An action study on a process genre approach to teaching IELTS writing task 2 to non english major students at band 4 5 5 5 in a vietnamese university setting

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** TRẦN THỊ THƠ AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***************************

TRẦN THỊ THƠ

AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON A PROCESS-GENRE APPROACH TO TEACHING IELTS WRITING TASK 2 TO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BAND 4.5-5.5 IN A

VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY SETTING

Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm về việc áp dụng đường hướng kết hợp quá trình và dựa vào thể loại trong việc dạy viết luận IELTS, phần 2, cho sinh viên khối không

chuyên tại một trường Đại học ở Việt Nam

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

HANOI-2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***************************

TRẦN THỊ THƠ

AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON A PROCESS-GENRE APPROACH TO TEACHING IELTS WRITING TASK 2 TO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BAND 4.5-5.5 IN A

VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY SETTING

Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm về việc áp dụng đường hướng kết hợp quá trình và dựa vào thể loại trong việc dạy viết luận IELTS, phần 2, cho sinh viên khối không

chuyên tại một trường Đại học ở Việt Nam

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor:Dr Hoàng Thị Hạnh

HANOI-2016

Statement of Ownership

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contained no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which has been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma of a university or other institutions of higher learning

Signature: ………

Besides, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to fourteen students in my class, who enthusiastically participated in the data collection process In fact, without their help, I could not complete this thesis

Also, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents and my friends, who have constantly encouraged me during the time when I conducted my research paper

Last but not least, I would like to thank my readers for their interests and comments on this study

Abstract

Writing instruction has become a field of increasing interest at higher education institutions in recent years There have been numerous approaches to theteaching of writing in the history of language teaching and these have led to several paradigm shifts in the field This study aimed to find out whether the implementation of the process-genre approach can improve students‟ writing ability and performance in IELTS writing task 2 The implementation of this approach in teaching and learning IELTS writing task 2 in a Vietnamese University was investigated through observation, interview and students‟ writing collections The result indicates that this approach help to improve students‟ ability and performance in writing, including their understanding of the genre‟s purpose, the improvement of language and ideas However, this improvement was proved to be only valid in particular genres and topics, in which students are prepared and provided with vocabulary and ideas, but not in a variety of topics in IELTS Therefore, some suggestions and pedagogical implications were drawn out so that this approach could be applied most effectively

Contents

Statement of Ownership i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of Abbreviations vi

List of tables and figures vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the Research 1

2 Aims, Scope, Methods, and Significance of the Study 2

2.1 Aims and Objectives 2

2.2 Scope of the Study 3

2.3 Research methods 3

2.4 Significance of the Study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 IELTS: the International English Language Testing System 4

1.2 Process-based approaches 5

1.2.1 Model of process-based approaches 5

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of process-based approaches 5

1.3 Genre-based approaches 7

1.3.1 Model of genre-based approaches 7

1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of genre-based approaches 7

1.4 The Process Approach vs the Genre Approach 9

1.5 Integrating process and genre approaches to teaching writing 11

1.6 Process-genre approaches 13

1.7 Previous studies on the applications of process-genre approach to teaching L2 writing: findings and limitations 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 The current situation of IELTS in Vietnam 17

2.2 IELTS in National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE) 17

2.3 The Context of the Study and the Research Participants 18

2.3.1 The research participants 18

2.3.2 The writing IELTS Preparation course in NUCE 19

2.4 Action Research 20

2.5 Data collection procedure 20

2.6 Data Collection Methods 22

2.6.1 Observation 22

2.6.2 Semi-structured interviews 23

2.6.3 Collection of students‟ writings throughout the program 24

2.7 Data Analysis Procedures 24

2.7.1 Data from observations and interviews 24

2.7.2 Data from the collection of student‟s writings 25

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 27

3.1 Findings and analysis 27

3.1.1 Students‟ perceptions of process-genre approach application 27

3.1.2 The effectiveness of process-genre approach on students‟ writings 34

3.2 Discussion 43

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS 46

4.1 Synthesis of the study‟s major findings 46

4.1.1 Research question 1 46

4.1.2 Research question 2 47

4.2 Pedagogical implications 48

4.3 Limitations of the study 49

4.4 Suggestions for further studies 50

REFERENCES 52 APPENDIXES I

List of Abbreviations

AWL: Academic word list

EFL: English as a foreign language

EFC/C: error-free clause

EFT/T: error-free T-unit

IELTS: International English Language Testing System K1000: the most frequent 1000 word families

K2000: the second 1000 most frequent words

NUCE: National University of Civil Engineering

List of tables and figures

Table 1: The writing IELTS Preparation Course, Task 2 19

Figure 2: Percentage of correct Reference, substitution and ellipsis, Conjunction and Lexical cohesion 38 Figure 3: Percentage of error-free T-unit and error-free clauses 40 Figure 4: The use of lexical resources 42

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Research

Writing skill is deemed to be difficult for EFL students in the language learning (Richards, 1990) According to Richard and Renandya (2002), the difficulties include those in generating and organizing ideas, using an appropriate choice of vocabulary, sentence and paragraph organization and putting such ideas into an intelligible text As for Vietnamese EFL students, besides these difficulties, they have to face many other obstacles when learning to write compositions in English, especially to non-English major students who are taking IELTS exams

In IELTS writing task 2, students are asked to respond to a topic by giving and justifying an opinion, discussing the topic, summarizing details, outlining problems, identifying possible solutions and supporting their ideas with reasons, arguments and relevant examples from their own knowledge or experience (IELTS Test Booklet, 2014) To non-English major students, it is even quite a challenge to make

a sentence on their own, not to mention a short simple paragraph As a consequence, the task of composing complicated essays like in IELTS writing task 2 become harder, which they rarely perform well

Although some approaches are applied in teaching writing such as process and genre-based, besides the merits, there are also some drawbacks in each of these approaches The former helps learners to develop more effective ways of conveying meaning and to better comprehend the content that they want to express (Walsh, 2004) However, it has a very restricted view of writing, in which the practice of writing is identical regardless of what the topic is and who the writer or the reader is (Badger & White, 2000) The latter is seen as an extension of the product approach,

in which the writing “varies with the social context in which it is produced” (Badger

& White, 2000, p 155), also critised because it may not requires students to express

their own ideas or may be too dependent on the teacher finding suitable materials as models (Caudery, 1998)

With the hope to seek for ways that can enhance students‟ writing skills in IELTS task 2, especially of those who do not major in English, and lessen disadvantages of process and genre-based approach, the researcher would like to test whether the integrated approach of these two above which was developed by Badger & White (2000) could help students improve their writing and whether they find such approach effective

2 Aims, Scope, Methods, and Significance of the Study

2.1 Aims and Objectives

This research tries to seek the possibilities to apply process-genre approach in teaching writing skills to non-English major students in IELTS preparation courses While each approach has its own upsides and downsides in teaching application, the more effective one for writing needs is to incorporate the insights of these approaches (Badger & White, 2000) Also, this research aims to unpack the factors that effect students‟ writing performance

The above goals are specified into the following objectives:

 To explore the perspectives of the students towards process-genre approach in learning IELTS writing task 2

 To see whether the application of the process-genre approach to teaching writing IELTS task 2 to non-English major students is effective

To achieve the above-stated aims and objectives, the study was designed to answer the following research questions:

(1) What do students perceive about process-genre approach in learning writing IELTS writing task 2?

(2) Does the integrated process-genre approach help improve students‟ performance in IELTS writing task 2? If yes, to what extent?

2.2 Scope of the Study

The research is confined to the application of the process-genre approach to teaching writing Task 2 in IELTS exams in a writing course of 15 lessons A class

of 14 non-English major students was investigated

2.3 Research methods

As regarded as “the practical judgment in concrete situations”, which support the practitioner researchers in facing with the challenge and problems of practice and carrying through innovations in a reflective way (Altrichter, Feldman, Posch, and Somekh, 2013), the action research was selected to investigate the practicability of process-genre approach in teaching and learning IELTS writing Task 2 The research instruments were the pre-test and post-test, writing portfolios and interviews

2.4 Significance of the Study

There are some reasons motivating me to conduct this research First of all, the finding of this research will show how the process-genre approach and its stages could change students‟ writing performance and reflect students‟ views and their reactions on the process of teaching and studying writing Thanks to that, I could adapt my teaching methods and materials so that they could be suitable and useful for my students

Besides, for other classes in the similar context, this research may act as a reference for pedagogical skills and research practice Other teachers may find in this research some suggestions or implications for their teaching writing IELTS and carrying out further research on this issue

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on the process-genre approach to teaching IELTS writing Task 2 It starts with some background information, definitions and theories

of key terms related and specific to this line of research This is followed by a critical review of previous studies on the applications of process approach, genre-based approach and the integrated of both to teaching L2 writing

1.1 IELTS: the International English Language Testing System

IELTS, the International English Language Testing System, is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who want to study or work where English is the language of communication

The IELTS test (academic module) is made up of four components: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking The Writing component is a direct test of writing, requiring candidates to produce two samples of writing in 60 minutes allocated In Task 1, candidates write a short description of information presented in the form of charts, diagrams, tables, and maps Task 2 requires candidates to write a composition, usually an essay, in response to a proposition or question In both tasks, candidates are assessed on their ability to write with “appropriate register, rhetorical organization, style and content” (UCLES, 1996.)

According to the instruction in the IELTS Handbook (1999), in task 2, candidates are presented with a point of view or argument or problem In this task, the candidates are assessed on their ability to: “provide general factual information”,

“outline a problem and present a solution”, “present and possibly justify an opinion, assessment or hypothesis”, and “present and possibly evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence and argument” (p.11) The instructions suggest that candidates will be

required to produce an argument type of text, which may be a discussion, opinion or problem and solution essay

1.2 Process-based approaches

1.2.1 Model of process-based approaches

Process-based writing is viewed as the way writers actually work on their writing tasks from the beginning stage to the end of the written product O‟Brien (2004) defines this approach as an activity in which teachers encourage learners to see writing not as grammar exercises, but as the discovery of meaning and ideas During the writing process, teachers can enable learners to explore their thoughts and develop their own writing by using the five-step writing process model developed from Scott (1996) This model consists of five stages, including: prewriting, first draft composing, feedback, second draft writing, and editing (Tompkins, 2000, p 223)

Through the writing process, professional writers or even students hardly follow the fixed sequence of writing stages linearly because they have to move back and forth among different writing steps in order to come up with better ideas In other words, the stages of writing process may come flexibly, not in a fixed order The writer may evaluate while generating ideas or thinking up new ides when he does evaluation (Scott, 1996)

Writing in the process approach can thus be seen as a dynamic and unpredictable process (Tribble, 1990) while writers try to reformulate their ideas and approximate the meaning of what they want to express in their work

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of process-based approaches

First, the process approach stresses the process that writers go through in composing texts (Nunan, 1991) It allows students to manage their own writing by

giving students a chance to think as they write (Brown, 2001, p 336) That is, students convey their messages to the readers in written form through the complex writing process; prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing

The second point is related to what learners have internally Brown (2001) claims that the process approach is advantageous to students in language learning because students are the creators of language, they need to focus on content and message, and their own intrinsic motives are valued Raimes (1983) indicates that in the process approach, students do not write on a given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition but explore a topic through writing Raimes also states that through the process approach teachers find that the writing process is a process of discovery for the students: discovery of new ideas and new language forms to express those ideas In addition, the approach is beneficial to students because the approach focuses more on the various classroom activities This is believed to promote the development of skilled language use, and a number of interesting classroom techniques have emerged from the process approach to writing (Nunan, 1991) When various group activities are utilized in writing classes, the learners exchange comments or responses, or work together to write a paragraph or an essay Nunan (1991) also affirms that this approach also encourages collaborative group work between learners as a way of enhancing motivation and developing positive attitudes towards writing

In spite of being widely used in ESL/ EFL composition, process-based writing still has some limitations Firstly, as Leki (1992) asserts, some people think that the process approach is unrealistic because it puts too much emphasis on multiple drafts which may cause ESL students to fail the academic exams with their single draft restrictions In addition, Badger and White (2000) also point out that learners have

no clear understanding about the characteristics of writing and are provided insufficient linguistic input to write in L2 successfully in a certain text type

1.3 Genre-based approaches

1.3.1 Model of genre-based approaches

Hammond and Derewianka (2001) define the genre-based approach as the way to language and literacy education that combines an understanding of genre and genre teaching together in the writing class The genre-based approach can be called differently such as the “English for Academic Purposes approach” (Silva, 1990) or the “English for Specific Purposes approach” (Dudley-Evans, 1997), they stress the importance of various types of writing which are closely tied to social purposes (Maley, 1996) According Cope and Kalantzis (1993), the genre approach to writing consists of three phases: (1) the target genre is modeled for the students; (2) a text is jointly constructed by the teacher and students; and (3) a text is independently constructed by each student According to Badger and White (2000), writing in the genre-based approach is regarded as an extension of the product-oriented approach since learners have an opportunity to study a wide variety of writing patterns; for instance, the business letter, the academic report, and the research paper before

1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of genre-based approaches

Studying a given genre provides students with an understanding of why a communication style is the way it is through a reflection of its social context and its purpose (Swales, 1990, p.695) Swales (1990) also pointed out how rhetorical instruction plays as pivotal a role in writing improvement as prior knowledge In this context, the genre approach is very beneficial because it brings together formal and functional properties of a language in writing instruction, and it acknowledges that there are strong associations between them As Bhatia (1993) and Kim & Kim (2005) recommended, it is meaningful for writing instructors to tie the formal and functional properties of a language together in order to facilitate students‟ recognition of how and why linguistic conventions are employed for particular rhetorical effects If the rhetorical structure of content is analyzed by students in the

genre approach, some common patterns can be identified in each genre Naturally, these patterns will form a kind of background knowledge students can activate in the next learning situation Eventually, the prior knowledge will make it easier for students to produce acceptable structures in their writing tasks Therefore, an assigned genre seems to serve as an influential tool for both the learning and teaching of writing (for both students and teachers)

Furthermore, according to Kay and Dudley-Evans (as cited in Kim, 2007) the genre approach encourages students to participate in the world around them, to comprehend writing as a tool that they can utilize, and to realize how writers manage content to promote logical organization It also allows students to become more flexible in their thinking and eventually to realize how authors organize their writings However, some proponents have indicated that the genre approach is more suitable for learners at beginning or intermediate levels of proficiency in a second language rather than those at advanced levels, in that it releases students from deep anxieties about their writing tasks When people learn something new, they commonly want to find some cases that they can refer to or consider as samples There is no doubt that writing tasks can be more demanding than other language skills, so students at low level of proficiency need something that they can rely on since they have little exposure to English writing (Kay & Dudley-Evans, 1998) Despite genres‟ beneficial roles in helping learners to produce written work with confidence, there are two concerns about the genre approach One is that it underestimates the skills required to produce content, and the other is that it neglects learners‟ self-sufficiency (Byram, 2004) The genre approach not only places too much emphasis on conventions and genre features but also is less helpful for students in discovering the texts‟ true messages due to the targeted aspects of the specified genre Likewise, if teachers spend class time explaining how language is used for a range of purposes and with a variety of readers, learners are likely to be largely passive Thus, the genre approach is blamed for limiting learners‟ creative

thoughts about content and is criticized in that it overlooks natural processes of learning and learners‟ creativity (Badge & White, 2000) Finally, Bawarshi (2000) pointed out that, at its best, it helps learners to identify and interpret literary texts, while at its worst, it interferes with the learners‟ creativity This concern means that students may end up writing genres as meaningless reproductions

1.4 The Process Approach vs the Genre Approach

In the process approach, the steps or stages are illustrated and practiced from the generation of ideas and compilation of information through a series of activities for planning, gathering information, drafting, revising, and editing (Campbell, 1998) This sequence of activities typically occurs in four stages: “prewriting, composing/drafting, revising, and editing” (Badger & White, 2000)

Proponents of the process approach argue that the procedures of process writing help learners to develop more effective ways of conveying meaning and to better comprehend the content that they want to express They strongly believe that students can discover what they want to say and write more successfully through the process model than the genre approach, as the process approach is viewed as writer-centered (Walsh, 2004, p 15) However, none of the process writing procedures of the past sufficiently dealt with linguistic knowledge, such as grammar and the organization of content, as much as necessary Even though the final stage

of editing addressed some mechanical features of language, they were mainly concerned with the skills of processing ideas like planning and drafting Furthermore, the process approach has a very restricted view of writing, in that the approach presumes that writing proficiency takes place only with the support of the repeated exercise of the same writing procedures Although it is obvious that the amounts of pre-writing necessary for writing a personal letter and for creating an academic research paper are different, in the process model, the practice of writing

is identical regardless of what the topic is and who the writer or the reader is (Badger & White, 2000, pp 154-155)

In genre approach, on the other hand, the knowledge of language is intimately attached to a social purpose, and more focus is on the viewpoint of the reader than

on that of the writer Writing is mostly viewed as the students‟ reproduction of text based on the genre offered by teachers It is also believed that learning takes place through imitation and exploration of different kinds of models (Hyon, 1996, p 705) Accordingly, learners should be exposed to many examples of the same genre to develop their ability to write a particular genre (Badger & White, 2000, p 155) Through exposure to similar texts, students can detect the specialized configurations

of that genre, and they also can activate their memories of prior reading or writing experiences whenever they encounter the task of creating a new piece in a familiar genre (Badger & White, 2000, p 156)

When it comes to explaining writing development in the genre approach, Hammond (1992, as cited in Burns, 2001) proposed “a wheel model of a teaching-learning cycle having three phases: modeling, joint negotiation of text by learners and teacher, and the independent construction of texts by learners” (p 240) Modeling, Hammond noted, is the time when the target genre that students should construct is introduced to them At this stage, discussion focuses on the educational and social function of the genre, and analysis focuses on the text structure and language Joint negotiation of text refers to the stage when learners carry out exercises which manipulate relevant language forms It fosters a negotiating process between the teacher and the students It involves reading, researching, and disseminating information, and the text of the genre is dependent on those activities The independent construction of texts is the final phase; in which learners produce actual texts through activities such as choosing a topic, researching, and writing

Proponents such as Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998) have argued that the genre approach is more effective for learners to advance their writing skills in a second language than the process approach since the model helps free students from their severe worries over writing For instance, Henry and Roseberry (1998), in an experimental study, found that the learner‟s understanding of both the rhetorical structure and the linguistic features was increased by the genre-based instructions (Henry & Roseberry, 1998)

In conclusion, each writing approach, namely process and genre, has its own merits and demerits While the former help learners to express their idea effectively through repetitive stages, the latter offer students the specific model/ sample to follow, encouraging them to write without anxiety over writing Therefore, to make the best use of both and support students in writing, I decided to apply the integrated approach into my teaching context, where students arein low level, at 3.5-4.0 in IELTS, lacking both of language and ideas but having to deal with challenging tasks in various topics in task 2 The integrated one provides both samples which make student become more confident to write and process to practice writing

1.5 Integrating process and genre approaches to teaching writing

The nature of writing is complex According to Hyland, writing is “a cognitive activity” (2003b) in which writers need certain skills to deal with complex cognitive processes in composing as well as knowledge of language, contexts, and audiences Tribble (1996) suggested that the writers need be aware of not only how

socio-to write but also what socio-to write in context He also suggested that two significant qualities of a person to write successfully include his ability to draw on a range of appropriate processes when he is engaged in the creation of written texts and his knowledge of the way in which context and content influence the genres of writing which are typical of particular communicative event

It has been argued that, despite the criticisms of both process and genre adherents, these approaches are not “mutually exclusive” (Hyland, 2004), although each focuses on different aspects of writing Badger and White also stated that the conflict between the approaches is “misguided, and damaging classroom practice” (2000) because process, product, and place (in the sense of settings, functions, and background) of writing are closely inter-related (Archibald & Jeffery, 2000) Process and genre approaches should be considered as compensating for the weaknesses of the other (Badger & White, 2000; Hyland, 2003b)

Genre pedagogy is based on the assumption that learning is best accomplished through an explicit awareness of language used in context, rather than a student‟s inductive learning, but this does not mean replacing process oriented approaches (Hyland, 2004, p 21) However, Swales (1990), although shares the same above ideas, admitted that the increase in self-confidence and skill in discovering ideas for writing that students gain through a process oriented approach is important, but not sufficient for learning genre skills He suggested that genre acquisition should pay

at least equal attention to a writer‟s internal processes and the external factors of composing

Scholars studying writing (Badger & White, 2000; Hyland, 2003b, 2004; Tribble, 1996) have proposed the incorporation of both process and genre approaches to the teaching of writing Tribble added that process and genre approaches are not

“incompatible” (1996); it is possible to see that writing instruction that draws on the strengths of both approaches can encourage students to express their ideas individually in an authentic voice and to write socially appropriate text Hyland suggested that the synthesis of process and genre approaches in practice may ensure that “learners have an adequate understanding of the processes of text creation; the purposes of writing and how to express these in effective way through formal and rhetorical text choices; and the contexts within which texts are composed and read and which give them meaning” (2003b, p 24) According to the survey of language

teachers from various countries by Kay and Dudley-Evans, the notion of synthesis

of these two approaches is also welcomed by language teachers, as they suggested that deploying a process approach in conjunction with a genre based approach

“would combine knowledge about the genre product with the opportunity to plan, draft, revise, and edit work, as well as provide the opportunity for greater interaction” (1998, p 312)

1.6 Process-genre approaches

The merits and drawbacks of process-based and genre-based described suggest a new approach to teaching L2 writing, which combines these two approaches This combination has been termed the process-genre approach by Badger and White (2000) This approach allows students to study the relationship between purpose and form for a particular genre as they use the recursive processes of prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing Using these steps develops students‟ awareness of different text types and of the composing process The different activities included

in this approach ensure that grammatical and vocabulary items are taught not in isolation, but in meaningful, interactive situations and derived from the particular genre (Badge & White, 2000)

According to Badger and White (2000), the teaching procedure for the process genre approach is divided into the following six steps: (1) preparation, (2) modeling, (3) planning, (4) joint constructing, (5) independent constructing, and (6) revising (p 159), based on which Madhav Raj Belbase (2012) develops a short description of what occurs during the six steps, which illustrates how elements of

the process and genre approaches work in unity

Step 1: Preparation

The teacher begins preparing the students to write by defining a situation that will require a written text and placing it within a specific genre, such as a persuasive

essay arguing for or against an issue of current interest This activates the schemata and allows students to anticipate the structural features of the genre

Step 2: Modeling

During this step the teacher introduces a model of the genre and lets students consider the purpose of the text For example, the purpose of an argumentative essay is to persuade the reader to act on something Next, the teacher discusses how the text is structured and how its organization develops to accomplish its purpose

Step 3: Planning

This step includes many meaningful activities that activate the students‟ schemata about the topic, including brainstorming, discussing, and reading related material The aim is to help the students develop an interest in the topic by relating it to their experience Since they have to participate and contribute in the classroom, learners will find the activities interesting and entertaining

Step 4: Joint constructing

In this step, the teacher and students work together as a beginning of writing a text While doing so, the teacher uses the writing processes of brainstorming, drafting, and revising The students contribute information and ideas, and the teacher writes the generated text on the black/white board The final draft provides a model for students to refer to when they work on their individual compositions It fosters collaborative writing This step can be boosted by providing a very caring and sharing environment by the teacher This step will provide students with a chance to write in a group and to prepare them for individual work

Step 5: Independent constructing

By this time students will have examined model texts and have jointly constructed a text in the genre They now undertake the task of composing their own texts on a related topic Class time can be set aside for students to compose independently so that the teacher is available to help, clarify, or consult about the process The writing task can also be continued as a homework assignment The teacher has to clarify what students should do for writing homework

Step 6: Revising and editing

Students lastly will have a draft that will undergo final revision and editing This does not necessarily mean that teachers have to collect all the papers and mark them one by one Students may check, discuss, and evaluate their work with fellow students, as the teacher again guides and facilitates The teacher may make an effort

to publish the students‟ work, which will impart a sense of achievement and motivate the students to become better writers Their final achievement will foster self-esteem among learners as they have produced something

In my research, this model of process-genre approach was applied to my writing class

1.7 Previous studies on the applications of process-genre approach to teaching L2 writing: findings and limitations

As far as I have searched for the information, although there are studies related to process approach and genre-based, most of them are about each approach solely There are only few conducted on the integrated process-genre approach

Studies conducted in different contexts and different research populations show positive effects of process-genre approach in writing not only in students‟ performance but also in their understandings on the purpose of particular genre and the writing skills (Babalola, 2012, Gupitasari, 2013 and Handayani & Siregar, 2013) Their use of appropriate language and writing scores were both improved Also, the research by Gupitasari (2013) and Babalola (2012) show the effectiveness

of teacher‟s feedback and peer check during the process of teaching and studying writing

After reading these studies, I noticed to some limitations Firstly, all quantitative data of research above were collected from the assessment of a single and non-academic genre, the application letters in that by Gupitasari(2013), and descriptive

text in Handayani& Siregar‟s (2013), and written English in Babalola‟s (2012) Therefore, these data might not be valid to other genres, especially to academic essay like IELTS writing task 2 Secondly, although carried out by various data collection instruments, none of them use interview to investigate student‟s views on the application of this approach Consequently, the finding that this approach motivates students to write needs to be revised Finally, none of these studies was carried out in Vietnam, whose English education system is a little bit different in some aspects The finding interpretation, therefore, may not totally applicable here

As an attempt to address these problems, this study applied the process-genre approach in teaching a range of genres in IELTS writing task 2, such as the opinion, discussion, problem-solution and causes-effects essays Additionally, this research was on the application of the integrated approach in the context of Vietnam education environment, which could figured out some other benefits and limitations

of this approach to teaching writing in this context

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the current picture of teaching IELTS in Vietnam and in my university is painted in order to provide a context for the research, followed by the description of the study‟s participants Subsequently, the research approach chosen

to conduct the study is presented Finally, this chapter ends with the detailed explanation of the methods of collecting and analyzing data

2.1 The current situation of IELTS in Vietnam

IELTS is the most widely used international test of English, with four million test takers world wide (Benson and Voler, 1997) Vietnamese universities have responded to the demand for English studies by providing courses of IELTS in fields of Language Teaching, Business Administration, Business Finance, Computer Science, Environmental Science and Telecommunications Currently, according to the Decision No 1400/QG-TTg on Approving the 10 year National plan for “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Formal Education system in the Period 2008-2020”, the new standard for graduates in Vietnam universities has been applying in almost all universities and colleges As regulated in this Decision, it is 4.5 IELTS or equivalence to non-English major students and above 6.5 IELTS or equivalence to English-major students Therefore, some Vietnam‟s universities are now using format of IELTS test or other International English Exams for teaching and testing practices (Van, 2010)

2.2 IELTS in National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE)

English has been one of the compulsory subjects for the first year students since the University‟s foundation However, English was just considered as a minor subject due to the preference of French in universities of engineering Therefore, there was

no regulations to English strictly set up until 2010, which required the mainstream students in NUCE to get 4.5 IELTS, 450 TOEIC or equivalence Regarding to the

reason of this reform, besides abiding by the Decision No 1400/QG-TTg in 2008, it

is because of the dominance of English since the last century In 2010, the advanced program in NUCE also experienced another change of the opening the English medium program for gifted students, in which all of the subjects are taught in English and students in this program have to get 5.5 score in IELTS

Being well aware of the role of English in the globalization context, in 2012, the Faculty of Bridges and Roads decided to open another innovative program coded as CDE for mainstream students, in which students learn their major subjects in English Different from the above advanced program, this one does not require students to have a good starting point at English, and it opens to all students passing the entrance exam to NUCE The students in these classes are expected to achieve 5.0 in IELTS when they graduate

2.3 The Context of the Study and the Research Participants

2.3.1 The research participants

A class of 15 students in the innovative program was chosen to be the research participants, which was written under pseudonym 57CDE Students‟ ability in English was assessed at 3.5 in IELTS Although in previous courses, they were equipped with a relative range of grammar, topics and vocabulary, these participants were only exposed to the format and types of exercises in three skills in IELTS: reading, listening and speaking They did not know about the types of questions in IELTS writing; however, they had learnt how to write different types of paragraphs

Due to the actual teaching situation at the university, it was not possible to use the data collected from all students The information gathered for the analysis was taken from those students who met the following criteria:

1 The students completed all parts of the data collection

2 The students attended at least 85% of the overall scheduled classes

3 The students did not change from one class to another during the semester

Following these criteria, data gathered for the analysis of the study were from 14 students, one of them did not meet the requirement of attendance All of them are males

2.3.2 The writing IELTS Preparation course in NUCE

The Writing IELTS Preparation Course for 57CDE class was developed based on the series of book “Complete IELST”, level 5 – 6.5 This course covers 16 lessons

of Writing IELTS, eight of which deals with four types of questions in Task 2 Each type is studied in two lessons of 180 minutes Here is the general syllabus for task 2

in this course

Table 1: The writing IELTS Preparation Course, Task 2

Lesson Unit Unit Title Types of questions

your opinion

your opinion (cont.)

is known In other words, action research is a study conducted with the desire to solve some current problems in specific situations, and from then improve the teaching and learning process (Glickman, 1992) This accords with my teaching context when I aim to find out the better way to help my non-major English students handle with academic writing in quite a short time

Furthermore, action research is stated to bring about a lot benefits when applied to education (Gay and Airasian, 2003) This type of research approach allows me to involve in the whole process of study execution, collaborating and working with my students who are the participants, owning to which I not only investigate my own practice in new ways, looking deeper in what my students and I actually do and fail

to do but also develop a deeper understanding of students, about their learning styles and difficulties

Briefly, because in action research, teachers explore things themselves as educators, about unique perspectives of their students, the structure and practices of educational systems in order to bring positive changes to their own situations and classes, it was utilized in this thesis

2.5 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure was conducted in the order of following stages

Before exposing to process-genre approach in learning writing IELTS task 2, students were asked to do a pre-test by writing a problem-solution essay

Firstly, every type of essay questions was instructed in two lessons In the first lesson, students were given a topic and its sample to investigate Under the teacher‟s instructions, students discussed in groups of three or four to discover and understand the purpose of the genre, how the text is structured and how its organization develops to accomplish this purpose

After students were clear about the purpose and structure of the genre, another topic

in the same genre was given to students Some vocabulary, language structures relating to both the genre and the topic were provided through brainstorming activities, group discussions and presentations In groups, students presented their ideas and outline their essay under the teacher‟s instructions Some complicated ideas were discussed and expressed in different forms of sentences Some students were asked to make sample sentences with the help from teacher In this step, students tried to take advantages of asking their teacher for new words, phrases and some expressions This stage and the first one in lesson 1, which is about the genre

in pre-test and post-test, were video-taped for deeper analysis

Thirdly, students wrote essays independently in class After finishing writing, they were suggested to check their friends‟ writings However, since most of them were reluctant to do peer-check, their writings were collected, checked and evaluated by teacher in accordance with the grading criteria of IELTS writing task 2

In the second lesson, students received their checked and assessed writings from teacher They had 30 minutes to re-read their writings, correcting the mistakes they had made Simultaneously, I went around class, explaining about their mistakes and answering their questions Some serious problems were discussed and clarified to the whole class Following that, students wrote the second draft based on teacher‟s

comments and suggestions The first and second drafts then were collected as a source of data

At the end of the course, students were asked to do a post-test on solutions essays (the same genre with the pre-test) Then, I interviewed eight students randomly for comments about their performance in both drafts of each type and about the learning process I also made another small interview with them about peer check to find out the reason why they were not willing to do this type of checking The processes of these both interviews were recorded

problems-2.6 Data Collection Methods

2.6.1 Observation

Firstly, observation was adopted to collect data to answer the first research question

It was perceived that observation enables the researcher to describe existing situations using the five senses, providing a "written photograph" of the situation under study (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993) In other words, observation allows researchers to learn about the activities of the people under study

in the natural setting through observing and participating in some activities, such as active looking, improving memory, informal interviewing, and writing detailed field

notes (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002)

Through the lesson, I attempted to investigate how much information about genres and IELTS writing task 2 students could gain by carefully focusing on their studying activities and their interaction with other students and with me in class I tried to note down their reactions and behaviors, for example using mobile phones and asking their friends for information, ideas and new words and managing their

40 minute writing time when they first wrote about an unfamiliar genre in an

unfamiliar format (IELTS) and how they did it for the second and the third time

However, being a participant observer, I could neither note down in details all of the students‟ activities and their answers while they were studying nor video-tape all of eight lessons Therefore, lesson 1, which was about the genre in the pre and post test, was filmed so that I could watch it carefully later To avoid the unnatural behaviors due to awareness of being video-taped, after asking for their permissions,

I put the camera in a corner which did not attract students‟ attention but still wholly filmed the class Then some warm-up activities were delivered to distract them from where the camera was Thanks to that, the equipment effect on students‟ learning was minimized

Semi-structured interviews provided a very effective means of uncovering students‟ opinions and beliefs on the writing lesson in the process-genre approach Most of the interview questions were open-ended in an attempt to “allow the respondents opportunities to develop their responses in ways which the interviewer might not have foreseen” (Campbell, McNamara, & Gilroy, 2004, p 99) By asking open questions about students‟ view on the writing process, the difficulties and problems they encountered while composing the first and second drafts and their perception

on the process-genre approach and writing IELTS task 2 might be drawn These stated beliefs were compared with the data obtained from classroom observations and student‟s writings to identify the convergence and divergence between their stated beliefs and their actual performance in class

2.6.3 Collection of students’ writings throughout the program

To disclose the answers for the second research question, students‟ writings over the program were assembled to investigate the differences between the first and second drafts This comparison might show the role of teacher‟s guidelines, her feedback and students‟ revising on writing The drafts from last lesson of the program (lesson 8) were chosen for analyzing because students have been familiar with the teaching approach at this time; therefore, they would show clearer changes

in writings as well as clearer view on the whole course

In addition, being conducted before and after the program, the pre-test and post-test were also collected as students‟ writings The results from this analysis may reveal the changes that process-genre approach caused to students‟ performance

2.7 Data Analysis Procedures

2.7.1 Data from observations and interviews

The data collected from observations and interviews were analyzed to seek for the answer for the research question 1

Firstly, students‟ names were coded into pseudonyms and their interview transcripts were translated into English by the researcher without intention of producing grammatical mistakes Then, along with scrutinizing the interviews transcripts and observation notes, the video of lesson 1 was watched to recall about the lesson, students‟ activities and their reactions in that lesson

Secondly, the information above was selected to separate the important information from the unimportant one In order that this stage could be easily processed, the interview questions focused on five main aspects The first three ones were about students‟ perception about the first and the last time of writing, the procedure of the lesson and its activities In these questions, the difficulties and facilities that

students encountered were asked to clarify in details The last two questions were about students‟ recommendations and suggestions for the next phase

Students‟ responses were compared to their actions throughout the course in the observation notes and video After that, the similar ideas were grouped into the categories: students‟ perception on the development of purpose and organization of genre, the ideas and vocabulary for specific topics, the use of grammar in writing, and their evaluations on their abilities and self-practice

2.7.2 Data from the collection of student’s writings

Students‟ writings were checked and evaluated based on the marking criteria of IELTS writing task 2: Task response, Coherence and cohesion, Lexical resources and Grammar accuracy to answer the research question 2 All of these data were analyzed in terms of quantitative and qualitative measurements and measured in four times of writings: Draft 1 and Draft 2 of the last lesson were aimed to find out the change during the process while the Pre-test and Post-test were to discover the change after the implementation of process-genre approach

Task response was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed based on the detail marking criteria of IELTS writing task 2 which could be sorted into two main features: the organization and the quality of sentences (British Council, 2008) The number of parts (organization) of the essay, the number of paragraphs, the number

of relevant, extended and supported ideas, and the number of words were measured The relevance, extension, and support of each idea were qualitatively analyzed by comparing between the pre-test and post-test, the first draft and the second draft The Coherence and cohesion was measured quantitatively in account of the theories given by Haliday and Hasan (1976), which is divided into five types: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion The percentage of these features used correctly was counted manually in each draft However, according to

Haliday and Hasan (1976), reference, substitution and ellipsis sometimes cover others (pp 88 - 89), along with the fact that the scale of this research does not work

on discourse analysis, these three features were put in one category, reducing the number of category into three: reference, substitution and ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion After that, this criterion then was scrutinized qualitatively by comparing between the pre-test and post-test, the first draft and the second draft

Grammar accuracy was analyzed quantitatively, which was suggested by Quintero at al (1998), which was conducted by the measurement the proportion of error-free T-unit (EFT/T) and error-free clauses of all clauses (EFC/C)

Wolfe-Lastly, lexical resources was measured by the original way of Laufer & Nation's (1995) in four categories: the percentage of words in the list of the most frequent

1000 word families, (2) the second 1000, (3) the Academic Word List, and (4) uncommon words that do not appear on the other lists Lexical resources was mechanically calculated by the program VocabProfilers However, the number of words in different times of writing varies dramatically For example, 70% of 180 words in pre-test account for fewer words than 65% of 280 words in post-test Therefore, all of these figures were converted to the percentage of 250 words, which

is the minimum number of required words in IELTS writing task 2

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

3.1 Findings and analysis

3.1.1 Students’ perceptions of process-genre approach application

At the end of study process, eight students were interviewed about their perception

of applying process-genre approach in teaching IELST task 2 The findings are presented as follows

3.1.1.1 Students’ perception on the development of genre’s purpose and organization

At first, process-genre approach seemed to bring some positive effects on shaping students‟ ideas of the purpose and organization of a specific genre Five out of eight students‟ interviewed responded that they were worried about the organization of their writings when they first wrote in the pre-test “I felt insecure because I really did not know how and what to write I even did not know how to put my ideas into groups I was really worried about outline of my essay.”1 said Dung2 His ideas

were shared by Phu: “I did not know how to organize my ideas.”

In addition, there were two students worrying that their writings might be off-topic Phu and Sovan, a Cambodian student expressed: “I could understand the requirement of the instruction but I was afraid that I might go far from the topic and

my ideas might be off.”

When being asked about the time they wrote post-test, students all showed their confidence about the purpose and structure of the genre in Writing IELTS task 2, which they gained from both activities during the lessons and teacher‟s checking Hai said: “After the lesson, I could clearly outline my essay I could see how many

1

In the research, interviews with the students were translated from Vietnamese into English by the

researcher

paragraphs my essays should contain.” Dung agreed: “After investigating the sample and studying a particular genre, I could make an outline for other topics in the same genre I did not waste so much time to arrange my ideas.”

Students all stated that, after the course, the first thing they identify when reading a topic was the type of the question: “I read the topic and identify the type, which helps me quickly sketch the organization, about the number of paragraphs and the general idea of each one.”

These ideas matched what I observed in class, especially when they did the pre-test and post-test There were changes in the ways they distributed their time for writing

In the first time, they spent over ten minutes to look at the instruction and freely listed down few ideas and most of them are Vietnamese and did not make any outline for the ideas they had just written However, after eight lessons learning in process-genre approach, only five minutes were spent both outlining the essay and brainstorming ideas

In short, from the findings above, thanks to working on samples, students shaped their ideas on the goal and structure of each type of task 2 questions This achievement helped them not only to quickly outline the main content of the easy but also to stay on the topic while writing The students‟ anxiety about misunderstanding the instruction and going far away from the topic was lessened Moreover, the process-genre approach enables students identify the genre of writing task 2 questions, directing them the way to deal with this task

3.1.1.2 Students’ perception on the ideas and vocabulary for specific topics

Ideas and vocabulary seemed to be concerned most when all of the interviewed students mentioned these aspects When talking about pre-test, students stated that vocabulary and ideas were their biggest problems “I could not find any idea to write And when I got some ideas, I could not express them in English because I did

not have words.” said Trung Duc His ideas were shared by five others, like Trong Huy expressed: “My difficulty was about vocabulary I lack vocabulary.” It can be concluded that, when first exposing to an unfamiliar topic, students often struggled with their current range of vocabulary, which was not enough and relevant for them

to compose a writing

After the course, five interviewees told that they gained a relative range of new words and phrases through sample analyzing, brainstorming and discussion activities These activities were useful for Phu:

“…I could learn some new words and phrases, especially which are related

to the topic For example, when we learnt about discussing two opinions on whether educating intelligent children, I knew a lot of words related to not only the topic like: school dropouts, discrimination, division, but also the discussion essays: divergent opinions, mounting concern and so on.”

The sharing above was strongly supported by the observation from the class The video shows that while writing the pre-test, students used mobile phones a lot and/or asked their friends for vocabulary and ideas During the course, these actions

in writing the first draft declined and hardly happened in the second draft Sovann said: “I feel much more confident writing draft 1 With the new words I learnt from brainstorm activities and your corrections and comments in draft 2, it was easier for

me to write the second one.”

Thus, the planning step seemed to work well It provided students new words in terms of the topic and the genre of essay, making them more confident to write and express their ideas Also, students could distinguish between the word used in specific topics and those used in specific genre in task 2, like Phu said ealier

However, there were also some trouble applying new words and ideas into the first draft Some of interviewees held the same view that, although the lexical items

increased, they could not combine these ideas smoothly to make a united paragraph Trong Huy was disappointed: “when knowing more new words and ideas, I felt quite happy and confident that I could use all of them But, it was not so easy when coming up writing.” This idea was shared by Hung and The Huy Moreover, though this approach provides ideas and vocabulary in the preparation step, it could not help them in every topic in writing IELTS Consequently, students worried about these features in other unfamiliar topics, in which they may be in trouble of not knowing new words or being unable to produce ideas Phu and Trung Duc said: “I was anxious about how I could deal with other topics or a real writing exam when I have to do all on my own.” This means that he was not confident to write other topics and he might have relied on his friends and teacher for ideas and vocabulary Briefly, although enhancing students‟ ideas and vocabulary and saving their time searching for new words, the activities like sample analyzing, brainstorming and discussion activities in the planning step were not sufficient in facilitating students

to build sentences and form a coherent and cohesive paragraph confidently

3.1.1.3 Students’ perception on the use of grammar in writing

Students recognized the problem that they could not use the vocabulary above came from their weak grammar While asked about the pre-test, Hai emphasized: “I have big problems with grammar regarding to tenses, prepositions, word forms and structures.” Hung also said: “It was not easy to apply new words into writing I think because of my poor grammar that hindered me when I made sentences.”

However, this problem seemed to only happen when they wrote the first drafts In the second ones, they said they could fix the grammar mistakes themselves after receiving teacher‟s feedback Grammar was not mentioned much when the interviewees gave comments on the writing process in the second draft, in which, students cared more about the coherence and cohesion of their essay as well as the use of words Dung stated it indirectly: “In the second draft, I wrote faster without

wasting time checking my grammar mistakes because they were all figured out when you checked it I just looked for the way to express my ideas better.” Grammar was mentioned once; however, this feature was not paid much attention Phu said: “Grammar is also important, but we often ignore it when writing.”

It sounds that unlike vocabulary and ideas, students‟ grammar was not improved immediately in the first drafts The students could correct the grammar mistakes themselves only after the help from teacher in their second drafts Although the stage of joint construction was applied in teaching to tackle this problem, no interviewees mentioned this Further investigation need to be carried out on this phase

3.1.1.4 Students’ perception and their evaluations on their abilities and practice

self-The last two interview questions dealing with students‟ recommendations and suggestions for the next phase of research Surprisingly, almost all interviewees (seven out of eight) admitted that they could not follow the pace of the lesson while according to the observation and video, these students were quite active and participated well to the activities They would like me to teach and deliver activities more slowly and provide more examples so that they could get familiar with and remember vocabulary and structures better

Though some students admitted brainstorming and discussion activities did a lot of help in building vocabulary and ideas, they worried that they could not worked well

in the exam without help from teacher and his partners Phu said: “After the course,

I feel more confident about writing However, I was anxious about the fact that how

I could deal with a real writing exam when I have to do all my own.”

Trung Duc even wished that he would be able to write without brainstorming Students indirectly admitted their limited prowess when answering questions about