% 51% 20.7% 0% 0%
and understandably.
15. The knowledge meaning of the
word is large and not easy, you do not
32.7% 54.7% 9.4% 3.8% 0%
know clearly the meaning and
understand how to use it.
16. You face difficulties in the way to
20.8% 32.1% 24.5% 22.6% 0%
choose appropriate words in contexts.
17. You do not know exactly what the
collocations mean, the way words go 18.9% 28.3% 39.6% 13.2% 0%
together.

As can be seen from Table 2, students agreed with statement 14 “Lack of vocabulary
makes you cannot express your thoughts clearly and understandably” was 51% and
28.3% strongly agreed. About 54.7% agreed and 32.7% strongly agreed with statement 15
"The knowledge meaning of the word is large and not easy, you do not know the meaning
and understand how to use it", there were 3.8% (2/53) disagreed. Moreover, students
agreed with statement 16 “Do not know how to choose appropriate words in contexts”
about 31.2% and 20.8% strongly agreed. No idea accounted for 24.5%. In statement 17

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 131

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

“You do not know exactly what the collocations mean, the way words go together”,
strongly agreed percentage was 18.9% and 28.3% agreed.
To sum up, sophomore faced some difficulties in process writing such as lacking
words, wrong word choices, and collocation in vocabulary.

4.6 Grammar structures

The grammar structure was also one of the common difficulties in writing that rated up
to 41.5%. Some difficulties in grammar structures that students faced such as the tense of
the sentence, part of speech, and the subject-verb arrangement.

Figure 4: Difficulties in grammar structures

The figure 4 showed that there were 56.6% of them made mistakes with the tenses
in sentences, 24.5% of the sophomores had difficulty with part of speech. Furthermore,
students who faced difficulty in the subject-verb arrangement were 18.9% (10/53). Let’s
see Table 3 below.

Table 3: Difficulties in grammar structures

Strongly Strongly
Statements Agree Neutral Disagree
agree disagree
18. You do not know how to choose the
24.5% 56.6% 11.3% 7.6% 0%
appropriate tense in the sentence.
19. Do not understand clearly the
functions and rules of part of speech
leading you to misuse the function of the
17% 45.3% 28.3% 9.4% 0%
word making the readers unable to
understand or the sentence is wrong
meaning.
20. Your sentences are ungrammatical
because you lack the knowledge about 15.1% 41.5% 26.4% 17% 0%
the subject-verb arrangement.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 132

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

As can be seen from Table 3, there were 81.1% of the total participants strongly
agreed and agreed with statement 18 “Do not know how to choose the appropriate tense
in the sentence”. Besides, students agreed with statement 19 “Do not understand clearly
the functions and rules of part of speech leading you to misuse the function of the word
making the readers unable to understand or the sentence is wrong meaning” with 45.3%
and 17% strongly agreed. Students agreed with statement 20 "Your sentences are
ungrammatical because you lack the knowledge about subject-verb arrangement" with
41.5% and 15.1% strongly agreed.
According to the analyzed data, the biggest difficulty in grammar for students was
how to choose the appropriate tense in the sentence. They often did not understand how
to use tenses in English clearly so that their sentences are ungrammatical or not
meaningful. An essay needs a lot of sentences, all of the sentences must be well-organized
and interlinked in tenses so that they were difficult.
To sum up, grammar is an important factor in writing so they should pay attention
to grammar structures if wanting to have good essays.

4.7 Ideas arrangement

A good essay needs not only exact grammar structure, the plentiful, natural vocabulary
but also needs to have the arrangement of ideas logically and attractively.

Figure 5: Difficulties in ideas arrangement

Idea arrangement was also a problem for students in essay writing, it accounted
for 13.2% of difficulties. The figure 5 showed that sophomores admitted that they had no
idea in writing was up 60.4%. Their essay may be limited and unattractive to readers
when there are not many ideas. The second difficulty in idea arrangement was redundant
words that made up 26.4%. When they had too many ideas, their essay or paragraph
would be long, redundant, or not be related together. The last one was the lack of the
main ideas and topic sentences in writing accounted for 13.2%. Let’s see Table 4 below.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 133

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Table 4: Difficulties in ideas arrangement

Strongly Strongly
Statements Agree Neutral Disagree
agree disagree
21. Your writing is not good
enough because you have poor 28.3% 50.9% 17% 3.8% 0%
ideas or a few ideas.
22. You sometimes write redundant
20.8% 45.3% 22.6% 11.3% 0%
words in the essay.
23. You often lack the topic or main
18.9% 37.7% 22.6% 20.8% 0%
idea sentence when writing.

According to Table 4, about 50.9% strongly and 28.3% strongly agreed with statement 21
“Your writing is not good enough because you have poor ideas or a few ideas”.
Furthermore, students agreed with statement 22 “You sometimes write redundant words
in the essay” which was 45.3%, and 20.8% strongly agreed. There were 56.6% of the
students strongly agreed and agreed with statement 23 “You often lack the topic
sentences or main ideas when writing”.
According to the analyzed data from Figure 5, having no ideas was the greatest
challenge for students in idea arrangement. With strange topics or practical experiences,
students often had no ideas to write. When having no ideas, their essay could be so short
and not have good marks.
In short, an essay using redundant words, lacking main ideas or topic sentences
or not many ideas can be confusing for readers and out of topic. So, students should focus
on ideas arrangement.

4.8 Background knowledge

Background knowledge is very essential for students in writing.

Figure 6: Difficulties in background knowledge

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 134

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

From Figure 6, we can see that difficulties in background knowledge were up

15.1%. Look at figure 6, students lacked background knowledge in various fields with
69.8% and the students had no practical experiences with 30.2%. Let’ see Table 5.

Table 5: Difficulties in background knowledge

Strongly Strongly
Statement Agree Neutral Disagree
agree disagree
24. Poor background knowledge makes you
26.4% 58.5% 11.3% 3.8% 0%
unable to organize ideas well.
25. You feel confused when facing
unfamiliar topics because you are not 20.8% 69.8% 9.4% 0% 0%
enough knowledge in different fields.
26. You have no real experience in life
11.3% 49.1% 28.3% 11.3% 0%
around.

There were 58.5% of the total sophomores agreed and 26.4% strongly agreed with
statement 24 “Poor background knowledge makes you unable to organize ideas well”.
Also, statement 25 “You feel confused when facing unfamiliar topics because you are not
enough knowledge in different fields” had 90.6% of the participants strongly agreed and
agreed, it was a very high percentage. Next, another difficulty in the background
knowledge was the lack of practical experiences in social life. 64.1% of them agreed with
statement 26 “You have no real experience in life around” and 11.3% strongly agreed.
Students lacked background knowledge because they often disliked reading
books and newspapers. So, they need practical experience to learn more. Real experience
and knowledge can make their writing more insightful, interesting, and emotional. For
example, when the topic requires writing about a landscape where they have never been
to, they can only learn through pictures on books and social networks, their essay may
be unattractive or accurate. Furthermore, if the essay requires students to talk about a
person's creativity in many fields such as a business, singing, writer or the issues that are
being noticed in today's society, but do not know or do not have much information about
them, they will unable to write well.
Therefore, to have a good essay, students need to have rich background
knowledge in various fields and have more practical experiences.

4.9 Other difficulties

Table 6: Other difficulties

Strongly Strongly
Statement Agree Neutral Disagree
agree disagree
27. You make mistakes about
orthography including spelling, 11.3% 37.7% 35.8% 15.2% 0%
punctuation, and contraction.
28. You often place false punctuation
13.2% 34% 33.9% 18.9% 0%
marks that lead to unclear statements

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 135

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

about meaning, sentences that are too

short or too long.
29. You have rarely practiced writing
skill at home because this is a difficult 26.5% 66% 7.5% 0% 0%
skill.
30. You feel anxious when you have
to complete an essay in class for a 18.9% 35.8% 24.5% 17% 3.8%
short time.

The first difficulty was orthography including punctuation, spelling, and contraction that
were difficulties that students often faced. As for statement 27 “You make mistakes about
orthography including spelling, punctuation, and contraction”, there were 37.7% agreed
11.3% strongly agreed. Students often made mistakes about spelling because they did not
pay attention, misspelling could make readers less likely to trust the writer. Contractions
are used mostly in speech and informal writing so students should not use them in essays.
Also, there were 13.2% strongly agreed and 34% agreed with statement 28 "You often
place false punctuation marks that lead to unclear statements about meaning, sentences
that are too short or too long". The second difficulty was "You have rarely practiced
writing skill at home because this is a difficult skill" with 66% agreed, and 26.5% strongly
agreed. Writing is a difficult skill but if having no passion and try to practice, they could
write well. The last difficulty was "Writing time is short", about 54.7% of the participants
strongly agreed and agreed with statement 30 "You feel anxious when you have to
complete an essay in class for a short time". When facing unfamiliar topics and short
completion times, students felt anxious and their writing might not be good.
To sum up, four main reasons made it difficult for students to write an essay are
vocabulary, grammar structure, idea arrangement, background knowledge, and some
other difficulties. Thus, to improve their writing skill, they should practice writing skills
more and more to have a strong passion for writing, and especially they have to expand
their knowledge about different fields in life.

4.10 Results of the interview

Six students (three boys and three girls) in a total of fifty-three sophomores were
randomly selected to conduct interview questions. The paper interview consists of five
questions such as the first two questions are the attitude of students when learning
writing, the following three questions are the difficulties students encounter, and propose
some solutions to overcome. In question 1 “Do you like writing? Why or why not?" 4/6
students said that they like writing, specifically, a student said that “I like writing because
I can show up my lexicon, my knowledge about the way how to use words”. Moreover,
two students also shared that writing can help them improve grammar and sentence
structures. Another opinion was "I like writing because it is an important skill that can
improve our ability of mentality in developing English skills". However, two students
admitted that they did not like writing because they did not have many vocabularies and
ideas.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 136

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

In the second question “Do you think writing is a difficult skill when learning
English? Why or why not?” All students (6/6) thought that writing was very difficult
when learning English that requires them to master the grammar structures and have
background knowledge in various fields. Similarly, a student said that "Writing is the
most difficult skill. It needs to have a lot of obvious ideas, ways of using words, tenses
carefully, and detailed with grammar well”. Furthermore, students thought that writing
was difficult because they often lacked vocabulary, background knowledge, ideas, and
lexicons.
In the next question “What are difficulties that you face when learning writing
skills?" Most students admitted that they did not have enough vocabulary and
background knowledge when writing essays. Another student thought that he faced
difficulties arranging ideas, structures of tenses, and how to use words. Besides, they did
not know how to use correct grammar structures.
As for question 4 “In your opinion, what is the main reason that makes you cannot
write successfully?” Four students thought that grammar structures and vocabulary
because the grammar was very important for writing and the fact of lacking vocabularies
made them unable to use words in the right way and incorrectly explain their ideas. So,
they could not write well. Another student said that she had no many ideas and no
background knowledge of different fields in life. The remaining student claimed that
organizing ideas was the main reason that he could not write successfully.
The last question “Which solutions do you want to suggest for solving the
difficulties?” Students should learn more new words to improve their vocabulary.
Besides, they could read books, newspapers to expand the understanding of fields,
events, and people in life.
To improve their writing skill, they should practice writing skills at home and ask
teachers to correct the essays.

5. Discussion

Thanks to the survey about the time students learning English, the researcher can
evaluate the basics of their abilities and knowledge during their writing. Most of them
have studied English for a long time, ranging from 9 to 12 years, the remaining students
have studied for 14 years. It can be said that their English is good, but not sure their
writing skill is good. They might speak or listen well but faced many difficulties in
writing. Students often focus on skills such as listening and speaking rather than writing
because this is a difficult skill. Three-quarters of students rated that their writing skills
were average, only 6% believed their writing skill was good. It is easy to see that they
faced some difficulties in writing, especially writing essays. According to the research
results, there were four main causes such as vocabulary, grammar structures, ideas
arrangement, background knowledge, and other difficulties that made sophomores write
unsuccessful essays.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 137

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Firstly, grammar is an important factor in writing. The most difficulty in writing

essays was grammar structures. Using tenses in English wrongly could make readers
confused or misunderstood about the meaning. Furthermore, students often did not
know the functions and rules of part of speech so they could not misuse the function of
the word that made the readers could understand or their sentences were wrong
meaning. The subject-verb arrangement was also a difficulty for students leading to their
sentences were ungrammatical.
Secondly, students often lacked the necessary vocabulary when writing, it was a
reason why they could not express their thoughts and feelings clearly. They would feel
confused when facing unfamiliar topics. Moreover, choosing appropriate words in
contexts that were also a difficulty for students. There are many collocations to remember
the meaning, they often have hidden meaning and no clear rules, no specific regulation
to follow. So, students did not know exactly what the collocations mean, the way words
go together. It was one of the difficulties that students often faced.
Thirdly, idea arrangement was also a problem for students in writing the essay.
They had no idea or did not understand the topic clearly, they might be getting out the
topic or failing to convey the main message. Organizing ideas logically or lacking the
main ideas or topic sentence in paragraphs and essays were also difficulties for students.
Also, sometimes they had too many ideas when writing leading to their paragraphs that
were long, redundant, or unnecessary.
Next, poor background knowledge made them unable to organize ideas well.
Therefore, they would feel confused when facing unfamiliar topics because they didn’t
have enough knowledge in different fields. Another difficulty in the background
knowledge was the lack of practical experiences in social life.
Finally, students also faced some other difficulties. Orthography including
punctuation, spelling, and contraction that were difficulties that students often faced.
Time was also a problem for students when they had to complete an essay in a short time.
Also, students have rarely spent time practicing writing skills. Teachers should
encourage students to write articles in class, do writing exercises then giving the
necessary instructions and vocabularies for students then they can have a more positive
and proactive attitude when writing and understand the importance of English writing
skill in life. Writing is an essential skill for students who should master in learning
English. It is not only a means of communication where students can share their views
and thoughts, but also it is actually a prerequisite to master other language skills because
it is a difficult skill and they have no passion on it so that they cannot write well.
To sum up, English majored sophomores at Tay Do University faced many
difficulties in writing such as vocabulary, grammar structures, ideas arrangement,
background knowledge, and others. Students need to find out their difficulties and find
appropriate solutions to get better in writing.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 138

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

6. Conclusions, Limitations, Implications, and Recommendations

This chapter includes conclusions, limitations, and recommendations of the research.

6.1 Conclusions
English is most widely used in communicating around the world, also it is spoken as the
first language in many countries. English has become the lingua franca in many fields,
including business, politics, science, technology, and entertainment, etc. Speaking
English fluently not only helps students work or deal with international companies and
organizations around the world but also allows them to travel to different countries.
Writing in English is important in future career as well. However, according to research
results, students faced many difficulties in learning English writing such as vocabulary,
grammar structures, idea arrangement, and background knowledge. Besides,
orthography, time practicing, and short time writing are also other difficulties. If students
want to have good essays, they should look for the difficulties they faced, find ways to
overcome them and practice writing skills more often.
The purpose of the research "Difficulties in writing of English majored
sophomores at Tay Do University" is to find out the difficulties students met, but they
often do not know or pay attention and want to help them improve their writing skills.

6.2 Limitations
Because the time was short, the research was only surveyed through 53 English majored
sophomores at Tay Do University. Finding difficulties, collecting information from
students by questionnaires and paper interviews carried out in limited time, therefore,
despite careful preparation, the research also could not avoid limitations. If having more
time, the research would be analyzed fully and more detailed. The short questionnaire
and its results do not seem sufficient to prove the practical difficulties that students faced
and their actual writing ability.

6.3 Implications
The research has shown the importance of writing skills in learning and career future. It
also helps students to realize their difficulties when writing through it to find out
solutions to overcome the difficulties that help them improve their writing skills and
write better. In detail, the sophomores often did not understand the structure and usage
of the tenses clearly, they lacked the vocabularies to express their thoughts and ideas so
they could only keep them in mind. Sometimes they did not know how to arrange ideas
or have no idea when writing because they lacked background-knowledge in different
fields. Also, based on the research results, teachers can find appropriate teaching
methods and make it more effective that help students develop their writing skills.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 139

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

6.4 Recommendations
Based on this research, other researchers can develop their research with other
participants such as freshmen, junior, and senior who study English majors or other
majors about their difficulties when learning writing. Also, when researching other
difficulties in the process of learning English, researchers can refer to this study to
supplement and develop their research. Through the results of the study, students can
recognize their difficulties, and also find the appropriate solution to solve their problem.

Conflicts of interest statement

The authors whose names are listed above certify that they have no conflicts of interest,
authorship, and disclosures in publication. They confirm that this work is original and
has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication
elsewhere.

About the Authors

Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen (PhD) with the teaching experience of 14 years is currently in
the position of Vice leader of English department, Tay Do University; the article co-
authors: Thu Uyen Phan, Thi Minh Uyen Phan are also experienced in teaching English
for a very long time, especially in Tay Do Uni.

References

a. References from books

Charaverty and Gautum C. R. (2000). Teaching ESL writing. Englewood Cliffs. NJ:
Prentice Hall Regents.
Dana. R. Ferris (2003). Response to Student Writing: Implications for Second Language
Students 1st Edition, Kindle Edition.
Byrne, D. (1996). Teaching writing skills. UK: Longman Group.
Nagy, W. E., & Herman P. A. (1987). Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge:
Implications for acquisition and instruction. In M. McKeown & M. Curtis (Eds.),
The nature vocabulary acquisition (pp. 19-35). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
McCarthy, M. (1990). Vocabulary. Oxford University Press.
Zhang, X, and Chen, J. (1989). The techniques to teaching writing.
Elbow, P. (1973). Writing in the Disciplines. NewYork: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. C., & Renandya, W. A. (2002). Methodology in language teaching: an
anthology of current practice. New York: Cambridge University Press
Brown (2001) Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.
Longman.
Nguyen Thi Thu Thao (2017). Difficulties in writing of English-majored sophomore at
Tay Do University.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 140

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

b. References from the Internet

The organization of an essay. Retrieved from
https://www.jalc.edu/files/uploads/global/english/pdfs/writing_center_tutorials/
03_the_organization of_an_essay.pdf.
Shourafa A. A. The Effect of Motivation on Jordanian10th Grade Student’ Writing Skill In
English. European Scientific Journal, 8 (22), 235-247. Retrieved from
http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/429/578
Definition of writing. Retrieved from
http://eprints.uny.ac.id/9805/3/CHAPTER2%20-%2005202244187.pdf.
The importance of writing skills. Retrieved from http://www.adlit.org/article/27894/.
Definition of essay writing. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay.
Importance of English. Retrieved from https://effortlessenglishclub.com/importance-of-
english.

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 141

 Hiep Thanh Nga Nguyen, Thu Uyen Pham, Thi Minh Uyen Phan
DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ESSAYS OF ENGLISH MAJORED
SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Creative Commons licensing terms

Authors will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms will
be applied to their work. Under the terms of this license, no permission is required from the author(s) or publisher for members of the community to
copy, distribute, transmit or adapt the article content, providing a proper, prominent and unambiguous attribution to the authors in a manner that makes
clear that the materials are being reused under permission of a Creative Commons License. Views, opinions, and conclusions expressed in this research
article are views, opinions and conclusions of the author(s). Open Access Publishing Group and European Journal of English Language Teaching shall
not be responsible or answerable for any loss, damage or liability caused in relation to/arising out of conflict of interests, copyright violations and
inappropriate or inaccurate use of any kind content related or integrated on the research work. All the published works are meeting the Open Access
Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 6 │ Issue 2 │ 2020 142