The impact of genre based teaching on efl students letter writing performances

In the same way, the process approach is blamed for overemphasizing on the writing skills but paying little attention to the linguistic knowledge L2 students need to write effectively Ba

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

THÁI THỊ NGỌC LÊ

THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED TEACHING

ON EFL STUDENTS' LETTER WRITING

PERFORMANCES

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

THÁI THỊ NGỌC LÊ

THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED TEACHING

ON EFL STUDENTS' LETTER WRITING

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work described in this research could never have been finished without the kind help I received from various people I would like to give them special thanks here

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the teachers in the Foreign Languages Department of Vinh University who taught me and gave me valuable knowledge during the time I attended the course for M.A in TESOL and especially to Ph.D Nguyen Gia Viet, my supervisor, for his detailed precious guidance as well as his consideration and encouragement

Finally, I should not forget all the cooperative subjects whom I used for my data They are indispensable assets of these studies I also express hearty thanks

to all my colleagues and my friends who provided me with advice and support that helped me complete the thesis

be trained in the skill of writing and there is a dire need to use a genre-based approach to writing quality Using experimental research, a four-staged teaching and learning cycle by Hammond et al (1992) was applied in an experimental group in a five-week term with one letter writing lesson per week The experimental group received genre-based instructions while the control group received traditional writing instructions Assessment was conducted by comparing students’ writing samples before and after the teaching intervention between the experimental group and the comparison group Research findings reveal that most of the experimental students gained the effective improvement

of letter writing performances in term of content, organization, vocabulary and language use In addition, the necessity and usefulness of the application of teaching-learning cycle into learning the genre was predominantly recognized among students through their positive attitude

Keywords: Genre-based approach, Teaching-learning cycle, Writing letter

performances, Perceptions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale ……… 1

1.2 Aim of the study ……… 3

1.3 Research questions ……… 4

1.4 Significance of the study … … 4

1.5 Organization of the thesis……… 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Teaching writing ……… 6

2.1.1 Views on writing……… 6

2.1.2 Teaching L2 writing……… 8

2.2 Major approaches to teaching L2 writing.……… 9

2.2.1 The product approach ……… 9

2.2.1.1 Strengths of the product approach ……… 9

2.2.1.2 Drawbacks of the product approach……… 10

2.2.2 The process approach……… 11

2.2.2.1 Strengths of the process approach……… 11

2.2.2.2 Drawbacks of the process approach……… 13

2.2.3 The genre approach……… 13

2.2.3.1 The concept of genre in the SFL view……… 16

2.2.3.2 Theoretical background of the SFL genre-based approach… 16

2.2.3.3 A general framework for designing writing teaching lessons based on the SFL genre-based approach ……… 18

2.2.3.4 Previous studies on the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing……… 26

2.3 Summary……… 31

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design……… 32

3.2 Study setting……… 33

3.3 Subjects and Sampling……… 33

3.4 Experimental teaching……… 36

3.4.1 Material……… 36

3.4.2 The experimental teaching outline ……… 37

3.4.3 Teaching the treatment group……… 38

3.4.4 Teaching the comparison group……… 39

3.5 Data collection instrument……… 40

3.5.1 Description of pretest and posttest……… 40

3.5.2 Scoring……… 40

3.5.2.1 Answer sheet coding……… 40

3.5.2.2 Scoring method……… 41

3.5.2.3 Scoring criteria……… 41

3.5.2.4 Raters……… 42

3.5.2.5 Scoring procedure……… 42

3.6 Data collection procedure……… 43

3.7 Data analysis……… 43

3.8 The posttest questionnaire for students’ perceptions……… 44

3.9 Summary……… 45

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Reliability of the pretest and posttest scores……… 46

4.2 Results……… 47

4.2.1 Students’ performance in writing letter……… 47

4.2.2 Students’ performance in writing letter in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use……… 50

4.2.3 Results of questionnaire after the treatment……… 53

4.3 Discussion ……… 55

4.4 Summary……… 63

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the research ……… 64

5.2 Pedagogical implications ……… 66

5.3 Limitations of the study ……… 67

5.4 Recommendations for further research ……… 68

5.5 Summary ……… 69

REFERENCES 70

APPENDICES 76

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CG: comparison group

EG: experimental group

EFL: English as a foreign language

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

DSP: Disadvantaged Schools Program

L1: first language

L2: second language

Q: question

SFL: Systemic Functional Linguistics

SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Science TGMC: Tien Giang Medical College

LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES

Figure 2.1: The Teaching-Learning Cycle (Hammond et al., 1992, p 17) 20

Figure 3.1: Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest comparison group design 33

Table 3.1: The experimental and comparison groups’ information 35

Table 3.2: Five letter-writing lessons (Falla & Davies, 2012) 37

Table 4.1: Cronbach’s Alpha for inter-rater reliability in pretest and posttest ratings 47

Table 4.2: Independent Samples T-Test results of posttest scores between the two groups 47

Table 4.3: Independent Sample T-Test results of pretest scores between the two groups 48

Table 4.4: Independent Sample T-Test results of posttest scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use between the two groups 50

Table 4.5: Independent Sample T-Test results of pretest scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use between the two groups 51

Table 4.6: Mean scores on the five questions show students’ perceptions about genre-based teaching approach after the treatment 54

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: Mean scores of pretest and posttest of the comparison group and the experimental one 49

Chart 4.2: Mean scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use

in posttest between the two groups 52

Chart 4.3: Mean scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use

in pretest between the two groups 53

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

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

organization of the thesis

1 1 Rationale

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

language, writing, one of the language skills, cannot be ignored

Writing is one of the most difficult skills that second-language (L2) learners are expected to acquire, requiring the mastery of a variety of linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural competencies As many teachers attest, teaching L2 writing is a challenging task as well As stated by Weigle (2002, p 1), along with the ability to speak a language as a foreign or second language, the ability to write it is “becoming widely recognized as an essential skill for educational, business, and personal reasons”

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

to EFL college students would be considered as one of the essential solutions

In fact, in the last decades, there has been a shift of the major

approaches to teaching writing in favor of the genre–based approach As known, the product approach comes under some heavy criticisms that the written pieces are mainly the imitation of the input and the writing skills are almost ignored (Pincas, 1982; Silva, 1990; Nunan, 1991; Badger and White, 2000) In the same way, the process approach is blamed for overemphasizing

on the writing skills but paying little attention to the linguistic knowledge L2 students need to write effectively (Badger & White, 2000) Meanwhile, the genre-based approach to teaching writing emphasizes on language, discourse features of the text, and the context in which the text in a certain genre is produced (Paltridge, 2004) Similarly, in the way of Munice (2002), the genre approach focuses more on the reader and on the conventions that a written piece needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted by its readership Noticeably, in recent years, the genre-based writing instruction has become one of the mainstreams of researching and applying in the field

of English language teaching as EFL/ESL, especially teaching of writing (Hyland, 2004; Johns, 2002; Paltridge, 2001) Strongly influenced by achievements from Australia, where the genre theory and its applications have been developed better than elsewhere, many studies of teaching writing

of English by using the genre-based approach have been carried out in EFL contexts The results of these studies have shown the genre-based approach

to teaching writing helps students write much better

Although the genre-based writing instruction is widely used in different parts of the world even in several countries in the neighborhood of Vietnam like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, etc,

it seems to be unfamiliar to teachers in Vietnam, especially with EFL college teachers With the effectiveness of the genre-based writing teaching, the

researcher of the present study, also a college teacher of English for years, is urged to conduct the current study “The impact of genre-based teaching on EFL students' letter writing performances”

In addition, from the practical need of improving learners’ English quality

in general, writing quality in particular at Tien Giang Medical College (TGMC) A big challenge has still existed in teaching and learning English writing at TGMC is that the results of the students’ writing are always unsatisfactory This can be seen through the low writing scores of the students’ writing tests over years First of all, they have difficulty in selecting relevant ideas or lack supporting ideas to express what they are writing about Second, they also face difficulties in using appropriately linguistic features (lexical-grammatical features) as well as organisational structures for their written pieces Moreover, a large number of them cannot write coherently due to their failure in arranging the ideas logically, and making use of cohesive devices, etc Finally, letter writing is an essential skill Despite the prevalence of emails and text messages, students have to write letters at some point - letters of complaint, job applications, thank you letters, letters requesting changes or making suggestions

Thus, this research is an endeavour to seek for ways that can both enhance students’ writing skills in letters’ performances and build up their positive perceptions towards learning this skill The genre-based approach chosen in this research is to solve students’ difficulties in learning to write English letters

1.2 Aim of the study

The major aim of the study in great effort is to investigate the impact of the genre-based writing teaching on the students’ letter writing performances

at TGMC (TGMC) in Tien Giang province More particularly, the impact of

the genre-based writing instruction on these students’ letter writing performances in terms of organisation and content is examined

1.4 Significance of the study

This research is significant for three reasons Firstly, the study will be

a very useful reference for EFL college teachers as well as other researchers about the study on teaching English writing based on the genre-based approach

Secondly, this study contributes to our standing of genre-based approach to teaching and learning in a foreign language context It provides

an insight into experience in planning, teaching and evaluating that are likely

to be encountered by teachers attempting to implementing educational innovation

Finally, this study contributes to the value of explicit teaching of the genre which focus on the linguistic resources (e.g Hammond theory), which helps students become more aware of how writers construct texts In addition, if the results of the study are judged to be positive, the application

of the genre-based approach might be valuable in any similar EFL teaching situations

1.5 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1 is an introduction to the study Chapter 2 is literature review, presenting the theoretical background

that is the basis for the thesis to be conducted Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study Chapter 4 is about the results and discussion In this chapter, the collected data are analyzed and discussed in detail Chapter 5 gives the conclusion to the thesis

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

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

By this way, writing was not regarded to be one of the appropriate purposes

of language learning In language classroom, writing was mainly used for helping to learn speech because it was assumed that anyone would be able to write with his or her knowledge of spelling and grammar

In contrast to the traditional view, this viewpoint of writing considers writing as a language skill used for communication and writing is a very complex process To support this view, Walsh expresses that writing is not merely “talk written down”, but involves in “a deeper kind of thinking” (Walsh, 2006, p 174) In agreement with this viewpoint, Nunan (1999, p 273) also states “Writing is a complex, cognitive process that requires sustained effort over a considerable period of time” Moreover, in his words about second language writing, Weigle (2002, p 1) expresses that “The traditional view in language classes that writing functions primarily to

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

of writing, therefore, writing is a means of linguistic expression and communication

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

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

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

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

- Writing process knowledge – knowledge of the most suitable way of preparing and carrying out a particular writing task

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

2.1.2 Teaching L2 writing

In the teaching of writing in English to L2 learners, there have been a number of trends influencing much on teaching writing Among them are the three remarkable tendencies in L2 writing instruction over the last thirty years that attract much attention, including focusing on language structures (forms), focusing on the writing process, and focusing on the genre

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

so on Then, using passages of connected discourse as classroom material, writing was guided inflexibly through controlled composition tasks In these kinds of tasks, learners are given texts and asked to manage the linguistic forms within the texts by filling in gaps, completing sentences, transforming tenses, etc Teaching of writing this way, as Hyland (2003, p 3) states,

“directs attention to writing as a product and encourages a focus on formal text units or grammatical features of texts”

Another tendency of teaching writing is the emphasis on the writer Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, writing instruction in this trend began to be popular with writing teachers Such a trend in teaching writing was born due to the influence of L1 writing researches on composing processes L2 writing teachers and researchers shifted their interest in the writer In this perspective, the writer is emphasized as “language learner and creator of text” (Raimes, 1991) or “an independent producer of texts” (Hyland, 2003) Paying much attention to the writer is consistent with placing the primary focus on what the writer really does as he/ she writes

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

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

as Muncie (2002) notes, emphasizes “more on the reader and on the conventions that a piece of writing needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted by its readership”

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

2.2 Major approaches to teaching L2 writing

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

2.2.1 The product approach

2.2.1.1 Strengths of the product approach

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

Teaching writing by this approach through four stages includes familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing

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

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

• Guided writing: Learners imitate model texts

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

Hyland (2003, p 4)

The salient strength of this approach is that it is helpful in encouraging

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

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

2.2.1.2 Drawbacks of the product approach

There are several drawbacks in the product approach The main drawback is that it ignores writing skills Badger and White (2000) argue that

in this approach, writing skills such as planning a text play a relatively small role In addition, according to Prodromou (1995), this approach undervalues learners’ potential Because it only focuses on the imitation of the model text, there is little or no opportunity for learners to express their own ideas and creativity Furthermore, overemphasis on accuracy and form can also lead to a serious “writing blocks” (Halsted, 1975) as well as “sterile” and

“unimaginative” writing pieces (Mahon, 1992) To support this aspect, Hyland (2003, p 5) makes a claim that “nor is it easy to see how a focus restricted to grammar can lead to better writing… Most teachers are familiar with students who can construct accurate sentences and yet are unable to produce appropriate written texts…” One more criticism mentioned here is that this approach requires a constant error correction, which may affect students’ motivation and self-esteem

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

2.2.2 The process approach

2.2.2.1 Strengths of the process approach

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

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

stages such as prewriting, composing/ drafting, revising, editing, publishing

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

1993, p 55) and “moves from thinking about writing to doing it” (Tribble,

1996, p 112) Moreover, Tribble (1996) also adds that during composing/ drafting, “writers move towards a text that most closely matches what they

want to convey to their reader” (p 112) After drafting, students read it

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

From what has been presented, it can be said that the process approach has many advantages to teaching L2 writing One of its outstanding benefits

is that it focuses much on the writer as an independent producer of the text Through this way, students have time and opportunity to develop their abilities to plan, define a rhetorical problem, a purpose and evaluate a solution Moreover, through the stages of writing, students also have chance

to explore their ideas, discover meaning, and develop a sense of audience (Murray, 1985) In this approach, students become centered while teacher plays a role of facilitator to give students help in their writing Therefore, it

encourages learners’ creativity and gives much motivation to engage them in

learning process

Because the process approach tends to put much emphasis on language skills rather than linguistic knowledge and text structure to develop student writers as authors when they are not yet ready to be second language writers,

it is open to some criticisms

2.2.2.2 Drawbacks of the process approach

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

as being produced by the same set of processes, regardless of what the topic

is and who the writer or the reader is Second, it gives insufficient importance to the kind of text writers produce and why such texts are produced Third, according to Badger and White (2000), it offers learners insufficient input, particularly in terms of linguistic knowledge, to write successfully In the view of Atkinson (2003), the process approach seems to narrowly focus on the skills and processes of writing in the classroom itself,

so it fails to take into account the social and cultural aspects that have an impact on different kinds of writing

The disadvantages urge writing researchers, especially opponents of the process approach in their attempts to develop what is known as the genre approach to L2 teaching writing

2.2.3 The genre approach

What is genre in term of the language and linguistics? Martin (1999) states that genre is communication activity having and orienting goal Then, Swales (1990) simply defines genre is a communication event in which the members have a set of communication goal By referring two statements above, it can be said that genre is a process of communication which has a

certain goal (goal oriented) for its members in a certain event of communication due to certain social context Genre is a matter of communication event by social context Consequently, the different social

context then, tends to lead to different genre

Since the mid 1980s, considerable attention has been paid to the genre approach to teaching writing This alternative to teaching writing was developed in response to the process approach which overemphasizes the process of writing and gives learners insufficient input in terms of linguistic knowledge (Badger & White, 2000) The genre-based approach considers writing as a social and cultural practice It places much emphasis on language and discourse features of particular texts and contexts in which the texts are used (Hyland, 2004)

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

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

do things, the assumption being that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text, communication will not be successful.

(Tribble, 1996, p 37) Muncie (2002) states that the genre approach focuses more on the reader, and on the conventions that a piece of writing needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted by its readership

According to Hyland (2004), the genre-based writing teaching is concerned with what learners do when they write Teaching writing based on genres is an attempt to communicate with readers to better understand the ways that language patterns are used to accomplish coherent, purposeful written piece Put it another way, the genre-based writing instruction is a way

of pulling together language, content, and context At the same time, it is a

chance for writing teachers to present students with explicit and systematic explanations of the ways writing works to communicate

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

“teaching particular genres that students need control of in order to succeed

in particular setting This might include a focus on language and discourse features of the texts as well as the context in which the text is produced.” (2004, p 1)

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

effectiveness (Bazerman, 1988; Hyland, 2002)

This current study takes the SFL genre-based approach as its theoretical background because “within SFL, a rich and sophisticated methodology has developed to provide both first and second language learners with access to socially valued genres through an explicit grammar of linguistic choices” (Hyland, 2004, p 33) Moreover, the SFL genre-based approach is considered as an effective pedagogical application for teaching writing to L2 learners, especially to school students while the two others mainly focus on students at university Hyland (2004) also emphasizes that this approach is much suitable for students of beginner and intermediate proficiencies to develop their writing skills That is why the SFL genre-based

approach to teaching writing is adopted to underpin the present study The following subsections will discuss the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing in greater detail

2.2.3.1 The concept of genre in the SFL view

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

or “class” The term “genre” has long been used in literary studies to categorize the different kinds of writing such as the novel, short stories and science fiction (Gee 1997) In the last few decades, genre has also been applied to categories of non-literary written texts, sometimes for characterizing the features of such texts for the teaching of writing (Bruce, 2008) Hyland (2004) claims “genre is a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situations” (p 4) Especially, in the SFL genre approach, genre is defined as

“a staged, goal-oriented social process” (Martin, 1986, p 33; Martin, 1992,

p 505) Genres are social processes because members of a culture interact with each other to achieve them; they are goal-oriented because they have evolved to achieve things; and they are staged because meanings are made in steps and it usually takes more than one step for writers to reach their goals (Hyland, 2004; Martin et al., 1987) Some examples of genres in this view include recounts, reports, narratives, descriptions, explanations, etc

2.2.3.2 Theoretical background of the SFL genre-based approach

The SFL genre-based approach emerged from linguists and teachers working to create a genre-based pedagogy drawn largely on Halliday’s linguistic theory (Halliday, 1994; Halliday and Hasan, 1989) In Halliday’s view, language is considered as a system of choices for making meanings in social contexts Because of this, writers can communicate certain functions, express their experiences of the world, create coherent messages or texts, etc

According to genre researchers, the relationship of texts and contexts

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

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

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

exchange Thus, it corresponds with field The interpersonal meaning refers

to the expression of social roles of the participants including attitudes,

relationships, and so on As such, it is in agreement with tenor The textual

meaning refers to the way that information is structured into coherent and

cohesive texts In such a way, it is in concordance with mode Halliday refers

to such a close relation between the three types of meanings and the register variables in which each register variable can be connected with each of these three meanings respectively as “upwards” link Put it another way, in the upwards link, “field is expressed through patterns of ideational meaning in text, mode is expressed through textual meaning, and tenor through

interpersonal meaning” (Eggins, 2004, p 111) Besides the upwards link, Halliaday also emphasizes “downwards” link The downwards link is the relation between these three kinds of meanings and their lexico-grammatical patterns It means that these types of meanings are realized through the associated lexical-grammatical patterns In Eggins’ words (2004, p 111) “the downwards link is that we ‘see’ the types of meanings being realized through the associated lexical-grammatical patterns”

For genre researchers influenced by the systemic functional linguistics school, genre is concerned with the context of culture within which a text is created The context of culture refers to the system of beliefs, values and attitudes brought into any social interaction by people (Hammond, 1989) Because people of different cultures have different systems of beliefs, values, and attitudes as well, they have different ways to get things done or to achieve their social purposes Therefore, at the level of genre, linguistic choices are influenced by the writer’s social purpose in using the language

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

Based on the research result of genre and its implementation in pedagogical practices, especially in the field of teaching writing, the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing focuses on the Teaching – Learning Cycle (Figure 1) In the writing classroom, this teaching and

learning cycle is grounded on the notion of scaffolding derived from Russian

psychologist Vygotsky’s (1978) view In his view, scaffolding emphasizes the role of human interaction in learning process, providing support for learners so that they are able to perform the task, first with help, then independently It means that scaffolding plays an important role in moving learners from what Vygotsky calls like “actual” performance (what the learners can do now) to “potential” performance (what the learners will do

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

performing the task independently However, the intervention of assistance is

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

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

stages, consisting of modeling of text; joint negotiation of text/ joint

construction of text; and independent construction of text The following

versions of this Cycle sharing the same three phases can be included by Derewianka (1990), Feez (1998), Hyland (2003), Rothery and Stenglin (1994), etc Especially, another influential version by Hammond, Burns,

Joyce, Brosnan, & Gerot (1992) suggests one more stage, building

knowledge of field, to the Cycle According to Hammond et al (1992), this

additional stage aims to reinforce the understanding about the subject matter more clearly as well as its context

The cycle of the four stages is represented in the following figure

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

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

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

aims to raise students’ awareness of the field background knowledge, consisting of aspects of context, of content, of relevant vocabulary and typical grammatical patterns, and so on Teachers in this stage acts as an initiator, source, and guide that give students a chance to explore these aspects, especially for the content information of the topic Some classroom activities and tasks in this stage suggested by Gibbons (2002) are using wallpapering to collect ideas based on students’ current knowledge, using

picture to elicit or teach topic vocabulary, explaining some typical grammar points and language structures, etc Moreover, students are also encouraged

to engage in such activities as brainstorming, critically reading related material, watching a video tape and note taking, discussion, and so on These kinds of activities really help to activate student’s schema that is necessary for students to call up their existing knowledge and engage them in researching more relevant information In other words, activating the schema helps students to think of what they have already known about the topic and

to explore what they need to know more about the topic Paltridge (2001) also asserts that schema activation encourages students to arrive at determining a purpose, organization and readership for their writing pieces Humphrey (2010) and Hammond (2001) indicate that this stage of the cycle

is important for students from non-English speaking backgrounds because it prepares students for necessary knowledge of subject content and context In addition, through this stage, students are also in charge of controlling oral skill of English to talk about this content

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

considered as an important scaffolding activity, involving teacher and students in explicitly discussing and analyzing aspects of context and text of

a specific genre the students are going to write about At this stage, the teacher’ role is to teach explicitly and offers his/her much assistance to his/her students Thus, in this stage, model (sample) texts of the target genre are introduced to the students Based on the samples, the students are engaged in activities for context and text analysis In exploiting context, for example, students are asked to examine such key contextual features as

“author, intended audience, setting, purpose, or subject matter” (Paltridge, 2001) In respect of analyzing text, analyses in the main features of the text are focused, including text structure (generic structure) and linguistic features of text (vocabulary choices of nouns, adjectives, sentence patterns,

main grammar points, etc.) Holding a similar view, the following authors share their opinions in the stage of text modeling To enable students to understand how the genre is constructed to achieve its purpose, Hammond et

al (1992) emphasizes that this stage focuses on exploring the aspects of the model text such as its cultural context, social function, schematic structure, linguistic features Callaghan and Rothery (1988), Callaghan et al (1993) also suggest that the social function, schematic stage, and language features

of a genre that learners are going to write about are investigated explicitly in this stage Moreover, Hyland (2000) puts the focus on discussing and analyzing text structure, context, and language in the phase of modeling

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

Paltridge (2000) suggests a following set of questions often used for context analysis

• What is the text about?

• What is the purpose of the text?

• What is the setting of the text?

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

• Who is the author of the text?

• Who is the intended audience of the text?

• What is the relationship between the author and intended audience

of the text?

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

• What shared cultural knowledge is assumed by the text?

• How is the language of the text influenced by each of these factors?

(adapted from Paltridge, 2000)

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

Questions for understanding the context of the text

• What text type is used in the text?

• What is the text about?

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

• Who is the reader of the text?

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

Questions for understanding the organization of the text

• How is the whole text patterned?

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

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

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

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

Questions for understanding the linguistic features of the text

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

• Is there anything special about the vocabulary used?

• Which ideas are most effective?

(Adapted from Harmer, 2004, p 91)

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

*Text-level tasks:

• naming stages and identifying their purposes

• sequencing, rearranging, matching, and labeling text stages

• comparing texts with omissions, changes, or different structures

• identifying different and similar sample texts as particular genres

* Language tasks:

• reorganizing or rewriting scrambled or unfinished paragraphs

• completing gapped sentences or an entire cloze from formatting clues

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

• using skeletal texts to predict language forms and meaning

• collecting examples of a language feature, perhaps with a concordancer

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

However, some notices should be taken in this stage For example,

Hammond et al (1992) state that the model text selection can depend on

teacher’s assessment of its relevance to meet students’ real needs and

learning goals in developing language The model text(s) may, therefore, be written by teacher unless they can be found The necessary thing is that these

sample texts need to be composed appropriately so that they can help

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

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

the whole example text(s) of the target genre together drawing on the shared knowledge of the earlier stages However, teacher’s assistance in this stage reduces gradually He/she plays a role of a facilitator and gives his/her less

focus on input and modeling Joint construction may be carried out in the interaction between teacher and whole class or students and students in small groups with teacher’s guidance and help Hyland (2004) also proposes creating a number of texts with the collaboration between teacher and students in this stage when possible By such a way, it provides much support for students as well as immerses them in awareness of variations in the genre For joint construction activities, Hyland (2004, p 135) introduces some activities as follows

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

• Collecting information through research and interviewing

• Small-group construction of texts for presentation to the whole class

• Completing unfinished or skeletal texts

• Creating a text using visual or audio stimulus

• Editing a completed text for meaning, structure, and form

• Negotiating an information/opinion gap to construct a text

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

students write their text independently by applying what they have learned

“Engaging in an entire writing process gives learners the experience of an independent performance in which they combine a knowledge of content, process, language, context, and genre” (Hyland, 2004, p 136) This stage includes such activities as writing a text independently in a chosen genre by learners, teacher- learner/peer conferencing for mistake correction or comment giving, then redrafting and editing During the stage, teacher should go around the class to monitor students’ writing and provide students with feedback on what they have achieved or what they need to change to get effectiveness in their written piece

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

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

more detail

One of the studies relevant to the SFL genre approach was the project carried out by the Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP) in New South Wales, Australia (Callaghan and Rothery, 1988) This project involved sixteen teachers of students at primary level from eight disadvantaged schools across Australia In this project, the genre-based approach was applied to teach factual genres including Report, Explanation, Exposition, and Discussion in History and in Social Sciences When the project was finished, the participants (sixteen teachers) reported that the approach had an important impact on their teaching Because this approach provided them with obvious understanding of the genres, it was easier for them to give their students an exact explanation of what students needed to do to achieve different social purposes In the same way, this explicit knowledge also helped students to get confidence in their writing The most noticeable thing

in this project was that it showed the teachers’ positive response toward the approach However, there was no analysis of the students’ texts although the texts were collected For this, thus, it could be said that the project mainly focused on the reaction to the approach from the teacher side

Another study at the secondary school level was carried out by Hallenstein (1994) In this study, she made use of the genre-based approach

to teach the discussion genre to overseas and Australian year eleven students

at St John’s college in the North, Australia Her course was grounded on Callaghan and Rothery’s Teaching and Learning Cycle (1988) Through the analysis of the sample texts, it showed that the students obtained a better

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

The study of Burns (1990) investigated how the genre-based approach could be applied to teaching “job application letters” to adult second language learners at the early stages of learning also showed the positive effect of this approach Nineteen participants in this study were first year students and they came to Australia as permanent immigrants Most of them had finished secondary school in their homeland The result of the study revealed that after being taught under the genre-based approach, these students were able to produce texts closer to the “job application genre” From the result, Burns (1990, p 70) made a claim that “the genre-based approach, based on SFL and the notion of genre and register, provides an explicit account of the schematic structure, organization and language features of the genre upon which they were focusing” It is obvious that Burns’ study once again contributed to affirming the effectiveness of the genre-based approach to teaching writing

The studies above may be said to be evidence of the positive impact of the genre-based approach on learners’ writing ability, especially in Australia, the homeland of the SFL genre-based approach How about in EFL context,

is there such an impact on students’ writing ability? Under the influence of this approach, a number of studies are also carried out in EFL contexts It is very interesting to know that one study in EFL contexts with its aim to investigate whether the genre-based approach was an effective approach in teaching English Discussion genre to Vietnamese college students undertaken by Dang (2002) The study involved 23 second-year students and

was conducted for 4 weeks at the English department of a foreign language teacher training college in Hanoi, Vietnam The study results showed that students were able to write the texts in the Discussion genre successfully For example, analyzing students’ texts revealed that students had a good management of the generic structure of the Discussion genre and a good capability of using language features related to the genre Moreover, the study results also indicated that students reacted positively to this way of teaching through analyzing the students’ attitudes However, to help learners get more effectiveness in their writing, Dang (2002) also suggests that there should have more time to make the transition from the Joint construction stage to the Independent construction one and the students should be encouraged to search for more reading materials related to their writing topic

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

from the three raters indicated that the writing task of both groups differed significantly at the 0.05 level in terms of the content, structure and language Such mean results showed that “the experimental group wrote better than the control group in terms of the content, structure and language According to the researcher’s interpretations (Na, 2007), such a better performance in the experimental group because they were more aware of the linguistic features contained in an adjustment letter as well as able to modify and blend their choices of words according to the contexts in which they wrote

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

It cannot help mentioning Cheng’s (2008) study about SFL based approach to teaching narrative writing The study involved 26 English major freshmen in the composition course of a national university in Taiwan The study was conducted in 4 weeks All participants were required to take the pretest (before the intervention of the genre-based approach) and posttest essays (after the intervention) in this genre (narrative) with the same topic Assessing pre- and posttests concerned with three dimensions: content, organization, and language use Each dimension included required features

genre-To ensure intra-rater reliability, all texts were graded doubly by the researcher Paired-samples t-tests were used to examine each feature in content, organization, and language use of the pretest and posttest The study results indicated that the students made statistically significant improvement