Improving Learners’ IELTS Writing Performance Through Modeling

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties in learning IELTS writing, to explore the role of model texts sample texts as a source of teaching tool, and learners and tea

Improving Learners’ IELTS Writing

Performance Through Modeling

Đoàn thi ̣ Hương

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học tiếng Anh

Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: ThS Lâm Thi ̣ Phúc Hân

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract: A challenge for English teachers working on EAP or IELTS preparation

course is to find methods to teach writing in general and essay writing in particular more efficiently and effectively The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties in learning IELTS writing, to explore the role of model texts (sample texts)

as a source of teaching tool, and learners and teachers’ opinions about the use of model texts in a writing class In order to achieve the aims, three data collection instruments, namely survey questionnaire, tests, and interview, were employed with the participants of thirty learners studying in a preparation course and four teachers at London Foreign Language Centre The results showed that the learners had to face many difficulties in learning IELTS writing skills and model texts did bear a significant impact on the writing improvement of the learners In addition, all the

interviewees expressed their satisfactions with the use of model texts

Keywords: Ngôn ngữ; Tiếng Anh; Kỹ năng viết; Phương pháp giảng dạy

Content

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

During the last decades, there have been a number of English learners wishing to work and study in English speaking countries However, one of the prerequisites for their entrance

is that they have to sit for either the International English Language Testing System (IELTS)

or The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) As a result, many non-native learners are trained to pass these kinds of tests IELTS, which is widely recognized as a language requirement for entering universities and working mainly in the United Kingdom, Australia, USA and New Zealand, is administered by the British Council or IDP Education Australia in Hanoi The test aims at testing candidates’ four skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing As a matter of fact, those who want to get high score to be admitted to target universities try to take part in some preparation courses before taking the test Therefore, there

are a great number of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Centers in Hanoi who run IELTS preparation courses to meet the demands

Clearly, IELTS writing is one of the important skills for both teachers to teach effectively and for learners to improve themselves However, due to the complexities of learning to write well in a second language (L2), there has been a vigorous debate on more efficient and effective teaching methods and feedback among EAP teachers and L2 writing researchers

Being an IELTS teacher and also an IELTS learner, the author realizes that IELTS writing requires not only learners’ proficiency in English but also their wide knowledge of the language, culture and country as well As a result, the learners often encounter a lot of difficulties in writing This fact has encouraged the author to investigate the difficulties faced

by Vietnamese learners in learning IELTS writing Moreover, in recent years, several studies

on techniques for teaching IELTS writing which have been carried out have proven that the use of model texts in a writing class as a teaching tool has positive effects on learners’ writing performance This inspired the author to do the research to further explore how this technique affects learners’ writing skill and how teachers and learners assess this kind of technique

2 Aims of the study

The purpose of the study is to investigate the difficulties encountered by the IELTS learners in learning writing skill It also aims at investigating how the learners improve their writing performance as a result of being exposed to model texts and what the learners and the teachers think about this teaching technique

In order to achieve the above mentioned aims, the study will be conducted to answer three research questions below:

1 What difficulties do learners face in learning IELTS writing?

2 How is the learners’ writing performance improved as the result of being exposed

to model texts?

3 What are the learners and teachers’ opinions about the use of model texts in improving learners’ writing skill?

3 Significance of the study

This study analyzes and finds out the real difficulties that Vietnamese learners face when learning IELT writing skill By doing this, the author would like to help learners foresee the problems and overcome them in order to improve their writing scores More importantly, the study is done to investigate the progress in IELTS writing the learners can make after

attending the writing course using model texts as a teaching tool and how the learners and teachers think about this technique Therefore, teachers who have been teaching IELTS writing in both the target place and in other educational settings can benefit from this study They will adopt appropriate teaching techniques to teaching this skill

4 Scope of the study

The study focused on learning and teaching IELTS writing skill to Vietnamese learners who were taking part in IELTS preparation courses However, due to the small scale

of the study, only London Foreign Language Centre was chosen as the research setting The participants of the study, as a result, were 4 IELTS teachers and 30 learners who were able to provide reliable and valid information for the study

5 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims of the study, the researcher applied both quantitative and qualitative methods as follows:

As for data collection, the author used survey questionnaire, tests, and interviews Firstly, survey questionnaire was conducted to find out the difficulties in learning IELTS writing and the techniques teachers used in the writing class Secondly, tests (pre and post tests) were designed for the learners to check how they improve their writing skill after the course Thirdly, semi-interviews were conducted among four teachers and fifteen learners who were attending preparation courses in London Foreign Language Centre to investigate what they think about the use of model texts in IELTS writing classes

As for data analysis, the standard IELTS global codification system on a scale of 1 to

9 was employed for rating the participants’ performances on both tests Then, the data from questionnaire and tests were collected to carefully and thoroughly analyze in order to provide the answers to research questions In addition, the interviews were recorded, then transcribed and analyzed so as to answer question 3

6 Organization of the study

The study is divided into three parts The first part is the introduction dealing with the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methods and organization of the study

The second part is the main part of the paper with three chapters

Chapter 1: provides the background for the study, including a review on key concepts relating

to the research topic This chapter also briefly discusses the literature in the field to reveal the research gap that needs to be filled

Chapter 2: present the research methods adopted in the study Justifications of the chosen research instruments as well as their implementation are also provided

Chapter 3: reveals the results of the study and the discussions of the results

The last part is the conclusion that summarizes the major findings of the study This chapter also gives recommendations to both learners and teachers in order to improve the learning and teaching IELTS writing skills Besides, some limitation of the study and suggestions for further studies are put forward Following this part are the Appendices and References

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the theoretical background to the study, including the key concepts and related research in this field to disclose the research gap It also provides the current situation of teaching and learning IELTS in Vietnam in general and at the investigated centre in particular

1.1 The nature and theory of writing

1.1.1 The nature of writing

1.1.2 Types of writing

1.1.3 Approaches to the teaching of writing

1.2 IELTS Test

1.2.1 General information of IELTS

1.2.2 IELTS writing test

1.3 Model texts

1.4 Situation of teaching and learning IELTS in Viet Nam and in London Foreign Language centre

1.5 Previous studies

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter enhances the main points regarding the methodology applied in the study, namely the participants, research instruments as well as data collection procedure

2.1 Participants

The participants in this study were 30 Vietnamese learners aged from 16 to 22 They were taking a preparation course in London foreign language centre Their scores raged from 4 to 5 (this is in accordance with the definition of intermediate in IELTS writing module) All of them had been studying English for at least seven years and had been taught some other types

of writing in English such as writing letters, writing a description of a place or a person They had acquired not only the basic knowledge of writing but also a certain amount of experience

in composing different English text types

The subjects were divided into two groups of the treatment: group A (15 students with no model essay exposure), group B (15 students with model essay exposure)

In addition, four IELTS teachers were also chosen in this study They all graduated from Vietnam National University- College of Foreign Language They have been teaching IELTS

for 4 years Two teachers taught the learners in this writing course The others were teaching for other courses in London Foreign Language Centre

2.2 Instruments

The study aims to investigate the role of model essays in improving Vietnamese intermediate learners’ writing ability with a particular focus on the problem they have to face

in IELTS writing In addition, it also aims to investigate how the learners can improve their writing performance due to exposure to model essays as well as their attitude towards the use

of model essays as a teaching tool

In order to maximize the aims, this study used a variety of research instruments and sources of data such as questionnaires, tests and interviews

2.2.1 Questionnaire

The aim of the learner questionnaire (see Appendix 3) was to obtain general information about the learners, their views on learning IELTS writing, the challenges in learning IELTS writing skills and the techniques their teachers often used in writing lessons The questionnaires were distributed to all the participants and it took about 15 minutes to answer the questionnaire

2.2.2 Tests

The writing tests given to each participants were exercise versions of IELTS writing tests (academic module) randomly selected from Barron’s IELTS edited by Lin Lougheed (2006) (see appendix 1 and 2) The writing test includes two writing tasks: descriptive and argumentative essays There is a minimum requirement word length (at least 150 words for task 1, and 250 words for task 2)

The tests were then marked using the standard IELTS global codification system on a scale of 1-9 with the focus on task response/ task achievement, cohesion and coherence, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy (See Appendix 9 and 10)

2.2.3 Interview

The interview conducted with 15 students in group B was used following the posttest The aim of the interview is to clarify the researcher’s understanding of the students’ reactions and feelings towards the teaching technique and the writing task The interviews were conducted

in the students’ mother tongue (Vietnamese) and later translated into English The interview was based on only one question:

Do you think that model texts are helpful for you to improve your IELTS writing skills? Why? Why not?

An interview was also conducted with the two teachers who are teaching IELTS writing for this course and two other teachers at London foreign language centre The aim of the interview is to seek information about the teachers’ opinions about the use of model texts as a teaching tool in this course

The questions for the teachers are:

Do you believe that the use of model texts is helpful in improving the students’ writing skills? Why? Why not?

What suggestion do you have for the use of model texts as an effective teaching tool?

2.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure consists of four stages

Stage 1: The researcher carefully designed the questionnaire for the students who

were involved in the study Then all of them had to do the pretest which was administrated for both control and experimental groups before the treatment

Stage 2: This stage took place at the target department While group A received the

routine writing instruction of the IELTS program during the course, those in group B were given 20 model essays written by native and native-like writers apart from the routine writing training of group A These model essays were taken from 3 books, namely Barron’s IELTS, a book for IELTS, and IELTS on tracks As the teacher was working on model essays, she explained different academic writing aspects such as organization of the essay, cohesive devices, domain words, relevant supporting ideas, topic related opinions, structural points, etc provided by the writers in the essays

Stage 3: At the end of the term, the writing posttest was administered among all 30

learners of the two groups followed by interviews with all the learners in group B and the teachers

Stage 4: The last stage was for synthesizing and classifying the data collected from

the questionnaire, pretest and posttest, interviews and class observations

2.4 Data analysis procedure

The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed and summarized so as to provide more information for the study

For the pretest and posttest, the official assessment criteria for IELTS writing tasks were used to analyze the data The frequency count of different types of errors in the pretest and posttest were used to answer the second question of the study

The researcher also transcribed the interview in details to analyze and answer the third question

In a word, the chapter has justified the methodology applied in the present study by clarifying four aspects, namely participants, instruments, data collection as well as data analysis procedure The next chapter analyses the various kinds of data collected and interpretations are made with an attempt to answer the research questions

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents and discusses the findings that arise from three types of data collected: questionnaire, tests and interviews The outline of the chapter is as follows:

 Report on learner- questionnaire data

 Report on the results of pretest and posttest

 Report on learners’ interviews and teachers’ interviews

 Interpretation and discussion of the findings with reference to the research questions

3.1 Report of the results

3.2 Discussion of the results

Restating research questions:

1 What difficulties do learners face in learning IELTS writing?

2 How is the learners’ writing performance improved as the result of exposure to model texts?

3 What are the learners and teachers’ opinions about the use of model texts in improving learners’ writing skill?

3.2.1 Research question 1

As regards difficulties the learners faced in IELTS writing, the majority of them found writing difficult There seemed to be many reasons for this problem

Undoubtedly, errors in sentence structures and language use were the main factors causing problems in writing Most of the learners used inaccurate grammar and inappropriate vocabulary In other words, not only did the learners use very limited range of structures with only rare use of subordinate clauses, but they also used only basic vocabulary which may be used repetitively or which may be inappropriate for the tasks

In addition, unfamiliar topics, interpretation of diagrams and data given also caused difficulties for the learners to write They had to write about the topics which were rather strange or unfamiliar to them Besides, they sometimes did not understand the data presented

in the tasks, especially task 1 As a result, they suffered from lack of ideas, and they did not know how and what to write in writing tests This may lead to the fact that they address the task partially and present few ideas which may be repetitive, irrelevant, and not well - supported

There seemed to be another reason which was related to the learners’ feelings Most

of the learners often felt nervous and confused when writing, which made writing tasks more challenging In other words, with such feelings the learners may find it difficult to generate or find relevant ideas to write

3.2.2 Research question 2

As regards the improvement the learners made as a result of exposure to modeling teaching technique, the findings revealed that this kind of technique had positive effects on the learners’ writing performance, especially on the grammar and accuracy This result, surprisingly, coincided with that of Farnaz Sahebkheir (2011) He indicated that modeling of native speaker writing significantly affected the accuracy and complexity of EFL learners’ writing

More noticeably, although errors of grammatical range and accuracy were made most frequently, the learners made the great improvement of this kind (from 182 errors in the pretest to 60 errors in the posttest) However, unlike this finding, Abe (2008), Farnaz Sahebkheir (2011), and Mohammad Zare (2009) in their studies found that the learners improved lexis much more than other categories

3.2.3 Research question 3

Regarding the learners and teachers’ opinions about the use of model texts in writing class, the majority of them supported this idea

Firstly, for the learners, although some were not in favor of using model texts, most of them believed that being exposed to model essays made them write better It helped them improve all aspects of writing (Lexical resources, coherence and cohesion, grammar and accuracy, task achievement/ response) This finding is strongly supported by Abe Makoto (2008) and Mohammad Zare (2009) In Abe Makoto’s study, the findings indicate that model essays led the L2 learners to notice various aspects of language and of course the learner definitely improved their writing skill Similarly, Mohammad Zare figured out that all the

learners and teachers in his study agreed that model essays played a positive role in improving the students’ writing proficiency

Secondly, for the teachers, the majority of them thought that using model texts as a teaching tool was really a great idea In addition, when using model texts in writing classes, the teachers tend to be more flexible, and creative in designing suitable tasks and activities to the learners, which plays an important role in improving the learners’ writing skill This finding is well supported by Abe (2008) who concluded that teachers can take advantage of model essays in order to design suitable writing tasks for their learners

In short, although there were a lot of difficulties the IELTS learners had to cope with, they should try their best to find out the solution by themselves such as reading model essays, writing an essay every day, or trying to do all the IELTS practice books In addition, the technique the teacher used in a writing class had a great influence on the learners’ writing performance What is more, the learners seemed to improve their writing skill a lot when they were taught how to write through modeling In other words, using models can be considered very useful for both teachers and learners in teaching and learning IELTS writing skills