The impact of genre based writing teaching on the 11th grade students letter writing ability at go cong dong high school in tien giang province m a 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE ---    --- THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED WR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

-     -

THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED WRITING TEACHING

ON THE 11 th GRADE STUDENTS’ LETTER WRITING ABILITY

AT GO CONG DONG HIGH SCHOOL

IN TIEN GIANG PROVINCE

Submitted to the Department of English Linguistics and Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By NGUYEN THI NHU AN

Supervised by NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, MARCH 2013

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the Master‟s Thesis submitted today entitled:

THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED WRITING TEACHING

ON THE 11 th GRADE STUDENTS’ LETTER WRITING ABILITY

AT GO CONG DONG HIGH SCHOOL IN TIEN GIANG PROVINCE

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master‟s Program issued

by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not previously been submitted for any degree or diploma at Universities and Institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, March 2013

NGUYEN THI NHU AN

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI NHU AN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited

in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan, or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, March 2013

NGUYEN THI NHU AN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the kind help of the following people I would like to express my special thanks to

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor,

Dr Nguyen Thu Huong, who offered me his whole-hearted guidance and invaluable support He sowed the first idea of the thesis topic in my mind and provided me with very useful sources of material His critical comments and valuable suggestions during our discussions and after reading my drafts helped me understand what I did and continued to do for my thesis more thoroughly

My special thanks also go to all teachers who taught me and gave me very useful knowledge during the time I was a member in class TESOL 2008

I am indebted to Tien Giang Training and Education Service and the school managing board of GCD High School, who gave me good conditions and much support during the time I attended the course for M A in TESOL in Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities

I am very grateful to all the students in my study for their enthusiastic cooperation in the process of my experimental doing My sincere thanks also go to all the English teachers of GCD high school, who gave me much assistance

I owe my sincere thanks to my high school teaching staff, and my friends for their support, encouragement, and regard during my study

Finally, I am warmly grateful to my parents, my sister, my brother, and my sweetheart for their love, support, and encouragement that helped me to finish the thesis

ABSTRACT

The present quasi-experimental study aims to examine the impact of based writing teaching on EFL high school students‟ writing ability, especially on letter writing

genre-The study was carried out with the participation of seventy eleventh graders

at GCD high school Thirty-five students in the experimental group were exposed

to the genre-based writing teaching while the other thirty-five in the comparison group did not take the treatment After the intervention, the data collected from the pretest and posttest results of the two groups were computed and analyzed to compare and investigate the influences of genre-based writing teaching In detail, its effects on EFL high school students‟ letter writing ability in general, and especially on their letter writing ability in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use (mainly grammar) were examined

The findings of the study revealed that the genre-based writing teaching significantly improved students‟ letter writing ability In other words, the group treated with the genre-based writing teaching significantly outperformed the comparison group not only in their letter writing ability in general but also in such aspects as content, organization, vocabulary, and language use Moreover, the result also showed that the students with more awareness of genre could perform their letter writing more effectively

The outcome of the study showed a remarkable improvement that the experimental group attained in letter writing as a result of the genre-based writing teaching Therefore, some implications of applying the genre-based writing teaching in teaching writing to high school students were made

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Certificate of originality i

Retention and use of the thesis …ii

Acknowledgements ….iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents ….v

List of tables viii

List of figures ix

List of abbreviations x

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 3

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Significance of the study 4

1.5 Research questions 4

1.6 Hypotheses 5

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Teaching writing 6

2.1.1 Writing: Views on Writing 6

2.1.2 TeachingL2 writing: any trends 7

2.2 Major approaches to teaching L2 writing 9

2.2.1 The product approach 9

2.2.1.1 Strengths of the product approach 9

2.2.1.2 Drawbacks of the product approach 10

2.2.2 The process approach .11

2.2.2.1 Strengths of the process approach 11

2.2.1.2 Drawbacks of the process approach 12

2.2.3 The genre approach 13

2.2.3.1 The concept of genre in the SFL view 15

2.2.3.2 Theoretical background of the SFL genre-based approach 15

2.2.3.3 A general framework for designing writing teaching lessons based on the SFL genre-based approach 17

2.2.3.4 Previous studies on the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing 25

2.3 Summary 29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Research design 30

3.2 Study setting 31

3.3 Subjects and Sampling 31

3.4 Experimental teaching 34

3.4.1 Material 34

3.4.2 The experimental teaching outline 35

3.4.3 Lesson plans 36

3.4.3.1 General description of lesson plans for teaching students in the experimental group 36

3.4.3.2 General description of lesson plans for teaching students in the comparison group 37

3.5 Data collection instrument 38

3.5.1 Description of pretest and posttest 38

3.5.2 Test administration 38

3.5.3 Scoring 39

3.5.3.1 Answer sheet coding 39

3.5.3.2 Scoring method 40

3.5.3.3 Scoring criteria 40

3.5.3.4 Raters 41

3.5.3.5 Scoring procedure 41

3.6 Data collection procedure 42

3.7 Data analysis 42

3.8 Summary 43

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 44

4.1 Reliability of the pretest and posttest scores 44

4.2 Results 45

4.2.1 Students‟ ability in writing letter 45

4.2.2 Students‟ ability in writing letter in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use 51

4.2.3 Correlations between genre awareness and students‟ letter writing ability after the treatment 58

4.3 Discussion 60

4.4 Summary 67

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 68

5.1 Summary of the research 68

5.2 Pedagogical implications 70

5.3 Limitations of the study 71

5.4 Recommendations for further research 71

5.5 Summary 72

REFERENCES 73

APPENDICES 80

APPENDIX 1: Test for sample selection 80

APPENDIX 2: Pretest ……86

APPENDIX 3: Posttest 87

APPENDIX 4: Rating sheet 89

APPENDIX 5: Criteria for rating students‟ score results 91

APPENDIX 6: Correlations between genre awareness and letter writing ability …92

APPENDIX 7: Scoring criteria 93

APPENDIX 8: Lesson plans for the experimental group 97

APPENDIX 9: Lesson plans for the comparison group 153

APPENDIX 10: Statistical data 173

LIST OF TABLES

Pages Table 3.1: The Experimental and Comparison groups‟ information 33 Table 3.2: Five letter-writing lessons 35 Table 4.1: Cronbach‟s Alpha for inter-rater reliability in pretest and posttest ratings 44 Table 4.2: Table 4.2: Independent Sample T-Test results of posttest scores between the

two groups 45

Table 4.3:Independent Sample T-Test results of pretest scores between the two groups 46 Table 4.4: Score type distribution of pretest between the two groups 48 Table 4.5: Score type distribution of posttest between the two groups 49 Table 4.6: Independent Sample T-Test results of posttest scores on content,

organization, vocabulary, and language use between the two groups 51

Table 4.7: Independent Sample T-Test results of pretest scores on content,

organization, vocabulary, and language use between the two groups 52

Table 4.8: Correlations between genre awareness and students‟ ability in writing

letters of the two groups in the posttest 59

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS

Pages

Figure 2.1: The Teaching-Learning Cycle 19

Figure 3.1:Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest comparison group design 31

Chart 4.1: Mean scores of pretest and posttest of the comparison group and the experimental one 47

Chart 4.2: Score type distribution in pretest between the two groups 48

Chart 4.3: Score type distribution in posttest between the two groups 50

Chart 4.4: Mean scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use in pretest between the two groups 53

Chart 4.5: Mean scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use in posttest between the two groups 54

Chart 4.6: Score type distribution in content of pretest 55

Chart 4.7: Score type distribution in organization of pretest 55

Chart 4.8: Score type distribution in vocabulary of pretest 56

Chart 4.9: Score type distribution in language use of pretest 56

Chart 4.10: Score type distribution in content of posttest 57

Chart 4.11: Score type distribution in organization of posttest 57

Chart 4.12: Score type distribution in vocabulary of posttest 58

Chart 4.13: Score type distribution in language use of posttest 58

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESL English as a Second Language

SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics

L2 Second/ Foreign Language

ESP English for Specific Purposes

ZPD Zone of Proximal Development

DSP Disadvantaged Schools Program

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter begins with providing the background of the study The next sections present the statement of the problem, the aim, and the significance of the study Then it focuses on the research questions and hypotheses Finally, it concludes with the organization of the thesis

1.1 Background of the study

In the setting of global integration, English is considered to be an international language Therefore, learning English is a popular need over the world, not except Vietnam To contribute to learners‟ success in this target language, writing, one of the language skills, cannot be ignored

In four language skills, writing may be said to be the most difficult skill for L2 learners to master To support this, Richards and Renandya point that “the difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable texts.” (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p 303) However,

“the ability to write effectively is becoming increasingly important in our global communication” (Weigle, 2002, p 1) In reality, people communicate with each other not only in spoken language but also in written language As stated by Weigle, along with the ability to speak a language as a foreign or second language, the ability to write it is “becoming widely recognized as an essential skill for educational, business, and personal reasons” (2002, p 1)

As a result, writing has become an important part of learning and teaching English in EFL/ESL context over the world, including in Vietnam Under this circumstance, writing has been paid much attention to, even in Vietnamese high school English curriculum Thus, how to help EFL high school students improve their writing ability is really a challenge to teachers For this, the application of an

alternative method in teaching writing of English to EFL high school students would be considered as one of the essential solutions

In fact, in the last decades, there has been a shift of the major approaches to teaching writing in favor of the genre–based approach As known, the product approach comes under some heavy criticisms that the written pieces are mainly the imitation of the input and the writing skills are almost ignored (Pincas, 1982; Silva, 1990; Nunan, 1991; Badger and White, 2000) In the same way, the process approach is blamed for overemphasizing on the writing skills but paying little attention to the linguistic knowledge L2 students need to write effectively (Badger

& White, 2000) Meanwhile, the genre-based approach to teaching writing emphasizes on language, discourse features of the text, and the context in which the text in a certain genre is produced (Paltridge, 2004) Similarly, in the way of Munice (2002), the genre approach focuses more on the reader and on the conventions that a written piece needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted by its readership Noticeably, in recent years, the genre-based writing instruction has become one of the mainstreams of researching and applying in the field of English language teaching as EFL/ESL, especially teaching of writing (Hyland, 2004; Johns, 2002; Paltridge, 2001) Strongly influenced by achievements from Australia, where the genre theory and its applications have been developed better than elsewhere, many studies of teaching writing of English

by using the genre-based approach have been carried out in EFL contexts The results of these studies have shown the genre-based approach to teaching writing helps students write much better

Although the genre-based writing instruction is widely used in different parts

of the world even in several countries in the neighborhood of Vietnam like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, etc, it seems to be unfamiliar to teachers in Vietnam, especially with EFL high school teachers With the effectiveness of the genre-based writing teaching, the researcher of the present study, also a high school teacher of English for years, is urged to conduct the current study “the impact of genre-based writing teaching on the 11th

grade

students‟ letter writing ability at Go Cong Dong high school in Tien Giang province”

1.2 Statement of the problem

From the practical need of improving learners‟ English ability in general, writing ability in particular, new English textbooks of high school English curriculum have been used for years However, a big challenge has still existed in teaching and learning English writing at Go Cong Dong (GCD) high school is that the results of the students‟ writing are always unsatisfactory This can be seen through the low writing scores of the students‟ writing tests over years Moreover, during the researcher‟s teaching, she can see that her students face many writing problems from their written products First, they have difficulty in selecting relevant ideas or lack supporting ideas to express what they are writing about Second, they also face difficulties in using appropriately linguistic features (lexical-grammatical features) as well as organizational structures for their written pieces Moreover, a large number of them cannot write coherently due to their failure in arranging the ideas logically, and making use of cohesive devices, etc Hence, such problems prevent these EFL high school students from writing to achieve communicative purposes successfully as well as to be accepted satisfactorily by intendedaudiences These problems are also consistent with those mentioned in the pilot study to some problems EFL students in a gifted high school

in Soc Trang, Vietnam carried out by Tuyen (2010)

On that account, a deep thought of an alternative way for teaching writing, the genre-based writing teaching, came into the researcher‟s mind This writing instruction is different from the one her colleagues and she have been using Therefore, a strong motivation appeared in her mind to conduct the study “The impact of genre-based writing teaching on the 11th grade students‟ letter writing ability at Go Cong Dong high school in Tien Giang province” It also implies that applying the genre-based writing teaching aims to improve writing skill of senior high school students in general

1.3 Aim of the study

The major aim of the study in great effort is to investigate the impact of the genre-based writing teaching on the eleventh graders‟ letter writing ability at Go Cong Dong high school in Tien Giang province More particularly, the impact of the genre-based writing instruction on these students‟ ability of writing letter in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use are examined

1.4 Significance of the study

Theoretically, it is hoped that the study will be a very useful reference for EFL high school teachers as well as other researchers about the study on teaching English writing based on the genre-based approach

The results of the study has shown that the genre-based writing teaching really helped to improve these high school students‟ ability in writing letters, especially in the areas of writing such as content, language use, vocabulary, and organization Therefore, practically, the study may provide a useful guidance for teachers to design and apply an appropriate way of teaching writing to get much effectiveness in pedagogy

Moreover, the success of the study hopefully makes a meaningful contribution to teaching and learning in response to the call of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training: encouraging teachers to use the innovative way in teaching in general, and English teaching in particular

1.5 Research questions

To conduct this study, the following research questions are focused:

1 Does the genre-based writing teaching significantly improve the eleventh graders‟ letter writing ability?

a Does the experimental group significantly outperform the

comparison group in terms of letter writing ability?

b If the experimental group outperforms the comparison one

significantly, what are the areas (content, organization, vocabulary, and language use) that they outperform?

2 Are there any correlations between genre awareness and students‟ letter writing ability after the treatment?

1.6 Hypotheses

Built on the study aims and research questions, hypotheses are stated as follows

Hypothesis 1: the genre-based writing teaching significantly improves the

11th grade students‟ letter writing ability Specifically, the experimental group significantly outperforms the comparison one in terms of letter writing ability in general and in terms of letter writing ability of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use

Hypothesis 2: Prompt giving does not make any difference in students‟ writing ability However, if awareness is raised, positive gains may result This suggests a consciousness-raising acting of the genre may be indicator of writing ability gains

1.7 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1 is an introduction to the study Chapter 2 is literature review, presenting the theoretical background that is the basis for the thesis to be conducted Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study Chapter 4 is about the results and discussion In this chapter, the collected data are analyzed and discussed in detail Chapter 5 gives the conclusion to the thesis

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the conceptual framework related to the present study Therefore, the chapter first begins with some issues of writing and teaching writing Secondly, it presents major approaches to teaching writing, especially it is mainly concerned with the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing Finally, the chapter ends with its summary

2.1 Teaching writing

2.1.1 Writing: Views on writing

In traditional view, writing was considered as an only representation of speech as well as transcribed speech As stated by Morris (1996, p 24) “Writing is primarily a means of recording speech even though it must be acknowledged as a secondary medium of communication in its own right” By this way, writing was not regarded to be one of the appropriate purposes of language learning In language classroom, writing was mainly used for helping to learn speech because

it was assumed that anyone would be able to write with his or her knowledge of spelling and grammar

In contrast to the traditional view, this viewpoint of writing considers writing as a language skill used for communication and writing is a very complex process To support this view, Washe expresses that writing is not merely “talk written down”, but involves in “a deeper kind of thinking” (Washe, 1986, p 174)

In agreement with this viewpoint, Nunan (1999, p 273) also states “Writing is a complex, cognitive process that requires sustained effort over a considerable period of time” Moreover, in his words about second language writing, Weigle (2002, p 1) expresses that “The traditional view in language classes that writing functions primarily to support and reinforce patterns of oral language use, grammar, and vocabulary, is being supplanted by the notion that writing in a

second language is a worthwhile enterprise in and of itself” Furthermore, some authors (Kaplan, 1966; Matsuda, 1997; Moffett, 1982) make a claim that writing does not take place in a vacuum; it is involved in the complexity of relationships among different elements such as the writer, the reader (the audience), the text, and reality (context) For researchers as well as teachers of writing, therefore, writing

is a means of linguistic expression and communication

Because writing is a complex phenomenon, managing this skill requires some necessary kinds of knowledge from learner In relation to this matter, Tribble (1996) and Hyland (2003) share their outlook Besides the common things, Hyland has proposed one more, consisting of genre knowledge The knowledge considered

to help writer to get effective in his writing can be outlined as follows

- Content knowledge – knowledge of the ideas and concepts involved in the topic area that the text will write about

- Language system knowledge – knowledge of the aspects of language system necessary for the task completion such as vocabulary, grammar, etc

- Context knowledge – knowledge of social context related to reader‟s expectation, of cultural preferences, and of related texts

- Writing process knowledge – knowledge of the most suitable way

of preparing and carrying out a particular writing task

- Genre knowledge – knowledge of communicative purposes and value of the genre in specific contexts

2.1.2 Teaching L2 writing: any trends

In the teaching of writing in English to L2 learners, there have been a number of trends influencing much on teaching writing Among them are the three remarkable tendencies in L2 writing instruction over the last 30 years that attract

much attention, including focusing on language structures (forms), focusing on the writing process, and focusing on the genre

The trend of writing instruction focuses on language structures was dominant from the 1960s to the early 1970s At the beginning of this stage, due to the influence of the view seeing writing merely as useful assistance to learning oral language, teaching writing mainly emphasized on sentence pattern drills such as fill-ins, substitution, transformation, completions, and so on Then, using passages

of connected discourse as classroom material, writing was guided inflexibly through controlled composition tasks In these kinds of tasks, learners are given texts and asked to manage the linguistic forms within the texts by filling in gaps, completing sentences, transforming tenses, etc Teaching of writing this way, as Hyland (2003, p 3) states, “directs attention to writing as a product and encourages a focus on formal text units or grammatical features of texts”

Another tendency of teaching writing is the emphasis on the writer Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, writing instruction in this trend began

to be popular with writing teachers Such a trend in teaching writing was born due

to the influence of L1 writing researches on composing processes L2 writing teachers and researchers shifted their interest in the writer In this perspective, the writer is emphasized as “language learner and creator of text” (Raimes, 1991) or

“an independent producer of texts” (Hyland, 2003) Paying much attention to the writer is consistent with placing the primary focus on what the writer really does as he/ she writes

Focus on genre is also a salient trend in teaching writing Since the early 1990s, this trend has been a strong position in teaching writing with the attraction

of most writing researchers and teachers as well as its successful application in classroom In this tendency, the principal concern is placed on the text and context with a great effort to effectively communicate with readers in different situations

In other words, this way of teaching writing, as Muncie (2002) notes, emphasizes

“more on the reader and on the conventions that a piece of writing needs to follow

in order to be successfully accepted by its readership”

In short, this section has summarized some writing-related issues and major tendencies to teaching writing All these things can be considered to be the fundamental background for some striking approaches to L2 writing teaching The next section will elaborate some main approaches to teaching writing

2.2 Major approaches to teaching L2 writing

Due to the researchers‟ attempt in researching on L2 writing teaching, the dramatic changes in this field have been seen over years In history of L2 writing teaching, some main approaches have been developed like the product approach, the process approach, and the genre approach Although all of them share the same purpose to help teaching writing with more effectiveness, they have their own characteristics The following sections look at these approaches in great detail

2.2.1 The product approach

2.2.1.1 Strengths of the product approach

Under the influence of the trend of teaching writing focusing on language structures, the product approach is considered predominant during this time According to writing researchers, writing in this approach is involved much in knowledge about language structures and writing developing is merely the imitation of the input of the texts given by teachers Teaching writing by this approach through four stages includes familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing

Familiarization: Learners are taught certain grammar and vocabulary, usually through a text

Controlled writing: Learners manipulate fixed patterns, often from substitution tables

Guided writing: Learners imitate model texts

Free writing: Learners use the patterns they have developed to write an essay, letter, and so forth

Hyland (2003, p 4)

The salient strength of this approach is that it is helpful in encouraging students to develop their linguistic knowledge, grammatical patterns, etc For this aspect, Badger and White (2000) indicates that since writing this way concerns with linguistic knowledge of text, learners can learn partly through imitation Also, Arndt (1987) believes that the importance of models used in this approach is useful for imitation Moreover, exposing model of written texts to learners can help them reduce their writing errors (Myles, 2002)

Briefly, the product approach is considered useful for developing learners‟ vocabulary, sentence patterns, grammatical rules, and accuracy in writing but this approach faces some strong criticisms

2.2.1.2 Drawbacks of the product approach

There are several drawbacks in the product approach The main drawback is that it ignores writing skills Badger and White (2000) argue that in this approach, writing skills such as planning a text play a relatively small role In addition, according to Prodromou (1995), this approach undervalues learners‟ potential Because it only focuses on the imitation of the model text, there is little or no opportunity for learners to express their own ideas and creativity Furthermore, overemphasis on accuracy and form can also lead to a serious “writing blocks” (Halsted, 1975) as well as “sterile” and “unimaginative” writing pieces (Mahon, 1992) To support this aspect, Hyland (2003, p 5) makes a claim that “nor is it easy to see how a focus restricted to grammar can lead to better writing… Most teachers are familiar with students who can construct accurate sentences and yet are unable to produce appropriate written texts…” One more criticism mentioned

here is that this approach requires a constant error correction, which may affect students‟ motivation and self-esteem

With such disadvantages mentioned above, writing teachers and researchers continue their effort to lead to another approach to teaching writing, the process approach

2.2.2 The process approach

2.2.2.1 Strengths of the process approach

One of the most widespread influences on writing instruction until now is the process approach to teaching writing It began to take the place of the product approach in the mid 1970s This approach emphasizes much on how a text is written In other words, it makes a focus on how L2 writers actually do when they write In regard to this, Hyland (2003) notes that the process approach has a major impact on understanding the nature of writing and the way writing is taught A large number of researchers (Arndt, 1987; Byrne, 1988; Harmer, 2004; Hedge, 1988; Hyland, 2003; Raimes, 1991; Tribble, 1996; Zamel, 1983) assert that the writing process is a complex, recursive procedure which requires writers or learners to move through identifiable stages of developing the text from data collection to publishing it For this reason, cognitive strategies play an important role in the working of this approach

There are several various views on the stages of the writing process in this approach However, a typical model of this process includes recursive stages such

as prewriting, composing/ drafting, revising, editing, publishing (Tribble, 1996)

The prewriting stage engages students in some activities in which students plan what they are going to write, make detailed notes, and think about the purpose, the audience, and the content structure of the writing piece (Harmer, 2004; Tribble, 1996) In the stage of drafting/ composing, the writers begin to “translate plans and ideas into provisional text” (Harris, 1993, p 55) and “moves from thinking about writing to doing it” (Tribble, 1996, p 112) Moreover, Tribble (1996) also adds

that during composing/ drafting, “writers move towards a text that most closely matches what they want to convey to their reader” (p 112). After drafting, students read it again and may share it with their partners, peers, or teacher The stage of revising is concentrated on “reorganizing, shifting emphasis, focusing on information and style for your readership” (Tribble, 1996, p 38) After getting feedback to their writing piece, students make some adjustments, which come to the stage of editing Editing is involved in checking and correcting grammar, lexis, surface structures like punctuation, spelling, layout, etc (Tribble, 1996) or doing any correction if necessary Publishing is the last one once writers have made edition and changes to their written piece and now they are ready to send their written text to its intended audience (Harmer, 2004)

From what has been presented, it can be said that the process approach has many advantages to teaching L2 writing One of its outstanding benefits is that it focuses much on the writer as an independent producer of the text Through this way, students have time and opportunity to develop their abilities to plan, define a rhetorical problem, a purpose and evaluate a solution Moreover, through the stages of writing, students also have chance to explore their ideas, discover meaning, and develop a sense of audience (Murray, 1985) In this approach, students become centered while teacher plays a role of facilitator to give students help in their writing Therefore, it encourages learners‟ creativity and gives much motivation to engage them in learning process

Because the process approach tends to put much emphasis on language skills rather than linguistic knowledge and text structure to develop student writers

as authors when they are not yet ready to be second language writers, it is open to some criticisms

2.2.2.2 Drawbacks of the process approach

Obviously, the process approach suffers from an argument about its drawbacks (Bazerman, 1980) First, this approach often considers all writing as

being produced by the same set of processes, regardless of what the topic is and who the writer or the reader is Second, it gives insufficient importance to the kind

of text writers produce and why such texts are produced Third, according to Badger and White (2000), it offers learners insufficient input, particularly in terms

of linguistic knowledge, to write successfully In the view of Atkinson (2003), the process approach seems to narrowly focus on the skills and processes of writing in the classroom itself, so it fails to take into account the social and cultural aspects that have an impact on different kinds of writing

The disadvantages urge writing researchers, especially opponents of the process approach in their attempts to develop what is known as the genre approach

to L2 teaching writing

2.2.3 The genre approach

Since the mid 1980s, considerable attention has been paid to the genre approach to teaching writing This alternative to teaching writing was developed

in response to the process approach which overemphasizes the process of writing and gives learners insufficient input in terms of linguistic knowledge (Badger & White, 2000) The genre-based approach considers writing as a social and cultural practice It places much emphasis on language and discourse features of particular texts and contexts in which the texts are used (Hyland, 2004)

A general view of the genre approach to teaching writing can be outlined under some judgments from different scholars as follows:

The genre approach is more socially oriented and focuses on the ways in which writers and texts need to interact with readers In this approach, writing is seen as

an essentially social activity in which texts are written to do things, the assumption being that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text, communication will not be successful

(Tribble, 1996, p 37)

Muncie (2002) states that the genre approach focuses more on the reader, and on the conventions that a piece of writing needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted by its readership

According to Hyland (2004), the genre-based writing teaching is concerned with what learners do when they write Teaching writing based on genres is an attempt to communicate with readers to better understand the ways that language patterns are used to accomplish coherent, purposeful written piece Put it another way, the genre-based writing instruction is a way of pulling together language, content, and context At the same time, it is a chance for writing teachers to present students with explicit and systematic explanations of the ways writing works to communicate

In Paltridge‟s view, the genre approach to teaching writing focuses on

“teaching particular genres that students need control of in order to succeed in particular setting This might include a focus on language and discourse features of the texts as well as the context in which the text is produced.” (2004, p 1)

According to the researchers of genre and genre pedagogies, the genre approach is mainly discussed from three perspectives: Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and New Rhetoric studies (Hyland, 2004; Hyon, 1996; Johns, 2002; Paltridge, 2001) Among them are the SFL and ESP genre approaches that are much influential in language instruction, particularly in writing teaching In contrast, the genre approach influenced by the New Rhetoric school has been less concerned with establishing a clear pedagogic frame work (Hyland, 2002) Instead, emphasis is given to raising students‟ consciousness of contextual features and the assumptions and aims of the communities who use the genres in order to provide a critical understanding of

rhetorical features and their effectiveness (Bazerman, 1988; Hyland, 2002)

This current study takes the SFL genre-based approach as its theoretical background because “within SFL, a rich and sophisticated methodology has

developed to provide both first and second language learners with access to socially valued genres through an explicit grammar of linguistic choices” (Hyland,

2004, p 33) Moreover, the SFL genre-based approach is considered as an effective pedagogical application for teaching writing to L2 learners, especially to school students while the two others mainly focus on students at university Hyland (2004) also emphasizes that this approach is much suitable for students of beginner and intermediate proficiencies to develop their writing skills That is why the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing is adopted to underpin the present study The following subsections will discuss the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing in greater detail

2.2.3.1 The concept of genre in the SFL view

As known, the word “genre” comes from the French word for “kind” or

“class” The term “genre” has long been used in literary studies to categorize the different kinds of writing such as the novel, short stories and science fiction (Gee 1997) In the last few decades, genre has also been applied to categories of non-literary written texts, sometimes for characterizing the features of such texts for the teaching of writing (Bruce, 2008) Hyland (2004) claims “genre is a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situations” (p 4) Especially, in the SFL genre approach, genre is defined as “a staged, goal-oriented social process” (Martin, 1986, p 33; Martin, 1992, p 505) Genres are social processes because members of a culture interact with each other to achieve them; they are goal-oriented because they have evolved to achieve things; and they are staged because meanings are made in steps and it usually takes more than one step for writers to reach their goals (Hyland, 2004; Martin et al., 1987) Some examples of genres in this view include recounts, reports, narratives, descriptions, explanations, etc

2.2.3.2 Theoretical background of the SFL genre-based approach

The SFL genre-based approach emerged from linguists and teachers working to create a genre-based pedagogy drawn largely on Halliday‟s linguistic theory (Halliday, 1994; Halliday and Hasan, 1989) In Halliday‟s view, language is considered as a system of choices for making meanings in social contexts Because

of this, writers can communicate certain functions, express their experiences of the world, create coherent messages or texts, etc

According to genre researchers, the relationship of texts and contexts is central to the theoretical framework in this SFL genre approach (Hyland, 2004) Texts are seen in connection with particular contexts at two levels: register and genre

At the level of register, when people make a text, they make choices in register In relation to register in Halliday‟s SFL theory (Halliday and Hasan, 1985), register is referred to as context of situation that has an important and predictable influence on how language is used Register consists of three register variables, namely field, tenor, and mode Field is involved in what the language is used to talk about or the topic of the text Tenor is the relationship between the participants in the interaction such as their status, role, and power Mode concerns the communication channel or wavelength (written or spoken or the combination

of the two or so on) used by the participants

These three register variables are related to the three kinds of meanings language is structured to make: ideational, interpersonal, and textual In Halliady‟s description of these three meanings, the ideational meaning is involved in the expression of experience or the relationships between people, things, places,

processes, etc made through language exchange Thus, it corresponds with field

The interpersonal meaning refers to the expression of social roles of the participants including attitudes, relationships, and so on As such, it is in

agreement with tenor The textual meaning refers to the way that information is

structured into coherent and cohesive texts In such a way, it is in concordance

with mode Halliday refers to such a close relation between the three types of

meanings and the register variables in which each register variable can be connected with each of these three meanings respectively as “upwards” link Put it another way, in the upwards link, “field is expressed through patterns of ideational meaning in text, mode is expressed through textual meaning, and tenor through interpersonal meaning” (Eggins, 2004, p 111) Besides the upwards link, Halliaday also emphasizes “downwards” link The downwards link is the relation between these three kinds of meanings and their lexico-grammatical patterns It means that these types of meanings are realized through the associated lexical-grammatical patterns In Eggins‟ words (2004, p 111) “the downwards link is that

we „see‟ the types of meanings being realized through the associated grammatical patterns”

lexical-For genre researchers influenced by the systemic functional linguistics school, genre is concerned with the context of culture within which a text is created The context of culture refers to the system of beliefs, values and attitudes brought into any social interaction by people (Hammond, 1989) Because people

of different cultures have different systems of beliefs, values, and attitudes as well, they have different ways to get things done or to achieve their social purposes Therefore, at the level of genre, linguistic choices are influenced by the writer‟s social purpose in using the language

2.2.3.3 A general framework for designing writing teaching lessons based on the SFL genre-based approach

Based on the research result of genre and its implementation in pedagogical practices, especially in the field of teaching writing, the SFL genre-based approach

to teaching writing focuses on the Teaching – Learning Cycle (Figure 1) In the writing classroom, this teaching and learning cycle is grounded on the notion of

scaffolding derived from Russian psychologist Vygotsky‟s (1978) view In his

view, scaffolding emphasizes the role of human interaction in learning process, providing support for learners so that they are able to perform the task, first with help, then independently It means that scaffolding plays an important role in

moving learners from what Vygotsky calls like “actual” performance (what the learners can do now) to “potential” performance (what the learners will do without assistance) He refers to the gap between existing and potential performance as the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and argues that the learners‟ progress from one level to the other is gained from such resources as input, social interaction and the help of more skilled and experienced others In class, scaffolding can take many diversified forms For this respect, Paltrige (2001) and Hyland (2004) agree that scaffolding can be provided in relation to cultural, social, contextual, and linguistic aspects of a particular target genre It consists of such activities as modeling, explanation, discussion, explicit instruction, and so on to aid learners toward performing the task independently However, the intervention of assistance

is gradually reduced until the learners are confident of carrying out the task on their own It can be seen obviously that the early stages of the Teaching – Learning Cycle provide students with considerable support, learners‟ independent performance is increasing in the later stages

The cycle of Teaching – Learning Cycle in the SFL genre based approach was developed originally by Callaghan and Rothery (1988) and had three stages,

consisting of modeling of text; joint negotiation of text/ joint construction of text; and independent construction of text The following versions of this Cycle

sharing the same three phases can be included by Derewianka (1990), Feez (1998), Hyland (2003), Rothery and Stenglin (1994), etc Especially, another influential version by Hammond, Burns, Joyce, Brosnan, & Gerot (1992) suggests one more

stage, building knowledge of field, to the Cycle According to Hammond et al

(1992), this additional stage aims to reinforce the understanding about the subject matter more clearly as well as its context The cycle of the four stages is represented in the following figure

Figure 2.1: The Teaching-Learning Cycle (Hammond et al., 1992, p 17)

The stages of the Teaching – Learning Cycle are elaborated in the following subsections

The first stage of this Cycle is building knowledge of field This stage aims

to raise students‟ awareness of the field background knowledge, consisting of aspects of context, of content, of relevant vocabulary and typical grammatical patterns, and so on Teachers in this stage acts as an initiator, source, and guide that give students a chance to explore these aspects, especially for the content information of the topic Some classroom activities and tasks in this stage suggested by Gibbons (2002) are using wallpapering to collect ideas based on students‟ current knowledge, using picture to elicit or teach topic vocabulary, explaining some typical grammar points and language structures, etc Moreover, students are also encouraged to engage in such activities as brainstorming,

critically reading related material, watching a video tape and note taking, discussion, and so on These kinds of activities really help to activate student‟s schema that is necessary for students to call up their existing knowledge and engage them in researching more relevant information In other words, activating the schema helps students to think of what they have already known about the topic and to explore what they need to know more about the topic Paltridge (2001) also asserts that schema activation encourages students to arrive at determining a purpose, organization and readership for their writing pieces Humphrey (1990) and Hammond (2001) indicate that this stage of the cycle is important for students from non-English speaking backgrounds because it prepares students for necessary knowledge of subject content and context In addition, through this stage, students are also in charge of controlling oral skill of English to talk about this content

The second stage is referred to as modeling of the text Modeling is

considered as an important scaffolding activity, involving teacher and students in explicitly discussing and analyzing aspects of context and text of a specific genre the students are going to write about At this stage, the teacher‟ role is to teach explicitly and offers his/her much assistance to his/her students Thus, in this stage, model (sample) texts of the target genre are introduced to the students Based on the samples, the students are engaged in activities for context and text analysis In exploiting context, for example, students are asked to examine such key contextual features as “author, intended audience, setting, purpose, or subject matter” (Paltridge, 2001) In respect of analyzing text, analyses in the main features of the text are focused, including text structure (generic structure) and linguistic features

of text (vocabulary choices of nouns, adjectives, sentence patterns, main grammar points, etc.) Holding a similar view, the following authors share their opinions in the stage of text modeling To enable students to understand how the genre is constructed to achieve its purpose, Hammond et al (1992) emphasizes that this stage focuses on exploring the aspects of the model text such as its cultural context, social function, schematic structure, linguistic features Callaghan and Rothery (1988), Callaghan et al (1993) also suggest that the social function,

schematic stage, and language features of a genre that learners are going to write about are investigated explicitly in this stage Moreover, Hyland (2001) puts the focus on discussing and analyzing text structure, context, and language in the phase of modeling

In this stage, a variety of communicative activities or tasks are carried out to help students with discussing and analyzing the model texts of a particular genre Students will work in pairs or groups to do the required tasks, usually discussing the questions given by the teacher for this analysis

Paltridge (1999) suggests a following set of questions often used for context analysis

What is the text about?

What is the purpose of the text?

What is the setting of the text?

What is the tone of the text (e.g formal, informal, etc.)? Who is the author of the text?

Who is the intended audience of the text?

What is the relationship between the author and intended audience of the text?

What rules or expectations limit how the text might be written?

What shared cultural knowledge is assumed by the text? How is the language of the text influenced by each of these factors?

(adapted from Paltridge, 1999)

Moreover, Harmer (2004) also makes a considerable contribution by proposing a series of questions employed in the stage of modeling

*Questions for understanding the context of the text

What text type is used in the text?

What is the text about?

What is the purpose of the text?/ why did he / she write the text?

Who is the reader of the text?

Where do you think you would find the text like this one?

*Questions for understanding the organization of the text

How is the whole text patterned?

What did the writer do first, next, and last?

What does the first sentence of the paragraph give information about?

What does the next sentence of the paragraph give information about?

What does the last sentence of the paragraph give information about?

*Questions for understanding the linguistic features of the text

What noticeable language features (tenses/ sentence patterns/etc.) can the students identify?

Is there anything special about the vocabulary used?

Which ideas are most effective?

(Adapted from Harmer, 2004, p 91)

As such, in relation to tasks in the stage of modeling, Hyland (2004) recommends some kinds of tasks that are useful for students to get control of the genre and focus on linguistic features They are text-level tasks and language tasks

*Text-level tasks:

naming stages and identifying their purposes sequencing, rearranging, matching, and labeling text stages comparing texts with omissions, changes, or different structures

identifying different and similar sample texts as particular genres

* Language tasks:

reorganizing or rewriting scrambled or unfinished paragraphs completing gapped sentences or an entire cloze from formatting clues

substituting a feature (e.g., tense, modality, voice, topic sentence)

using skeletal texts to predict language forms and meaning collecting examples of a language feature, perhaps with a concordancer

working in groups to correct errors, circle particular features, match one feature with another, etc (p 133)

However, some notices should be taken in this stage For example, Hammond et al (1992) state that the model text selection can depend on teacher‟s

assessment of its relevance to meet students‟ real needs and learning goals in

developing language The model text(s) may, therefore, be written by teacher unless they can be found The necessary thing is that these sample texts need to be

composed appropriately so that they can help students to make a genre analysis In

addition, Hyland (2004) also suggests exposing a range of texts and activities to students By such a way, it helps students have reflection on similarities and differences as well as avoid concentrating on a model as the only way of writing

In the stage joint construction of text, teacher and students construct the

whole example text(s) of the target genre together drawing on the shared knowledge of the earlier stages However, teacher‟s assistance in this stage reduces gradually He/she plays a role of a facilitator and gives his/her less focus on input and modeling Joint construction may be carried out in the interaction between teacher and whole class or students and students in small groups with teacher‟s guidance and help Hyland (2004) also proposes creating a number of texts with the collaboration between teacher and students in this stage when possible By such a way, it provides much support for students as well as immerses them in awareness of variations in the genre For joint construction activities, Hyland (2004, p 135) introduces some activities as follows

Teacher-led whole-class construction on blackboard or overhead projector

Collecting information through research and interviewing Small-group construction of texts for presentation to the whole class

Completing unfinished or skeletal texts Creating a text using visual or audio stimulus Editing a completed text for meaning, structure, and form Negotiating an information/opinion gap to construct a text

The last stage, independent construction of text, is one in which students

write their text independently by applying what they have learned “Engaging in an entire writing process gives learners the experience of an independent performance

in which they combine a knowledge of content, process, language, context, and genre” (Hyland, 2004, p 136) This stage includes such activities as writing a text independently in a chosen genre by learners, teacher- learner/peer conferencing for mistake correction or comment giving, then redrafting and editing During the stage, teacher should go around the class to monitor students‟ writing and provide

students with feedback on what they have achieved or what they need to change to get effectiveness in their written piece

2.2.3.4 Previous studies on the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing

A number of studies involved in the genre approach based on the perspective of SFL have brought encouraging conclusions of the impact of this approach to teaching writing The following section looks at them in more detail

One of the studies relevant to the SFL genre approach was the project carried out by the Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP) in New South Wales, Australia (Callaghan and Rothery, 1988) This project involved 16 teachers of students at primary level from eight disadvantaged schools across Australia In this project, the genre-based approach was applied to teach factual genres including Report, Explanation, Exposition, and Discussion in History and in Social Sciences When the project was finished, the participants (16 teachers) reported that the approach had an important impact on their teaching Because this approach provided them with obvious understanding of the genres, it was easier for them to give their students an exact explanation of what students needed to do to achieve different social purposes In the same way, this explicit knowledge also helped students to get confidence in their writing The most noticeable thing in this project was that it showed the teachers‟ positive response toward the approach However, there was no analysis of the students‟ texts although the texts were collected For this, thus, it could be said that the project mainly focused on the reaction to the approach from the teacher side

Another study at the secondary school level was carried out by Hallenstein (1994) In this study, she made use of the genre-based approach to teach the discussion genre to overseas and Australian year 11 students at St John‟s college

in the North, Australia Her course was grounded on Callaghan and Rothery‟s Teaching and Learning Cycle (1988) Through the analysis of the sample texts, it

showed that the students obtained a better control of the structure of the discussion genre (the generic structure) Simultaneously, students also showed an significant improvement in grammar, and conjunction use Although her study concluded that the genre-based approach helped students to write the discussion genre more effectively, she suggested that a larger understanding of the field knowledge would help them make a further improvement

The study of Burns (1990) investigated how the genre-based approach could be applied to teaching “job application letters” to adult second language learners at the early stages of learning also showed the positive effect of this approach Nineteen (19) participants in this study were first year students and they came to Australia as permanent immigrants Most of them had finished secondary school in their homeland The result of the study revealed that after being taught under the genre-based approach, these students were able to produce texts closer to the “job application genre” From the result, Burn (1990, p 70) made a claim that

“the genre-based approach, based on SFL and the notion of genre and register, provides an explicit account of the schematic structure, organization and language features of the genre upon which they were focusing” It is obvious that Burns‟ study once again contributed to affirming the effectiveness of the genre-based approach to teaching writing

The studies above may be said to be evidence of the positive impact of the genre-based approach on learners‟ writing ability, especially in Australia, the homeland of the SFL genre-based approach How about in EFL context, is there such an impact on students‟ writing ability? Under the influence of this approach, a number of studies are also carried out in EFL contexts It is very interesting to know that one study in EFL contexts with its aim to investigate whether the genre-based approach was an effective approach in teaching English Discussion genre to Vietnamese college students undertaken by Dang (2002) The study involved 23 second-year students and was conducted for 4 weeks at the English department of

a foreign language teacher training college in Hanoi, Vietnam The study results showed that students were able to write the texts in the Discussion genre

successfully For example, analyzing students‟ texts revealed that students had a good management of the generic structure of the Discussion genre and a good capability of using language features related to the genre Moreover, the study results also indicated that students reacted positively to this way of teaching through analyzing the students‟ attitudes However, to help learners get more effectiveness in their writing, Dang (2002) also suggests that there should have more time to make the transition from the Joint construction stage to the Independent construction one and the students should be encouraged to search for more reading materials related to their writing topic

One more study (2007) related to genre-based approach to teaching writing was carried out by Ding Eng Na This study mainly aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using genre-based approach to teaching an adjustment letter The study involved in 65 business majored students and was conducted in eight weeks The same materials were used for the two groups in this study However, 30 students in the control group were taught through the usual lecturing way of teaching while 35 students in the experimental group were treated by using the genre-based approach At the end of the eight weeks, all the participants were asked to write an adjustment letter to response to a claim letter The three raters joined in assessing the students‟ writing task, consisting of assessment of identifying the parts of the adjustment letter and of learners‟ writing ability in terms of content, structure and language The results of this study showed that with genre-based approach to teaching writing of the adjustment letter, students did better in their output such as in deciding the kind of appropriate information and the way to organize the information Especially, analyses of the mean rating from the three raters indicated that the writing task of both groups differed significantly

at the 0.05 level in terms of the content, structure and language Such mean results showed that “the experimental group wrote better than the control group in terms

of the content, structure and language According to the researcher‟s interpretations (Na, 2007), such a better performance in the experimental group because they were more aware of the linguistic features contained in an adjustment

letter as well as able to modify and blend their choices of words according to the contexts in which they wrote

Another study also in teaching letter writing (a job application letter) with the genre-based approach was carried out by Zare-ee (2008) This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of the genre-based writing instruction on EFL learners‟ writing performance in a letter-writing task Two groups of university students participated in this study The experimental group was taught under the genre-based writing instruction while the control group did not take this approach The data analysis and mean comparison results showed that there were remarkably significant differences in the quality of writing as a result of the genre-based approach

It cannot help mentioning Cheng‟s (2008) study about SFL genre-based approach to teaching narrative writing The study involved 26 English major freshmen in the composition course of a national university in Taiwan The study was conducted in 4 weeks All participants were required to take the pretest (before the intervention of the genre-based approach) and posttest essays (after the intervention) in this genre (narrative) with the same topic Assessing pre- and posttests concerned with three dimensions: content, organization, and language use Each dimension included required features To ensure intra-rater reliability, all texts were graded doubly by the researcher Paired-samples t-tests were used to examine each feature in content, organization, and language use of the pretest and posttest The study results indicated that the students made statistically significant improvement in most features analyzed after the intervention Put it another way, the participants made a positive progress in content, organization, and language use in writing narrative after the treatment of this genre-based approach However, this study was limited due to lacking a control group to discover deeply in what ways this genre-based approach gave advantages to such students

Also in EFL context, Sutojo (1994) in Indonesia conducted the study relevant to the genre-based approach to examine teaching Report writing The

subjects in this study were not tertiary students but junior high school students Analyzing students‟ texts after being taught by using Callaghan and Rothery‟s Teaching and Learning cycle (1988) demonstrated that these students had a good control of schematic structure of the Report genre as well as related language features Therefore, this study concluded that the genre-based approach enabled students to write the Report genre effectively

Several studies of applying the genre-based approach to teaching writing have been conducted in many parts of the world These researches have shown that the genre-based approach has its very positive impact on students‟ writing ability For example, in such particular genres mentioned above as report, discussion, narrative, explanation, exposition, job application letter, adjustment letter, the participants after the intervention have showed their better performance in their written texts, including generic structure, linguistic features (better choices in vocabulary, grammar, sentence patterns), and so on Especially, the genre-based approach to teaching letter writing has also been studied However, these studies have mostly been found in the university contexts Although many studies related

to the genre-based approach to teaching writing have been widely done in the world, it seems to be uncommon in Vietnam, especially in high school contexts For this, the current study is, therefore, conducted to investigate the impact of the genre-based writing teaching on the eleventh graders‟ letter writing ability at Go Cong Dong high school of Tien Giang province, Vietnam

2.3 Summary

This chapter has considerably looked at the issues closely related to teaching writing, particularly teaching English writing as a foreign language The literature review presented in this chapter outlines some noteworthy information of teaching writing, an overview of the major approaches to teaching writing, in preference to the SFL genre-based approach that shapes the theoretical background for the current study The next chapter is concerned with the methodology of the study