Nghiên cứu cải thiện kỹ năng viết luận bằng đường hướng tiếp cận theo quá trình cho học viên đang theo học khóa luyện thi IELTS ( bài thi học thuật, mục tiêu 6 5 điểm ) tại trung tâm anh

DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis “A study on improving essay writing skills through process-based approach for students in an IELTS preparation course Academic, target ba

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

HANOI - 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor : Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền

HANOI - 2017

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis “A study on improving essay writing skills

through process-based approach for students in an IELTS preparation course

( Academic, target band 6.5) at EQuest English center, Hanoi.” is my own work

and effort has not been submitted anywhere for any purpose In addition, the contributions of my colleagues and students are involved Other sources of information have been used and acknowledged I cede copyright of the thesis in favor of Post-graduate Department- Vietnam National University

Hanoi, 2017

Signature

Trinh Thi Hien

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien who has enthusiastically helped and encouraged me during the period of writing this research paper Without her experienced guidance, valuable comments and tireless support, I could not have completed the study on time

My gratitude also goes to all of the instructors in my M.A course at the graduate Studies, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University With their precious and professional lecturers and tutors, I can understand thoroughly difficult basic concepts regardless English teaching methodology

Post-I am also very grateful to my colleagues at EQuest, English center, Hanoi,

who have created favorable conditions for me and have helped me with priceless advice and suggestion on this research

I also give my sincere thanks to all 10 students accompanying with my during the 12-week course of the research Without them, I could not have these data as convincing evidence for my study

Last but not least, I would like to send my thanks to my beloved relatives, close friends and classmates who are always by my side and give me a lot of support Thanks to them, I have more motivation and inspiration to complete this study on time

Hanoi, 2017

Trinh Thi Hien

ABSTRACT

The present study intended to examine the effectiveness of process-based

approach on improving the IELTS writing essay‟s skills among EQuest learners

To this end, 10 Vietnamese intermediate EFL students aged 17-25 were selected from among available learners who ever joined more than one of the IELTS preparation course based on the result of the Cambridge Placement Test (CPT) Initially, a pre-survey questionnaire was carried out Next, using the CPT as a pre-test for assessing writing skills of participants which were administered Then, they received the conventional classroom instruction on writing skills which were based

on process-based approach After 10 weeks of instruction based on process-based approach, the questionnaire of autonomy was again done by 10 chosen students, and

a post-test for writing was implemented to the participants in The raw data collected were subject to statistical analysis The results are evidence to prove the effectiveness of process-based approach on the proficiency of learners‟ writing essay skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables and figures viii

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research question 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Structure of study 3

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Previous studies 4

1.2 Approaches 5

1.2.1 Product-based approach 6

1.2.2 Genre-based approach 6

1.2.3 Process-based approach 7

1.3 Process-based approach 8

1.3.1 Definitions 8

1.3.2 Stages of process-based in essay writing 10

1.3.2.1 Steele‟s process-based writing cycle 10

1.3.2.2 Widodo‟s process-based writing cycle 10

1.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of process-based approach 14

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Setting 17

2.1.1 IELTS test 17

2.1.1.1 IELTS academic writing task 2 17

2.1.1.2 Public IELTS writing task 2 band descriptors 18

2.1.2 EQuest language center, Hanoi 19

2.1.3 Participants 19

2.2 Research methods 20

2.2.1 Action research 20

2.2.2 Mixed method research 22

2.2.3 Action plan 23

2.3 Data collection instruments 24

2.3.1 Pre-survey and post-survey 24

2.3.2 Pre-test and post-test 25

2.3.3 Other instruments 25

2.3.3.1 In-depth interview 25

2.3.3.2 Observation and personal experience 25

2.4 Data collection procedure 26

2.5 Data analysis procedure 26

CHAPTER THREE: FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Survey Questionnaire Analysis 28

3.2 Pre-test and post-test Analysis 32

3.3 Summary 35

PART THREE: CONCLUSION 1 Recapitulation 37

2 Implications 38

3 Limitations of the study 39

4 Suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES 41

APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CC: Coherence and Cohesion

CPT: Cambridge Placement Test

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

ESOL: English for Speakers of Other Languages

GRA: Grammar Range and Accuracy

IELTS: International English Language of Testing System LCD: Liquid crystal display

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page Table 1: Differences between process-based, product-based approach and

genre-based approach

7

Table 3.1: Results of pre-survey and post-survey in pre-writing stages 28 Table 3.2: Results of pre-survey and post-survey in while-writing stages 30 Table 3.3: Results of pre-survey and post-survey in post-writing stage 31

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

There are 4 skills; listening, reading, speaking and writing which are involved in learning a second language In fact, the fundamental skill that learners are supposed to master is writing Jordan (1997) stated that writing is a result of long, laborious and intensely personal process in which writers address several questions ranging from “What do I write about? to Who is my audience ? to How

do I structure my essay?” and “to What sort of language and voice should I use?” Compared to other skills, writing needs greater demands on the learners because it

is necessary to follow a process and to get feedback in written interaction which cannot see the immediate improvement

The first reason why this thesis was chosen is that although students ever learned how to write an essay in one or two pre-IELTS courses, they still naturally write whenever they get the topic It is reflected in their unsatisfactory and disappointing outcome which are collected in the Cambridge Placement Test (CPT)

It is not surprising because the learners in the traditional classes will be doing nothing further with their writing after three-hour class attendance and they often pay little or no attention to their teacher‟s comments or error correction As Parson (1985) highlighted in his research, under those conditions, the sense of ownership, invention or investment in the writing is highly ignorant and indifferent

Next, it is true that the process has affected the quality of the process of teaching writing and learning writing In the time between 1970 and 1980, the process-oriented paradigm would be a big concern for current researchers and book writer such as Smith (2000), Applebee (1986), Faigley (1996) These most current studies on process-based approach have aims at investigating the application of process-based approach and its effects on the students writing achievement Indeed, writing is always one of the most important skills for all learners mostly because it

is related to academic certificates and it also inspires students in a wide range of ways including self-study, diaries or some people interested in writing and editing

Finally, there are many researchers studying academic writing; however, there are not many researchers having work on IELTS academic writing based on process-based method Being a teacher in charge of teaching IELTS with hope of supporting and improving students‟ writing essay skills, this thesis was decisively chosen However, this thesis is personally known to be a challenging one simply because there are a lot of teachers teaching IELTS academic writing essay in many language centers who care about applying process-based in essay writing and do research about it but there are not official versions of study in terms of improving students‟ IELTS academic writing essay skills publically posted

With all above reasons, this thesis was chosen and seriously carried out in order to find out the effectiveness of the process-based approach in improving IELTS academic writing‟s skills for learners

The aim of this study is to improve essay writing skills through based approach for students in an IELTS preparation course (Academic, target band 6.5)

In order to improve learners‟ IELTS essay writing skills through

process-based approach at EQuest English center, an action research study has been

conducted to answer the following research question:

“How process-based writing approach helps students improve IELTS essay

writing skills at EQuest English center.”

4 Scope of the study

This is a study which uses process-based approach in writing to improve

essay writing skills for students at EQuest English center (Academic, target 6.5),

Hà Nội Hence, neither are other approaches for teaching writing nor other academic band-score targets related to the scope of this study

5 Significance of the study

This research was severely completed to determine the effectiveness of using process-based approach in improving essay writing skills for students in an IELTS preparation course Based on findings of this study, there is a possibility that its outcome could be a reference for other teachers who are teaching essay writing Besides, it would be duplicated in other classes at the center Last but not least, it would be a primitive road for others‟ further studies and mine in other students and other band-score targets in the future

6 Structure of study

In this study, basically, it is divided into three parts including introduction, development and conclusion

Part one: Introduction - presents the rationale, aims, research question, scope,

significance and the structure of the study

Part two: Development – includes 3 chapters

Chapter 1 – Literature review – provides theoretical basis for the previous

study, some approaches for teaching academic writing and process-based approach consisting definitions, stages, instruction and advantages and disadvantages of this approach

Chapter 2 – Methodology – is consisted of setting such as an overview of the

IELTS test, IELTS academic writing task 2, EQuest English center, participants

Next, research method, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure are listed

Chapter 3 – Findings and discussion – reports the findings of the survey and

discusses the prominent aspects

Part three: Illustrates recapitulation, implications, limitation of the study and

suggestions for the further studies

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Previous studies

In their language learning, students have a role as competent planners, writers, feedback providers of their peers‟ work in a peer review activity, and editors for their own compositions In other words, students can serve not only as planners and writers but also as feedback providers in addition to the teacher Students‟ involvements in providing feedback may enable them in thinking critically but objectively providing constructive feedback to their peers As editors, they are encouraged to edit their own pieces of writing upon the competition of the revision phase (Brown, 2007) This can encourage the students to assume a responsibility for their composition improvement In addition to such four roles, since students are encouraged to reflect on what they have learned during the class periods, the students are trained to be reflective so that they are aware of their own learning practice

Writing is not only a tool for communication but also a means of learning, thinking and organizing knowledge or ideas In other words, it is a complex activity involving some stages of composition task completion (Chen, 2002; Watskins, 2004)

In 2002, Richards and Renandya successfully did research in Indonesia And the results showed that writing skills, particularly in an EFL context, have been considered as one of the most difficult skills for learners to master The difficulty is due to not only generating and organizing ideas, using ideas the appropriate choices

of vocabulary but also turning such ideas into a readable text along with a particular rhetoric pattern Moreover, Indonesian learners often encounter difficulties in transferring ideas from their native language-Indonesian into the target language-English This case calls for teachers‟ greater attention to help the learners be better

at essay writing skills

In 1999, a researcher named Foong pointed out that teaching writing should

be viewed in both cognitive and humanistic perspectives and Kriszner & Mandell (2000) also claimed that writing is thought of as a process of forming concepts and forging the new structure of ideas on the basis of certain purpose, audience, and language use in the cognitive perspective In this sense, the outcome of the study concluded that writing is considered as the process of writing, drafting, revising and editing in which the activities are reflective and recursive as an expressive mode through which student writers use writing as a means of exploring and discovering meaning by themselves and develop their own voices It is understood that the students are encouraged to generate their own ideas by writing freely so that they can express their ideas without any interruption whereas a teacher acts as facilitator whose task is to promote a supportive learning atmosphere, which provides students with opportunities to write about their own ideas and discover their voices rather than acts as a judge whose task is to detect students‟ errors Its results also entailed that EFL teachers should not consider writing as a product in which they greatly emphasize grammatical and lexical accuracy in students‟ compositions, but they are recommended to allow students to focus on their ideas and then encourage the students to work on that accuracy in the revision stage

Up till now, there has been no research which related to improve students‟ essay writing skills is posted publically and officially in Vietnam although there are many teachers caring about developing students‟ writing skills In this paper, the process-based approach for teaching academic essay writing is highlighted particularly Within the process-based framework, teachers focus not merely on finished writing products (e.g essays), but also on writing processes that encourage students‟ active class participation during the entire writing process so that teacher-student and student-student interactions optionally occur in the classroom

1.2 Approaches in teaching essay writing

Writing plays a unique position in language teaching since its acquisition gets involved in the practice and knowledge of other three language skills including

listening, reading and speaking Moreover, it requires the mastering of many skills such as metacognitive skills Students are required to set an objective for their writing, plan it carefully, think about its layout and logical structure, revise it and so

on As can be seen, there are many approaches which are being used in teaching and learning essay writing skills In this part, a brief introduction of 3 main approaches

is written presented including process-based approach, product-based and based approach

genre-1.2.1 Product-based approach

First of all, an approach mentioned is product-based approach in writing As can be seen, this is a traditional approach, in which students are encouraged to mimic a model text, which is usually presented and analyzed at an early stage In the first stage, model texts are read, and then features of the genre are highlighted Next, this consists of controlled practice of the highlighted features, usually in isolation So if students are studying a formal letter, they may be asked to practice the language used to make formal requests, practicing the structure “I would be grateful if you ” The next stage is organization of ideas This stage is very important Those who favor this approach believe that the organization of ideas is more important than the ideas themselves and as important as the control of language The final stage is the end result of the learning process Students choose from a choice of comparable writing tasks Individually, they use the skills, structures and vocabulary they have been taught to produce the product; to show what they can do as fluent and competent users of the language

1.2.2 Genre-based approach

Secondly, it is genre-based approach that identifies that writing is a social activity with particular power relations and social conventions The approach explicitly views writing as the social and linguistic conventions of different types of texts The approach usually includes the following: Familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing and then free writing There are some benefits of this approach including explicitly linking reading and writing, ensuring that writing is a

process, providing a model for learners, scaffolding writing and making invisible features explicit to learners

1.2.3 Process-based approach

Thirdly, the process-based writing instruction involves the step-by-step activities that enable students to complete writing tasks assigned in which the teacher and students play crucial roles in working on those tasks This process-based academic essay writing class involves a series of activities such as pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising and editing, assessing and post-writing In addition to the seven main activities, a reflection stage for students is aimed to encourage them to reflect on what they have learned during the writing process and promote their awareness of writing practice

Each approach has its own strong points and weak points; however, based approach which was eventually exploited because of some reasons Moreover, since 1980s, process-based approach has been used more than product-based approach (Applebee, (1981), Leki (1989), or Roger (2012)) because it emphasizes the composing process rather than the form Last but not least, it is because of many significant differences, in comparison with product-based

process-approach (Table 1), which are considered as suitable elements for teaching an

IELTS academic writing essay

Process-based approach Product-based

approach

Genre-based approach

 text as a resource for

comparison

 ideas as starting point

 more than one draft

 more global, focus on

purpose, theme, text

 model text imitation

 organization of ideas more important than ideas themselves

 one draft

 features highlighted

 social and linguistic conventions of different types of texts

 familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing and then free writing

type, i.e., reader is

 individual emphasis on end product

 explicitly linking reading and writing,

 providing a model for learners,

 scaffolding writing and making invisible features

Table 1: Differences between process-based approach, product-based approach and genre-based approach

1.3 Process-based approach

1.3.1 Definitions

Since early 1970, writing instruction has made a steady turn from emphasizing the completed product to the writing process Although process-based writing has long been implemented in English language composition and ESL courses in the recent years, it has been accepted in foreign language classes (Deng, 2005) Unfortunately, many teachers in an EFL context still give opinions about writing as exercises in good grammar and vocabulary (Muncie, 2002) In other words, teachers deemphasize how students complete certain writing tasks in writing processes such as pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing

“This newly emerging approach has developed a reaction against the previous tradition and focuses on the writer as an independent producer of texts

…It lays particular stress on a cycle of writing activities which move learners from the generation of ideas and the collection of data through to the „publication‟ of the finished text” (Tribble,1996: 37)

Therefore, many educators defend a process-based approach to teaching writing because it is concerned with the various stages from pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising, editing, to evaluating that allow students to go through such stages so as to complete particular writing tasks (i.e., Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005; Harmer, 2007 ) Further, some authors (e.g.,Dirby, Kirby, & Liner, 2004; Seow 2002; Terrible, 1996) also suggest that process-oriented writing when being

implemented in the classroom incorporate another stage externally assigned on students by a teacher Such a stage includes post-writing (e.g., reading aloud, displaying, or publishing) in which the teacher and peer reviews are also related because both have important roles in the outstanding implementation of process-based writing instructions More crucially, in such activities, students have the chance to improve their compositions, maybe motivated to write better, and are trained to think critically

According to Trible (1996), process approaches lay emphasis on “writing activities which move learners from brainstorming ideas, generating of ideas and collecting of data through to the „publication‟ of a finished text.” However, the final product should not be the central focus, and the teachers play the role of facilitating students to brainstorming ideas, plan, revise, and edit Badger and White (2000) supposes that writing in process approaches is mainly concerned with linguistic aspects such as revising, editing, knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and text structure

Kroll (1990) affirms that student writers have to undergo a cyclonical approach during their writing tasks There are different views on the cyclonical process For example, Trible (1996) proposes four typical stages that have to be gone through by the students, which are: prewriting, composing/drafting, revising, and editing In this process, students as writers may be back to the first stage of prewriting after they revise and edit their writing papers

As the approach achieving a lot of attention to linguistic knowledge and skills, process-based approach fosters the development of language use (Hasan, 2010) In addition, according to Bazerman, 1980, this approach provides students chances to release their potential and enable them to deal with rhetorical concerns of writing However, there remain drawbacks with the process approach As the approach which regards writing process as the same irrespective of which subject is being said and which person is writing and it may be possible that the context in which writing happens may be ignored (Badger and White, 2000) Another

disadvantage is that the process approach does not provide enough amount of knowledge of academic discourse that can offer students‟ satisfaction in their academic writing needs (Bizzell, 1982)

1.3.2 Steps of process-based approach in writing

1.3.2.1 Steele‟s steps in process-based writing

According to Steele (2004), there are eight stages for students to experience during their creation of writing pieces

a Brainstorming: Students may discuss to work out as many ideas as possible

to meet the requirements of the writing tasks

b Planning/structuring: Students figure out the most appropriate qualities of their ideas

c Mind mapping: Students arrange their ideas into a mind map, which reveals

the hierarchical relationship of ideas and helps students to shape the text

structure

d Writing the first draft: Students produce the first draft based on the ideas

they filter and organize Writing the first draft in the class can be done in

pairs or groups

e Peer feedback: Students exchange their drafts with each other, and to some extent they can improve their own writing pieces

f Editing: Students will improve their own drafts based on peer feedback

g Final draft: Students produce the final draft after editing

h Evaluation and teacher feedback: Teachers will assess and provide feedback

on students‟ writing papers

1.3.2.2 Widodo‟s steps in process-based writing

In 2006, a well-known expert in linguistics revealed his study in based approach This process-based academic essay writing class involves a series

process-of activities such as pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising and editing, assessing and post-writing as previously mentioned In addition to the seven main activities, a reflection stage for students is aimed to encourage them to reflect on

what they have learned during the writing process and promote their awareness of writing practice

a Pre-writing: It is important for a teacher to activate schemata in order to get

students to know topics which are possible, which helps them develop into complete essays easily Activating the students‟ schemata can be carried out through pre-writing or planning activity (Anderson, 2003) It is any activity

in the classroom that can encourage the students to write This stage is used

to stimulate and find ideas or thoughts for the students to get started writing is also an assisting part for student writers in making decision to what

Pre-to write about so that they can organize and finalize their thoughts In short, the purpose of this stage enables students to explore certain topics in an unstructured on formal essays For writers at the beginning level, pre-writing

is considered as prerequisite for producing good essays

In this writing class, students have three major jobs such as (1) choosing a topic in which the students are interested, (2) narrowing the topic chosen that

is suitable for a writing task, and (3) collecting information and developing ideas (Oshima & Hogue, 2006)

In other words, the main goals of pre-writing are supposed to support the students in organizing their ideas and teach the students how to plan what they are going to write so that they can develop their ideas into completed essays easily and precisely (Widodo, 2006a)

b Drafting: When students have written down efficient ideas at the pre-writing

stage, they move to a drafting phase In this case, students need to concentrate on the fluency of writing, not on the grammatical accuracy In this phase, it is highly recommended that students should develop their ideas into rough drafts without considering the grammatical accuracy first As previously presented, in the process-based writing, the grammatical accuracy will be paid more attention during the revising stage In other words, some first rough drafts are not supposed to be perfect versions to grammatical

accuracy in that this process-based writing class is a continuous process of discovery, and it encourages the fluency of ideas so that a certain writing

task can smoothly be performed

c Responding: It is indispensable for the appearance of responding to students‟

essays by both the teacher and students themselves in the successful implementation of the process-based writing (Ferris, 2003) Responding or giving feedback is mainly intended to see students‟ first or second draft There is a suggestion that in this feedback session, the transparency projector, text viewers, or LCD projectors connected with the computer should be used so that the students can view others‟ drafts directly and visually (Widodo, 2006b) Shortly, a responding activity is utilized to promote students to participate actively in the class, get involved in an authentic communicative context, and practice and improve critical reading

skills The review guideline should be provided to facilitate the peer review

d Revising and Editing: When students revise the drafts, they review their

work on the basis of the feedback highlighted in the previous responding stage They reexamine what has been written to view how productively they have provided their meanings to readers and testers It is essential to note that revising does not only simply involve giving a look at the language mistakes but also demonstrates the global content and organization of ideas so that the

readers and testers find writer‟s intent much clearer

In the editing phase, students get involved in fine-tuning their own drafts in purpose of preparing their final drafts for a product assessment assigned by the teacher In this regard, the students are asked to check minor mistakes related to grammar (i.e tenses or subject-verb agreements), spellings, punctuations, dictations and contractions Thus, the goal of this activity leads

to well-written essays before the students‟ production is submitted to the

teacher

e Assessing: In this phase, the students‟ essays in which the goal is to see how

well each student or each group has completed the work are assessed by their teachers Then, the teacher has two options for scoring or grading systems either analytical on the basis of the certain aspects of writing ability or holistic based upon the international interpretation of the effectiveness of the compositions (Ferris & Hedgcook, 2005) On this process-based academic essay writing instruction, the analytic scoring system which is designed by the teacher based on criteria of writing assessment may be more rewarding for students to allow them to look at what aspects they still make mistakes

and lack in details

f Post-writing: Post-writing is any activity in the class that the teacher and

students can do with the completed essays This may is composed of publishing online or displaying the finished work on notice boards, sharing with one another on the social network, or reading them aloud The post-writing stage is a tool of appreciating students‟ work In other words, if there

is any effort for better writing work which should be praised, rewarded and

encouraged in the whole class (Widodo, 2006b)

g Reflection: The students are required to reflect on what they have learned

during the entire writing process when they have gone through the based academic essay writing stages This is used to encourage the students

process-to self-evaluate their strong points and weak points of their writing proficiency and to think of how they will make further improvement in their writing skills The reflection sheets are distributed and asked to record so that the intended goals of reflection can be looked back and accomplished in the next version when they carry out their writing process They show their further improvements for their future work assigned and should build the solid community of writing practice in the classroom In short, within the process-based framework, the teacher focuses not merely on finished essays,

but also on writing processes that maximize student class participation in

which the teacher should consistently carry out the overall writing activities

There are many different linguistic experts who implement more study on using process-based approach in teaching writing skills for learners Depending on each expert, there are some same or specific stages in their writing process cycle After a careful consideration, this thesis was carried out by combining and adapting

2 theories (Appendix 1) In general, it consists of 3 big stages including smaller

steps: prewriting consisting of selecting topic and plan what to write including ideas, vocabulary, structures and cohesive devices) while-writing from drafting to responding, to revising and editing and post-writing having evaluating and

accessing

1.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of process-based approach

Since 1980, the process approach has been accepted and applied to EFL and ESL writing because of its effectiveness The effectiveness of the process approach can vary in many ways First, in the product approach, the focus is on the end result

of the learning process, and the learner is supposed to perform as an articulate and competent utilizer of the language The process approach, in contrast, emphasizes the process that writers experience in creating texts (Nunan, 1991) Brown (2001) claims that in the product oriented approach a large amount of attention was stressed on “model” compositions that students would compete and how well a student‟s final product measured up based on list of criteria such as content, organization, vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such

as spelling and punctuation (p.335) The process approach, on the other hand, allow students to manage their own works when the teacher gives students a chance to think as they write (Brown, 2001: 336) That is, students interpret their messages to the readers and testers in written form after they undergo the complex writing process; pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing

The second point is related to what learners have internally Brown (2001) stated that the process-based approach is beneficial to students in language learning because students are being the language creators, the content and message, and their own intrinsic motives which are valued should be paid much attention (p.335) Language skills are best comprehended and absorbed when learners have their own intrinsic motives Raimes (1983) shows that in the process approach, students do not complete a given topic in a restricted time and hand it in rather, they discover and analyze a topic through writing (p.10) She continues to say that through the process approach teachers find and understand that the writing process is a process

of discovery for the students: discovery of new ideas and new language forms to perform those ideas in the written forms Additionally, the approach is advantageous to students because of its focuses more on the various classroom activities This is believed to promote the improvement of skilled language use, and

a number of fascinating classroom techniques such as “conferencing” have appeared from the process approach to writing (Nunan, 1991: 86-87) When a wide range of activities are used in writing classes, the learners exchange their comments

or responses or peer-check, or work together to write a paragraph or an essay Nunan (1991) also asserted that the approach also strengthens collaborative group work between learners as a way of increasing motivated and developing positive attitudes towards writing

Next, in the process-based writing instruction, a teacher and students play pivotal roles For a teacher, she or he serves as resource, facilitator, motivator, and feedback provider and evaluator First, as a resource, the teacher provides some input that is learnable or comprehensible for the students by selecting useful tasks or activities for the students In addition, she or he should provide advice to the students in a constructive and tactful way (Harmer, 2007) As a monitor, the teacher occupies a role in monitoring students‟ activities because there are varied activities that are to be done by the students As a motivator, in as much as the students go through intense activities, the teacher performs a role to motivate the students to

complete writing tasks assigned As feedback provider and evaluator, before the teacher evaluates the students‟ performance as a whole, he or she provides feedback

on the students‟ work or responds positively and encouragingly to the content of it,

as Harmer (2007) emphasizes Then, the teacher can assess the students

Based on these above basic advantages of this approach, it is the reason why

it is finally chosen as the treatment for teaching English writing essay skills for the group of selected students

However, first and foremost, the process-based writing approach is claimed that it could be time-consuming with large classes, so the teacher may not have enough time to schedule individual writing conferences in large classes It is agreeable that good writing does not succeed immediately and it takes a great deal

of time of brainstorming, planning, organizing, writing, editing and rewriting for writers to become the best Moreover, students have to write many versions, so there is lots of grading for the teacher to do

Although there are existing disadvantages in this approach, process-based approach is still considered as a suitable and better for IELTS writing task 2 module than others because of its own significant benefits Additionally, in the genre-based approach that is considered having some similarities with product-based approach, students play the central role in expression their own ideas in the given topic and the teacher actually gives a few helps for their students Besides, students seem to be more dependent because it depend on the quality of the good or bad models that the teacher provides Finally, this process-based approach was chosen and applied for the IELTS course to find out its effectiveness in improving IELTS academic essay writing skills

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Setting

2.1.1 The IELTS test

The IELTS is a test designed to evaluate the English language competency levels of non-native speakers who wish to study or work in an English-speaking environment The IELTS exam tests each of four necessary language skills, as signified by the titles of the modules, or sections that comprise it: Listening,

Reading, Writing, and Speaking “It provides a fair, accurate and relevant assessment of language skills, based on well-established standards, and covers the full range of proficiency levels, from non-users to expert users.” (IELTS Guide for

teachers, p.2) There is no pass or fail grade in IELTS The results are reported on a 9-band scale which is designed with demarcations in half bands for Listening and Reading but only whole band for the rest The four sub-test band scores are both presented separately and averaged into one overall band score on the candidates test report form

2.1.1.1 IELTS academic writing task 2

In task 2, candidates are presented with a point of view or argument or problem Candidates are assessed on their ability to present a solution to a problem, present and justify an opinion Besides, examinees are able to compare and contrast evidence, opinions and implications Simultaneously, they enable to evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence or an argument

For this task, candidates are assessed on their ability to present an argument clearly giving evidence or examples to support their ideas They are also assessed

on how well their ideas are organized and the accuracy of the language they use They should make sure that each of their ideas is sufficiently developed and that all

of their ideas are relevant to the question Candidates are expected to write at least

250 words Short answer will be penalized Candidates will not be penalized if an answer is longer However, if they write a very long answer they may not have time for checking and correcting at the end and some ideas may not be directly relevant

to the question They may also produce handwriting which is unclear Candidates should try to discipline themselves to plan their ideas, select the most relevant ones and organized these so that they are presented as clearly and as accurately as positive within the time allowed Finally, candidates should make sure that they do not copy directly from the Question Paper because if they do so, this will not be assessed Candidates should use their own words when writing their answer

In task 2, test –takers may write their answer in pencil or pen and they are highly to recommend to pay much attention to the number of words required for task 2 (at least 250 words) Apart from those, they should spend 40 minutes on task

2 and their answer must be written in full without note form or in bullet point which will lose marks Spelling, grammar and punctuation which will lose test-takers‟ marks for mistakes are highly paid attention

2.1.1.2 Public IELTS writing task 2 band descriptors

According to IELTS producers, IELTS test-takers are assessed on band 1 to

9 on four following criteria:

Task Response (i.e how fully and appropriately the candidate has answered

all parts of the task; the extent to which the candidate‟s ideas are relevant, developed and supported; the extent to which the candidates‟ position is clear and effective

Coherence and cohesion (i.e how well the information and the ideas are

organized and presented, including paragraphing; how well the information is linked)

Lexical Resource (i.e the range of vocabulary used, how accurately it is used

and how appropriate it is for the task)

Grammatical Range and Accuracy (i.e the range of structures used, how

accurately they are used and how appropriate they are for the task

These criteria are also used to assesse students‟ essays writing at EQuest English center (Appendix 2)

2.1.2 EQuest English language center, Hanoi

EQuest English center was founded in 2006 and is considered as one of the

most well-known and high-quality in teaching, instructing and orienting students in IELTS preparation courses in 3 big cities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang

Being a teacher at EQuest English center, the researcher has been working

there since 2012 and specializing in teaching writing skills in IELTS preparation classes for more than 2 years

2.1.3 Participants

They are groups of students from 17 to 25 years Some of them are students

at some university who are desiring to get IELTS band-score 6.5 to go overseas to study whereas others are some freshmen who want to get some scholarship for further training and working for foreign companies They took this IELTS course (target band 6.5) to develop their IELTS writing skills to reach 6.5 overall band-score with writing skills no less than band 6.0 for their next test The result of the pre-test show that there are 3 IELTS essays achieving band 4.5 and 7 left IELTS essays getting band 5.0 According to the statistics, they are in average of band 5.0 for task response and in average of band 4.5 for criteria including coherence and

cohesion, lexical range and grammar range and accuracy (Table 3.5) Standing in

front of such that status, the researcher reported that outcome of the pre-test to the

managers of EQuest English center After discussing with other experts and experienced teachers teaching IELTS at EQuest English center, a suitable syllabus was designed for these chosen students in 12 weeks (Appendix 3)

Joining 10-week course applying process-based approach in improving IELTS essay writing skills, students are required to spend at least 36 hours writing

in the class (including 3 hours per week) and more than 150 hours on further practice at home

2.2 Research methods

2.2.1 Action research

Basically, this minor thesis is defined as an action research for a small sample

class which is expected to find out “How process-based writing approach helps

students improve IELTS essay writing skills at EQuest English center” As results, it

would be supposed to be often used and applied in other classes in purpose of improving students‟ writing skills in essays With its own theoretical and practical benefits, action research is quickly decided to become a research method of this minor thesis

To specify, not only in Education but also in language education, action research

is becoming increasingly significant In literature, the definition of action research is provided by many scholars, and a selection of them is as follows:

“Action research is the name given to a series of procedures teachers can engage in either because they wish to improve aspects of their teaching, or because they wish to evaluate the success and/or appropriacy of certain activities and procedures” (Harmer, 2002: 344-345)

“Action research can be defined as a combination of the terms “action” and

“research” Action research puts ideas into practice for the purpose of improvement and increasing knowledge about curriculum, teaching, and learning The ultimate result is improvement in what happens in the classroom and school”

self-(Kemmis & Mc Taggert, 1982)

“Action research is a strategy for teacher to make changes and develop professionally by reflecting on their own everyday teaching.” (Wallace, 1998: 16) Although each expert has their own definition about action research, in brief, there are many benefits of using action research in the study First of all, it is

reflective In addition, it is also concerned with identification of problems and solutions in a specific context Next, the collaboration and participation are

the conditions under which they can learn from their own experiences and make this

experience accessible to others‟‟ Last but not least, action research is critical In

particular, practitioners not only look for ways to improve their practice within the

various constraints of the situation in which they are working, but are also critical

change agents of those constraints, and of themselves

Different authors and researchers have established and proposed different

models of action research However, also discussing about action research,

McBride & Schostak (1995) suggested 8 steps of a typical action research:

Figure 2.1: Action research cycle

As can be seen in the diagram above, the process starts with the

identification of the problem area This is followed by collecting initial data, from

which a pre-test during thirty minutes is executed so as to confirm the problem

stated in stage 1 After that, the data collected from the pre-test is analyzed to form

the hypothesis and to have data to compare and contrast with the post-test The next

step of this action research study is planning action

In this study, the action research which was designed and conducted in line

with the cycle adapted from McBride & Schostak‟s theory was fully written in following section 2.2.3

2.2.2 Mixed method research

In this study, a mixed method research used is a procedure for collecting, analyzing, and “mixing” both quantitative and qualitative research and methods in a single study to understand a research problem in being thought to utilize this design efficiently, quantitative and qualitative research must be fully understood (Creswell, J (2012))

First of all, quantitative research is type of educational research in which the research makes a decision to what to study; asks specifically, narrows down questions, gathers quantifiable data from participants (a large number of participants); analyzes these numbers by using statistics; and conducts the inquiry in

an unbiased, objective manner Besides, it generally try to quantify variables of interest; questions must be measureable In that, there is quantitative methodology which is generally concerned with collecting numerical data that can be subjected to statistical analysis Importantly, the data is generally associated to as raw data Examples of data collection methods are including:

manner According to Shulman, he reported that “There are times we wish to know not how many or how well, but simply how” (Shulman, 1988, p.7)

To specify, qualitative methodology generally comprises listening to the participants‟ voice and subjecting the data to analytic induction (e.g., finding common themes) In addition, it is more explorative in nature There are some examples of data collection methods:

2.2.3 Action plan

According to the above action research cycle of McBride & Schostak (1995), this study is carried out based on these following steps in an action research which

are illustrated in Table 2.1 below:

find the answer for “How process-based