(SKKN 2022) Helping 11th students at Mai Anh Tuan high school to write better argumentative essays through the application of the genre-based approach

Among these is the genre-based approach to teaching writing whose application is expected to help my students write better argumentative essays as this approach gives students sufficient

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

I Abstract

II Aims of the Research

1 Research Questions

2 Definitions of terms

2.1 Definition of a genre

2.2 Definition of an argumentative essay

III Rationale and Justification of the Research

IV Literature review

V Methodology and Research Schedule

1 Research Design

2 Independent and Dependent Variables

3 Data Collection Procedure

3.1 Selection of Subjects

3.2 Data Collection Plan

3.2.1 Lesson Plans

3.2.2 Teacher’s Diary

3.2.3 Samples of Students’ Work

3.2.4 Questionnaires

3.2.5 Writing Tests

3.3 Data Analysis

3.3.1 Quantitative Method

3.3.2 Qualitative Method

3.4 Research Procedure

4 Research Schedule

VI Expected findings and Closing Remarks

1.Suggestions

2 Here are some examples

3 Result

4 REFERENCES

5 Appendixes

1 1 2 2 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 11 12 12 13 13

14 14

15 16

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I Abstract

It is evident that writing is the most challenging skill for EFL learners How to help our students tackle their writing tasks would seem to prey on all EFL teachers

Since the day I realised my dream of being a teacher and became aware of

my students’ weaknesses in writing skill, particularly writing argumentative essays, I have been nursing an ambition to help them conquer these weaknesses Thanks to the valuable studying time at Regional Language Centre in Singapore,

I have been enlightened with many practical teaching methods, which can help to make a difference in my teaching career Among these is the genre-based approach to teaching writing whose application is expected to help my students write better argumentative essays as this approach gives students sufficient scaffolding to enable them to produce pieces of writing which are linguistically accurate and structurally appropriate and hence mould them into more confident writers who can utilise writing as a means of persuasion to gain readers’ adherence to their point of view

It is hoped that the action research on ‘Helping 11 th students at Mai Anh Tuan high school to write better argumentative essays through the application

of the genre-based approach’ can culminate in ‘one giant leap’ for my beloved students

II Aims of the Research

1 Research Questions

1.1 To what extent does the application of the genre-based approach to teaching writing help to improve my students’ argumentative essays?

1.2 What are my students’ attitudes towards the genre-based approach?

2 Definitions of terms

2.1 Definition of a genre

Swale (1990, p.58) defines a genre as ‘a class of communicative events, the member of which share some sets of communicative purposes These purposes are recognised by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and

thereby constitute the rationale for the genre This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style.’ As pointed out by his definition, each piece of writing serves a particular communicative purpose within a certain social context and is governed by rules

or conventions

2.2 Definition of an argumentative essay

‘The argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate a topic, collect, generate, and evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner.’

(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/05)

III Rationale and Justification of the Research

Since its foundation 35 years ago, Mai Anh Tuan high school has always been prestigious for its achievements of academic excellence Our tenacity in the pursuit of academic excellence and character development has nurtured millions

of students into well-rounded individuals and upright citizens, who have made remarkable contributions to the building of our province and our nation as well For twenty seven years’ working as a teacher of English at Mai Anh Tuan High School , I have been assigned to teach English-gifted students as well as train the best of them for Examinations for the English at the provincial and national levels The provincial Test for English-gifted Students, which takes place every year, consists of four parts, namely Listening, Lexico-Grammar, Reading and Writing Transforming sentences, describing a graph or table and writing an argumentative essay are comprised of the writing part To my students, it is writing an argumentative essay that is the hardest nut to crack Being aware of their struggle with this type of essay and its pivotal role in determining my students’ examination results, I have harboured a burning desire to help my students to write better argumentative essays

Argumentative essays require students to utilise their higher-order thinking skills to argue for a certain point of view and have the reader adopt their viewpoint and/ or take a particular action

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Students’ weaknesses in writing argumentative essays lie in the fact that they are unfamiliar with the genre they are asked to write Thus, they merely end up in listing ideas which may be grammatically accurate but jump all over the place and hence fail to achieve the communicative purpose of the genre Therefore, familiarising students with the genre to help them master its schematic structure and language features can give rise to their better writing products as learning how to write takes place through analysis and imitation of modals provided (Badger and White, 2000, p.156)

As such, my choice of the genre-based approach to teaching writing shows great promise in helping my students to write better argumentative essays

IV Literature review

Among the four communicative skills, writing is considered the most challenging one, especially to EFL learners Therefore, a variety of approaches to the teaching of writing have been introduced and applied to facilitate the writing classes Although there are a great number of such approaches, three of which are cited for their prominence in teaching writing They include the product approach, the process approach and the genre-based approach As a matter of fact, each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages and is suitable for a particular context of learning and teaching EFL Nonetheless, this action research will largely focus on the genre-based approach and its application in the teaching

of writing argumentative essays to EFL learners

According to functional linguists, language is a social phenomenon and is shaped by the purposes to which it is put and the audiences to which it is addressed Hence, there exist various genres, each of which has its own structural features, that is the organizational structure and linguistic features according to its communicative purpose As stated by Badger and White (2000, p.156), in the genre-based approach, writing is seen as essentially concerned with the knowledge of language and as being attached to a social purpose and learning how to write takes place through analysis and imitation of modals provided Accordingly, thanks to the application of the genre-based approach in teaching

writing, we can help EFL students to minimise the difficulties of limited language proficiency and to logically organise their ideas by activating their prior knowledge on writing experiences when they are asked to produce a piece of writing in a familiar genre Furthermore, being aware of the rhetorical goals can ensure more persuasive writing This application is particularly beneficial in the case of argumentative essays where students as writers are expected to utilise their knowledge on the issue under discussion to take sides and persuade the reader to adopt their viewpoint through sound reasoning and solid evidence

In conclusion, it is my belief that the genre-based approach is beneficial to the teaching of writing argumentative essays in that it shows learners what to write linguistically; helps them to master the structural features and, most importantly, enables them to utilize writing as a means of persuasion to gain readers’ adherence to their point of view

V Methodology and Research Schedule

1 Research Design

Research questions Research

instruments

analysis

1 To what extent does

the application of the

genre-based approach

help to improve my

students’

argumentative essays?

2 What are my

students’ attitudes

towards the

genre-based approach?

Teacher’s lesson plans Teacher’s diary Pre-test

Samples of students’ work Post-test

Questionnaires

English 11 th graders at Mai Anh Tuan High School for the Gifted

Age: 17 Sample size: 84

Frequency count

Percentage Critical Discourse Analysis

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2 Independent and Dependent Variables

3 Data Collection Procedure

3.1 Selection of Subjects

My choice of one English-gifted 11th class as the subjects of my action research stems from the following reasons

- They have been my students since they started high school, so we have got to know each other well enough to make every lesson go smoothly

- There still exists a gap to bridge between the curriculum requirements and students’ writing skills, especially their writing of argumentative essays

- The best of them will be chosen to represent the school to take part in the National Examination for the English-gifted Of all the exercises in this examination paper, it is writing an argumentative essay that my students find the most challenging Therefore, I have been desirous to ease their burden and to get better examination results

The application

of the genre-based approach

to teaching writing

Students’

argumentative essays

Operational definition

- Teacher applies the

genre-based approach to

teach students to write

argumentative essays

Operational definition

- Students write better argumentative essays

This is measured largely

by the pre-test and post-test

3.2 Data Collection Plan

For the sake of research findings, sources of requisite data are listed as follows:

3.2.1 Lesson Plans

One of the indispensable instruments to undertake this action research is lesson plans There will be eight lesson plans, all of which are carefully prepared by the researcher using the genre-based approach

3.2.2 Teacher’s Diary

Keeping a diary after the delivery of each lesson helps the teacher to record the overall impression of the lesson and point out both the strong points and the shortcomings of the lesson Then pedagogic implications can be drawn to better the subsequent lesson plans

3.2.3 Samples of Students’ Work

At the end of each lesson, the students’ writing products will be collected

to mark and analyse for the sake of keeping track of their progress and the extent

of improvements on students’ writing argumentative essays the approach can make through each lesson

3.2.4 Questionnaires

The Likert Scale questionnaires will be designed to know my students’ attitudes and my colleagues’ towards the genre-based approach It will be administrated and after the post-test

3.2.5 Writing Tests

Both the pre-test and the post-test are to ask students to write an argumentative essay under time pressure of 40 minutes The writing products of the pre-test will be marked and analysed to detect what hinders the students’

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ability to write argumentative essays The scores of both the tests will be recorded and compared to chart their progress

3.3 Data Analysis

The following methods are employed in order to interpret the data

3.3.1 Quantitative Method

I will have two senior colleagues of mine to mark the students’ pre-test and post-test based on the marking scheme provided The scores of both tests will be recorded and compared by dint of frequency count and percentage This method will also be used for analysis of information from the questionnaires

3.3.2 Qualitative Method

For a closer view of the problems facing my students in writing argumentative essays, critical discourse analysis of their writing test papers will

be utilised

The students’ work samples after each writing lesson during the research will also be analysed by dint of critical discourse analysis to keep track of the students’ progress in writing argumentative essays, which will aid in the final evaluation of students’ improvements

3.4 Research Procedure

The following flow chart will reveal the collection of data for this action research

THE APPLICATION OF GENRE-BASED APPROACH

WRITING POST-TEST

COMPARING THE RESULTS

OF THE TWO TESTS

QUESTIONNAIRES

WRITING PRE-TEST

ENGLISH 11TH

GRADERS OF MAI ANH TUAN HIGH SCHOOL

FINDINGS AND

CONCLUSIONS

4 Research Schedule

1 Preparing and administrating the pre-test September, 2021, week 2

2 Marking the test based on the marking

scheme provided and recording the scores

September, 2021, week 3

3 Analysing the problems facing students in

writing argumentative essays through

critical discourse analysis of the pretest

and the questionnaire

September, 2021, week 4

4 Teaching argumentative essays based on

the genre based approach

October and November, 2021

5 Preparing and administrating the post -

test

December, 2021, week 1

6 Comparing and analyzing the results of

the pre-test and the post-test

December, 2021 week 2

7 Designing and administrating the

questionnaires

December, 2021 week 3

8 Writing a report on the findings and

conclusion

December, 2021 week 4

VI Expected findings and Closing Remarks

Through the action research, I seek to find out how well the application of the genre-based approach works in helping my students to write better argumentative essays Moreover, I would like to know my students’ attitudes and

my colleagues’ towards this approach The action research will sample one English 11th class at Mai Anh Tuan High School for the Gifted I am sanguine that

I will enjoy the support of the school boards of governors and all of my colleagues as well as the cooperation of my students when I conduct the action research, which can aid in making it a success

Painstaking as the research is, it would have limitations as it is intended for English-gifted students, especially those who are eligible for the National

Examination for the English-gifted Nonetheless, it is hoped to be a source of reference to all who share interest in this field

1.Suggestions

From the study, I would like to give some suggestions for the teachers, for the students in my school and other schools in Thanh Hoa province can use it more popularly in teaching reading comprehension

2 Here are some examples

ESSAY WRITING TASK 1: “Women are equal to men”, do you agree with this statement? Write an essay of about 250 words about this topic.

MODEL 1 INDRODUCTION

The thesis

statement.

(a kind of

min-outline for the

essay) – the ideas

It is said that women hold up half the sky and I want to make this simpler:

women are equal to men.

Thus, it is time for us to recognize that

women have the ability to do many things like men, women play an important role in society and women are created equal to men

Getting the reader’s interest

What the writing is going

to be about

BODY

The topic sentence

(Examples)

The primary role of a woman is as a

wife and a mother However, the wife and the mother can do many things

as the husband and the father can.

Women can be politicians, soldiers, doctors, university professors, or scientists After all, we have had so many great women such as Cleopatra, Amelia Earheart, Marie Curie and Margaret Thatcher and some great Vietnamese women are Ba Trung, Ba Trieu, Ng Thi Dinh, Phan Nu Diem

Hang And so on These women are always highly valued for their great talents.

 The first idea

(The most important/

strongest one)

BODY

The topic sentence

(The argument)

Another reason for women’s equality to men is that they play an important role in society The home

is our “first school” and every home

 The second idea

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