Article info.

ABSTRACT

Received 04 Jun 2016
Revised 19 Jul 2016

Accepted 29 Jul 2017

English writing skills have received considerable attention from Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training with their decision involved the skills in the national examination for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) for the past two years. However, that many high school students in mountainous areas in Vietnam are encountering challenges of writing in English results in their low marks in writing tests, or even their avoidance of writing assignments. With such a phenomenon, this paper is aimed at investigating challenges that high school students in mountainous areas encounter in English writing. The 5-point Likert scale questionnaires were delivered to 520 grade-12 students from three high schools in mountainous areas, Vietnam. The results revealed that high school students in mountainous areas encountered many challenges related to English writing. It obviously proved that poor spelling, inadequate mastery of grammatical structures, the first language interference, lack of vocabulary, and poor understanding of a well-organized presentation are the most common challenges. The findings will be the first step to assist high school teachers to achieve in-depth understanding of students’ challenges in English writing as well as to prepare for the textbook changes in Vietnam in 2018.

Keywords

Challenges in English writing, high school students, mountainous areas

Cited as: Cam, L.T.H., Yen, P.H., 2017. A Phenomenological study of challenges encountered by mountainous high school students in Vietnam. Can Tho University Journal of Science. Vol 6: 1-8.