1.1. Rationale of the study

Writing is often not as important as other skills such as reading and speaking and it tends to get rather neglected in many classes. Since the new ‘Tiếng Anh 10’ textbook was in use, teaching and learning writing has been a really challenging job at Kinh Mon upper- secondary school.
In literature so far, a few studies have been conducted on difficulties in teaching and learning writing a foreign language. Most of researchers have come to a general agreement to a list of common problems facing both students and teachers. Not many have studied difficulties in teaching and learning writing perceived by upper- secondary school teachers and students in using the new ‘Tiếng Anh 10’ textbook. Hence, it is in an urgent need of taking a serious look at such issue.

1.2. Purpose of the study

The main purpose of the study is to probe difficulties in teaching and learning writing skills among the teaching staff and the 10th form students at Kinh Mon upper- secondary school, in Hai Duong province. Within this purpose, the three central objectives are:
(i) To describe the difficulties perceived by the teachers and the 10th form students when teaching and learning writing skills in the new “Tiếng Anh 10” textbook.
(ii) To investigate factors affecting the success of this process in the writing lessons.
(iii) To suggest some solutions to stimulate the students and make recommendations to improve teaching method for the teachers at Kinh Mon upper- secondary school.

1.3. Scope of the study

This minor thesis is conducted at Kinh Mon upper- secondary school in order to recognize difficulties in teaching and learning writing skills of both the teachers and the 10th form students. Factors causing such challenges are then found out. To go ahead, the thesis also offers some suggestions to better the current context.

1.4. Design of the study

This study is divided into four chapters to get better insights into different aspects of the problem. Chapter 1 introduces rationale, purpose, scope, and overview of the thesis design. Chapter 2 deals with definitions of writing, roles of writing, approaches to writing teaching, and writing teaching procedure. Chapter 3 presents the study of which the Kinh Mon upper- secondary school context is first discussed. The introduction of the new ‘Tiếng Anh 10’ textbook is then elaborated. After that, the method underlying the research and descriptions of data analysis are shown. In terms of method, the background information of the research questions, the subjects, the data collection instruments, and data collection procedure are introduced. More importantly, data analysis provides specific explanations and the findings of the study. Chapter 4 offers some personal recommendations for such current problems in teaching and learning writing skills at Kinh Mon upper- secondary school. Limitations and suggestions for further research are also explained.