IP - FPMTL

INITIAL PROPOSAL (D1) FOR THE FINAL PROJECT

Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

User code
PEFPMTFL2064176
1. Program:

Máster Universitario en Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza del Inglés Lengua

Extranjera

2. Personal and academic information:

Student Name: Group:

Laura Matilde Arangurí Tomas 2015-02

Email address: Date:

larath78@hotmail.com February
28th 2019

3. Final Project Supervisor:

Dra. Sandra Camelo.

4. Title and topic of the Final Project:

“Difficulties encountered while working on writing skills in undergraduate students

from San Ignacio de Loyola University,2019-01”

As a teacher, I have found out every sort of difficulties that my students deal with
when it comes to write whether a single paragraph or an essay. Despite having
previous knowledge, there is still a lack of confidence in these groups as their
performance while writing is not effective due to different factors such as a deep
fear to express themselves in the target language, poor language command, lack of
ideas to develop a topic, and so on.

5. Justification of academic and personal interest of the topic:

While teaching different groups of learners, I have also noticed their strengths and
weaknesses in different aspects. Therefore, I have decided to do some research on
the difficulties students face while developing their writing skills and the strategies
they will use during the learning process of English.
Besides this, I think this project is meant to provide proof about the different
disadvantages students face while developing their writing skills due to the lack of
organization, vague ideas about a sort of topics, language unsuitable for their
level, weak grammatical structures and regular language command.

In addition to this, I would like to share some perceptions from undergraduate

students who seem to be concerned about this aspect as they are studying ESL
courses at university as well. Besides dealing with their difficulty to develop a
single paragraph, they seem to be confused at the different elements required to
develop a clear and simple written text.

All in all, I want to complete this project in order to provide not only information we
are all familiar with, but also share some face to face experience and information
gathered within a term. Moreover, based on my background and my students’
learning experience, I hope I can help them as learners to improve their written
skills in order to achieve the expected goals within a term and teachers should be
aware that writing is a process that takes time, dedication and suitable strategies
taking into account our groups’ needs, interests and expectations.

6. Type of Final Project:

 a) Research
 b) Action Research
 c) Material Analysis
 d) Material Design
 e) Material Analysis and Design
 f) Action Research and Material Design
 g) Course Design
 h) Syllabus Design

7. Research question

- What major difficulties do undergraduate students from USIL university face

while developing a written text?
- What sub- skills do undergraduate students usually lack in order to develop
effective written texts at university?
- Why do most undergraduate students feel afraid of writing for an academic
purpose at university?
- To what extent do undergraduate students use accurately their own strategies
to develop their writing skills at university?

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8. Aims of the study:

- Main aim of the Project:

“To solve difficulties encountered while working on the writing skills in
undergraduate students from San Ignacio de Loyola University

- Specific aims:

- “To identify the major difficulties undergraduate students face for writing a
text.”
- “To analyze if the undergraduate students are aware of their own skills and
subskills while developing a written text.”

- “To search for specific strategies that allow them to enhance their writing
skills.”

9. Theoretical background:

The project “Difficulties encountered while working on the writing skills in

undergraduate students from San Ignacio de Loyola University,2019-01”

- Definitions of writing skills, subskills, strategies and methodology

- Difficulties for writing a text: cause and effects in undergraduate students
- How to develop a writing text from simple to elaborated texts.
- How to use the target language effectively for a communicative purpose
- Applying strategies to be an effective writer for an academic purpose.

10. Context for the project and methodology:

The University San Ignacio de Loyola is well-known all around our country and in
other countries. The branch, which located in La Molina, Lima, Peru, has all the
facilities students can expect from a private institution. Besides this, more and
more students are evaluated and sent as part of exchange programs overseas.
Therefore, learning other foreign languages and even taking other advanced
courses in English is compulsory. In addition to this, students take English as part
of the curriculum and they study this course for fourteen weeks each term.

In order to achieve each of the specific aims I will focus on these steps:
1. Focus on the main problem arisen in class due to some observations during
the teaching -learning process.
2. Elaborate an action plan to get a preliminary diagnosis.
3. Gather data by using specific tools such as interviews and observation.
4. Analyze and interpret the data to make conclusions.
5. Make some adjustments based on my hypothesis, observations and results
so students can improve their strategies while developing their writing skills.
6. Reflect about my own teaching in order to take actions, change and improve
my class development.

10. Viability analysis

USIL teachers and students work together as part of a fourteen-week course during
a regular term. There is access to different sources such as online material in their
virtual campus, podcasts, free access to Internet and other apps and the use of
photocopiable /printed material as well
11. Work planning:

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Activities F M A M J J A S
Initial proposal 
Literature review 
Identifying the problem and applying a suitable tool. 
Elaboration of action plan and diagnosis test. 
Activities to see students’ performance while writing.  
Qualitative and Quantitative data 
Analyzing results and conclusions. 

12. Bibliography

Byrne, D. (1988), Teaching Writing Skills (Handbooks for Language Teachers)

The Open University (2018) Essay and report writing skills.
Zemach, D, (2013) 50 Ways To Practice Writing.
Van Geyte, E. ( 2014) Writing: Learn To Write Better Academic Essays.
McNiff, J. (2014) Writing and Doing Action Research, 1st Edition, Version Kindle.

13. Student compliance:

Laura Matilde Arangurí Tomas, who is enrolled in the academic program Master
inTeaching English as a Foreign Language, agrees with the above detailed proposal
to complete the Final Project and hereby commits himself/herself to carry out a
personal and original work.

In Lima, Peru, on February 28, 2019