Using the process genre approach to teach english writing skill to the 11th graders effectively

Adopting the advantages of the current process approach and the genre pedagogies from Sydney school, the researcher applied the modified process and genre model of writing proposed by Ba

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

-000 -

USING THE PROCESS GENRE APPROACH

TO TEACH ENGLISH WRITING SKILL TO THE 11!" GRADERS EFFECTIVELY

TRUONG DAI HOC MQ TP.HCM THU VIEN

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by LAM HUU DUC

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN THANH TUNG

Ho Chi Minh City - 2013

implementation of an effective method which can enhance students’ learning motivation and writing performance at the level of standardized conformation has not yet been finalized Thus, the present study aims to investigate the feasibility and educational value of the process genre approach in writing instruction

Adopting the advantages of the current process approach and the genre pedagogies from Sydney school, the researcher applied the modified process and genre model

of writing proposed by Badgerand White (2000) to teach English writing skill to the 11" graders in an attempt to find out to what extent the trial approach could help improve their writing performance and raise their confidence in writing to meet

their communicative needs

Data were collected from 87 high school students of the two classes at Doc Binh Kieu High School in Tien Giang Province for eight weeks in the form of experimental teaching with pre- and post-tests to measure their performance and journals and questionnaires to find out their reflections on the learning process The outcomes of the study indicate that the Experimental group attained the significant improvement in the post-test results due to the treatment of process genre approach Additionally, the students expressed positive attitudes towards it and showed high appreciation for its effects in terms of raising their linguistic awareness and application, boosting confidence in writing in the particular genres and improving their overall writing skill

Three further outcomes were not intended, but also generally positive They were the affirmation of a new and innovative teaching approach, new opportunities for students, and a new role for the teacher

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THIESTS . - G193 1 x0 hy re ii .\0.49À)40858.6/0./00 11101172777 iii

ABSTRACT HH TH 0T nọ TT ng nà 08879 iv IV.\:0519)69)0600501111177 V LIST OF TABLES 1107177 ix

IR409)9/€6004 117 X LIST OF 12)) 4247.0010) xi

0;! 04 05.001069.40)918/ 00/9053 1

ID; (2002 1

1.2 Aim and scope Of the S{UỦYy - GÌ TH ng g9 5 IN:C Si 00-00 Nuôi c0 NA -uaa 5

IỄ Ni vi v-S0N lo Tố 5

1.5 Organization bái nh 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 1 7

2.1 Introduction 7

2.2 The product-oriented apprOachh - - «sọ Họ in ng 7 2.3 Process apDDrOACH - TH HH HH Tu TH nu HT TH TH HH in 9 2.4 The genre-based approachh - - -‹ c9“ TT ng ve 13 2.4.1 An overview Of genre fÏH€OTY - «sọ Họ gn rg 13 2.4.2 Genre-based pedagogies " cọ KH ng 9n ưy 14 PÀ Nhi 0000) 100 a0 (0n 6 15

2.4.4 The positive and negatIve sides ofthe genre-based approach - 19

2.5 Comparing product, process and genre-based approaches +-«« «<s« 20 2.6 The process genre apprOaCH - s1 TH HH HH TH ng 23 2.6.1 The extended model of process writing and genre (Tribble, 1996) 23

2.6.2 The process genre model of writing (Badger& White, 2000) .- 26 2.6.3 The adapted model from Badger& White (2000) escseccsscetecsseeessstseeseeess 29 2.7 Some previous empirical research on teaching WTriting .cscecssscsseecseeesteeeeeeenes 32 2.8 The application of process genre approach to teaching English writing at high school

3.2 Research design ¬ 37 k8 0 37

EM - di áo ii nh 38 3.5 Research participant hố 38 3.6 Data types and methods of data colÏ€Cf1OT 5 555 S4 12s 2x 91191 1.1 rsee 39

E6 nh 39

Vi TP h 42 3.6.3 (QQu€S(ÏOnrìa]TC - < 0 0 9T HT 001 0 4 0 0á ng 42

3.7 Analytical framework .csscesccsssssesssssssesssssesesessssecessssssecessssscesssssesssssuesesssusetessanesses 43

3.7.1 Descriptive data anaÌyS1S cà HH ng ngư HH ngu ngu 43 3.7.2 Textual analySIS O JOUTTIAÌS . «+ s9 99 919 cm 46 3.8 Validity and r€l1a1Ï1Ẩy - «<< s9 9 nọ Họ ng 47

0.20 1n 48

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETA TIƠN 5555 c<<c<<css 49

4.1 IntrOdUCIOT - - - S091 0t TT Ti ng 49

LÝ C00: 0200010) 1n 49 4.2.1 Distribution of the grades 000 49

4.2.2 Comparison OŸ m€anI SCOTCS . - - 5555 + nọ gu 52

LÝ an 56 4.3 Results from journals and qu€sfÏOTT\8ÏT€ - 4< sS++ s + E499 1E 1k xvgvy 56

4.3.1 Students’ comments on the effectiveness of the new approach on their writing PETFOTMANCE .eceeccesceesccseccesecescesscesscesscecssceseesscesseeenececsscsceaseeseseassessenseessesesseenecees 57

4.3.2 Students’ linguistic awareness and application in their future text composing 62 4.3.3 Students’ confidence and their wish on the future application of the new

APPTOACH 65 Cho an hố hố 66 4.4 OveralÏ SUTHITiATY sọ cọ Họ Họ TH Hi 67 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS SH HH HH HH HH ni, 68 hon 68

vì

._ 5,2 Intended outcomes - - - cs CS S0 0 cu 955 54 68

5.2.1 No 200000) 0 Ji 68

5.2.2 Findings on students’ attitudes towards of the experimental approach 69

._ 9.3 Ủnintended OUfCOTNS GG + nọ HT 70 5.3.1 A new teaching apprOaCHh s2 s9 Họ TH ng ng re 70 XS) v06 2 70

5.3.3 The learners” new roles and ODDOTTUTIIẦICS G5 5< S2 S93 kg se, 71 5.4 Chapter SUMMALY 0.0 ce ố 72

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS se 73 Bi) 0i 00 73

6.2 \/ 0000410) 3100/50/0800 73

6.3 Limitatlons of the sfUdy - Ác HH HH Tu ng ngưng ¬ 74 6.4 Recommendations for hiph school teachers of English .- s55 +<<s<ss<sss2 74 6.5 Suggestions for further Study 0101008 75

6.6 Chapter SUMMALY 200107077 76

;4938:420I050117175777 77

133051 §7

APPENDIX 1: Marking Scale for Graders” EvaÌuation «+ +s sex ksssesreesrske §7 APPENDIX 2: The pre-test n 88

APPENDIX 3: A summary of the writing tasks and genres Involved «« 89

APPENDIX 4: Lesson plans of the experimental teaching practice .- ‹- 92

APPENDIX 5: The poSf-f€Sf Ì - - 0 SH TH ng gnrp 121 APPENDIX 6: The post-test 2 :cccscccssscsssecesseeesccessceessesesseeesensesteeeseaesetseeeeessereseeseesass 122 APPENDIX 7: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese V€rSIOr)) -s«sss«s<<ss2 123 APPENDIX 8: Questionnaire for students (English version) 55+ <s++<<s<sszss 126 APPENDIX 9: Pre-test scores of 1 I A8 (Experimental øroup) <- << c<«s<<c<ss 129 APPENDIX 10: Pre-test scores 11 A9 (Control øgTOUP)) - so ng ng re 130 APPENDIX 11: Post-test I scores of 11A8 (Experimental proup) - ««s-=<<s« 131 APPENDIX 12: Post-test 2 scores of II A8 (Experimental group) -««s «<2 132 APPENDIX 13: Post-test 1 scores of 11A9 (Confrol grOup)) -s«s<<sc<«sss<ess 133 APPENDIX 14: Post-test 2 scores of 11A9 (Control group) co re 134

Appendix 18: Samples of students” Journals (English VeTSiOT)) - 55s «<< css<<+ 151

Vili

LIST OF TABLES

Page Table 2.1: The differences of product, process, and genre approach in teaching

OTIENTALIONS 00 22 Table 4.1: Group statistics of pre-test reSUlts .- 4G 5Á S1 H19 9 11 3xx ge 49 Table 4.2: An independent samples T-test of the two groups before the experiment50 Table 4.3: Group statistics of posf-fest Ï r€SUÏ{S 5G HS gieo 51 Table 4.4: An independent samples T-test 1 of two groups after the experiment 51 Table 4.5: Group statistics of post-test 2 results eee eeceseeeeeeeeeeeteeeteeeenseneesees 52 Table 4.6: An independent samples T-test 2 of two groups after the experiment .52 Table 4.7: Summary of journal data of the effectiveness of the new approach 54 Table 4.8: Students’ assessment of the teaching steps presented - ‹ ‹ 56 Table 4.9: The writing stage most helpful to studens «se sex 57 Table 4.10: Students’ confidence in composing a text of the same genre 61 Table 4.11: Students’ responses to future application of the new approach 62

Figure 2.1: The process of the writing skill by Hedge (1988) s<¿ 10

Figure 2.2: The process wheel proposed by Harmer (2004, p 6) .- 10

Figure 2.3: Procedures involved in producing a written text by White and Arndt 0n — 11

Figure 2.4: The teaching-learning cycle (Cope & Kalantzis, 1988; as cited in Hyon, 0y 5ì 18

Figure 2.5: The development in focus of the writing approaches 21

Figure 2.6: The extended modal of process writing and genre (Tribble, 1996, p 60)25 Figure 2.7: A process genre model of writing (Badger& White, 2000, p 159) 27

Figure 2.8: The adapted model for applying the process genre approach from sá4:)i 41182000 P008 30

Figure 4.1: Pre-test score distribution of experimental and control groups 47

Figure 4.2: Post-test 1 score distribution of experimental and control groups 47

Figure 4.3: Post-test 2 score distribution of experimental and control group 48

Figure 4.4: Students’ opinion of the effectiveness of the new approach on different Figure 4.5: Students’ responses to their linguistic awareness after the treatment 60

Figure 4.6: Students’ responses to their linguistic application after the treatment 61

: Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation

: Association of South-East Asian Nations

: English for Academic Purpose

English as a Foreign Language English Language Teaching : English for Professional Communication

: English for Specific Purpose

: First language

Second language : Literacy and Education Research Network

Mean

Master of Arts

: Ministry of Education and Training

Native English Speakers Standard Deviation Systemic Functional Linguistics Students

Teacher Test of English for International Communication

: United States

World Trade Organization

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study

Traditionally, the teaching of English writing skill has not drawn a lot of attention from English teachers and much investment from learners Out of the four language skills “writing is frequently accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired for foreign/ second language learners” (Hamp-Lyons & Heasly, 2006,

p 2) and most often it is considered as the reinforcement practice for the grammar and structures However, with changes in the English methodology paradigms and the rise of demands in written communication among nations in a world of international integrationand cooperation, writing has now been considered as an important skill to be taught in order to help learners communicate effectively The scenario is the same in Vietnam where it has recently gained some international

status as a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASIAN), the

Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), the ability tocommunicate effectively in not only spoken but also written English is an urgent need for most students who want to advance further in their

future

Nowadays, in order to equip students with English competence, a lot of colleges and universities in Vietnam have chosen Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) as one standard to help them keep up to As for high schools, The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has revised the textbooks andtrained English teachers in teaching English communicatively The four skills of reading, speaking, listening and writing have been given an equal importance in the new teaching philosophy However, at the moment, the teaching of English writing

in Vietnam in general and at high school in specific encounters two prominent obstacles that hinders students from writing to reach its communicative goal successfully The first one lies in the long history of English teaching in Vietnam in which most of the methods adopted in the past consideredwriting as mostly product

Chapter 1: Introduction

oriented and a subordinating skill to other skills like reading, listening and speaking The second difficulty arises from the reality of the current assessment system which gives much focus on reading and grammar rather than on writing

Firstly, as seen in the history of English teaching methodology in Vietnam, grammar translation method dominated the language teaching and learning for decades (Pham, 2000).Its impact led to the fact that writing was often neglected in most English language teaching (ELT) programs Untilrecently, the introduction of the new English teaching curriculum to lower-secondary students in 2004 and to upper-secondary ones in 2006 by MOEThas made the situation better when teachers are beginning to make students familiar with writing tasks as Hoang (2007) reported that “Some teachers in big cities have tried to help students to write paragraphs and short essays on topics, like, describing your classroom or your least interesting holiday ” (p 58) However, he also admitted that:

What the teachers usually do is writing the task, giving students 20 to 30 minutes to think and write about it All the things that students have to do during the lesson are reading the assignment, thinking it over and writing Then, if time is

allowed, the teacher will correct students’ work; otherwise he or she will collect

their papers and mark them at home (Hoang, 2007, p.58)

This routine of instruction is purely product-oriented in which teachers expect students to produce an error-free piece of writing and the focus is still on form, not meaning As a matter of fact, “teaching writing in Vietnam has been quite product-oriented and the written product is often evaluated mainly in terms of language knowledge ” (Tran, 2007)

Furthermore, Ellis (1996) observed that language teaching principles in writing that emphasize processes are a whole new experience for Vietnamese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers Most often, Tran (2001, as cited in Tran,

2007), stated that writing has been conducted in the classroom as an individual

activity with the teacher as the sole audience, and the students are quite quiet.This remark reflects the true reality of most of the writing classes, especially at high school in Vietnam, where students have to write silently from the teacher’s assignment without any awareness of the writing process they have to go through, the specific writing skills they should make use of, or the purpose of their writing they have to achieve This results in the false assumption in students that writing is

an arbitrary activity of putting ideas into sentences and sentences into a paragraph, and that the purpose of the whole practice is to produce a perfect paragraph without

a grammar or spelling error More dangerously, writing, often considered as one way of expressing ideas and communicating information, is now deprived of its function The students in these classes really neither see that they are exchanging with certain audience norknow the situation from which they need to write, or the suitable style and tone their writing should follow In other words, the social and linguistic conventions of a certain piece of writing students are producing are completely ignored

Therefore, it can be said that teachersfocus just on form in writing, their ignorance of writing as a process, and the reality that they have not helped students

to recognize the norms of a certain genre that need to be met in order to successfully communicate through their writingare the major barriers to an effective writing class from which student can achieve their communicative goal in writing As

Nunan (1999, as cited in Luu, 2010) maintains, producing a coherent, fluent,

extended writing piece is likely the most difficult thing in language since the reader has to comprehend what has been written without asking for clarification or relying

on the writer’s tone of voice or expression If a teacher does not provide students with sufficient linguistic input and encourage them to pay attention to the writing characteristics required in different text types, they will keep trying hard to convey their ideas on the topic but always fail to meet the expectation of the readers To sum up, the reality has shown that the teaching of English writing at high school in Vietnam is still product-oriented, and the concept of teaching writing as a process or

it is only indirectly tested It is this form of assessment that has undermined students’ effort in learning to write to express their ideas and it forces teachers to set priority to teach them intensive writing skill to help them pass the exams and also to secure teachers’ positions, which are assessed on these results As a result, teaching and learning the prose writing skills as requested by MOET may be ignored or undervalued by both teachers and students

The consequences of both big problems mentioned above is that students have low motivation in learning to write, huge difficulty in expressing themselves

in written words as the writing processis not made known to them, and the themes for which they have to write are so much artificial Luu (2007) echoed this idea as follow, “Several students find themselves in hide-and-seek game with ideas since they normally have to write about what is assigned by their teacher rather than about what bears much relevance to them” (p.81).Another bad result is that writing

as a communicative activitywith its own social and linguistic constraints has not yet been realized and integrated in the teaching practice.Students show a total lack of genre knowledge of the writing tasks, which they have to conform to when they

have to write

Based on these facts, there arises an urgent need to help students understand the social and linguistic norms that their writing should follow and the process that

they should go through when they write so that they can write more effectively Literature for teaching English writing has shown that the process genre approach, which is the combination of product, process and genre, may help high school students to improve theirperformance as well as their motivation in class once they

become aware of it

1.2 Aim and scope of the study The study was conducted in an attempt to investigate the feasibility in applying the process genre approach into the teaching of English writing to the i" graders in order to introduce to them the process of writing, to raise their awareness

of the written genres through which they couldimproving their writing performance, and to build up their confidence in expressing their communicating goal via writing 1.3 Research questions of the study

To achieve the aims established above, the process of researching is guided

by the following main research question:

To what extent can a process genre approach be implemented in teaching English writing skill to the 11" grade students?

Underlying the main research question are two sub-questions about learners’ writing performance and their reflections after the application

1 What is students’ writing performance under the treatment of the process genre approach?

2 What are students’ attitudes towards the teacher’s application of the process genre approach after the treatment?

1.4 Significance of the study

Although the concept of process genre writing is not new, its application in writing instruction at high school has not been verified Thus, the significance of this study lies in its practicality If the project is successfully implemented, it can

Chapter 1: Introduction

=——

convince English teachers that they can employ the trial method in their own situation to train students to be communicatively competent in their writing

1.5 Organization of the study -

The study consists of 6 chapters Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the topic of the study by stating its context, aim, research questions, significance, and structure Chapter 2 reviews relevant approaches to teaching English, namely product-based approach, process approach, genre-based approach, and process genre approach to found grounds for the conceptual framework of the study Chapter 3 justifies the design and methods of investigation by taking the features of research setting, research participants, data types, methods of data collection, and analytical framework into account Besides, the validity and reliability of the study

is also considered Chapter 4 presents the data analysis and interpretation for the three types of data: experiment, journal, and questionnaire Chapter 5 discusses the findings in the light of the data already presented in the previous chapter Chapter 6 draws conclusions by explicitly answering the research questions, gives some recommendations for English language practitioners, and proposes topics for further

research.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2 The product-oriented approach

_ In the traditional concept of teaching writing a few decades ago, teachers were mostly concerned with the final product of writing, and what that product should look like According to Brown (1994), teachers focus on what a final piece

of writing will look like and measure it against the criteria of vocabulary use, grammatical use, mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation, as well as the content and organization The normal procedure is to assign a piece of

writing, collect it, and then return it for further revision with the errors either corrected or marked for the student to do the corrections

The teaching practice of this approach involves the teaching writing processes through four sequential writing stages: familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing and free writing (Pincas, 1982) In the familiarization, students are taught grammatical and vocabulary ‘features of the language, usually through a sample text Then, in the controlled and guided writing students practice the language features with increasing freedom until they are ready to write by themselves, using their own knowledge to construct the new text independently in the free writing stage

Chapter 2: Literature review

Obviously, this approach helps free student writers, especially at a lower level of language proficiency, from worries over writing tasks by providing them with enough knowledge of grammar and vocabulary through a model text provided and analyzed by the teachers It is this advantage that it is still commonly employed

by Vietnamese high school teachers to build up students’ self-confidence and sound knowledge of both vocabulary and sentence structures through intensive writing- based tasks such as sentence formation and grammar exercises This approach serves well in writing for the exam-driven purpose and creating an error-free piece

of writing from a given model

However, this approach also has limits itself Firstly, as students write from the given model they have no sense of audience and purpose of composing a written text to communicate They form a false assumption that writing is to produce a text for teachers to evaluate, not to communicate meaningfully with another person in the real world (Nunan, 2000) Zamel (1982, p.195) also asserted that “the whole notion of why and for whom student writers are writing is not taken into account in the product-based approach” Doing the writing tasks with no motivation and target audience in mind at all makes students feel very much discouraged and lose most interest in writing

Secondly, the product-based approach presents students with no knowledge

of the process of creating a piece of writing Students are totally ignorant of how the

content of the text is researched, where ideas come from, how they are formulated

and developed, or what the various stages of composing entail

Thirdly, the role of teacher and students in this approach is also problematic The teacher acts as the transmitter of knowledge, and has all the power of deciding the content and the activities given to students There is no room for their creativity Instead of being instructed on how to put their ideas into words creatively, they are

to practice, copy and reproduce the language patterns provided by the teacher In other words, the role of the students in this approach is totally passive This is

troublesome because writing is a productive skill and in order to write successfully express their thoughts positively, students must have chances to express their own ideas, and interact with other students to negotiate meaning and enrich their contents in writing otherwise no real writing actually takes place in the classroom 2.3 Process approach

The process approach developed as opposed to the product-oriented approach which received a lot of criticism as being form-based and mechanical It is

an idea that began to flourish 30 years ago as a result of extensive research on first language writing “Research in the theory of process writing for ESL students paralleled the prior research with NESs: Students were encouraged to explore a topic through writing, to share drafts with teachers and peers, and to use each draft

as a beginning for the next” (Reid, 1993, p 32) This approach emphasizes the composing processes writers make use of in writing such as planning, drafting and revising It seeks to improve students’ writing skills through developing their use of effective composing processes

Rather than investigating what students write, teachers and researchers are beginning to study the composing process itself They are now working under the assumption that before we know how to teach writing, we must first understand how we write And what they are finding out about the process seriously challenges the ways in which composition has been taught in the past The composing process involves much more than studying a particular grammar, analyzing it and imitating rhetorical models or outlining what it is one plans to say The process involves not only the act of writing itself, but prewriting and rewriting, all of which are independent (Zamel, 1982, p 196)

Working in this paradigm, different researchers approach the writing process

in different ways Hedge (1998) suggests the writing process undergo a number of steps, making a sequence as in the following figure:

Chapter 2: Literature review

This means that writers plan, draft, and edit but then often re-plan, re-draft, and re-

edit” (ibid) Therefore, Harmer suggests the process wheel in Figure 2.2 which shows the many directions that writers can take either travels backwards and forwards around the rim or goes up and down the wheel’s spokes Only when the final version really is the final version has the process reached its culmination

Figure 2.2 The process wheel proposed by Harmer (2004, p.6)

It is convincing that all the stages and steps of the writing process do not operate separately While you are revising, you might have to return to the drafting

to develop and expand your ideas Discussing this characteristic, White and Arndt (1991) suggest a recursive process that involves six procedures that learners should accomplish before producing a first draft

te «Drafting «————

t

Structuring Revewing Focusing

‘~~~ Generating ideas <————-» Evaluation «<——~

Figure 2.3 Procedures involved in producing a written text by White and

is an on-going multi-level process

The attention to the writer as a language learner and creator of text has led to

a process approach with a new range of classroom tasks characterized by the use of

journals, inventions, peer collaboration, revision, and attention to content before

form (Raimes, 1991)

In the classroom, the process tradition calls for providing and maintaining a positive, encouraging and collaborative workshop environment, and for providing

11

Chapter 2: Literature review

ample time and minimal interference so as to allow students to work through their composing processes The objective is to help students develop viable strategies for getting started, drafting, revising and editing (Silva and Matsuda, 2002, p 261)

The process-based approach, thus, has one big advantage over the traditional one as instructors will guide their students through the whole process of their writing tasks by giving them feedback and enough time and opportunity through peer and teacher reviews to develop a sense of audience (Boughey, 1997) Besides, proponents of process-based approach have emphasized that the procedure of process writing helps learners to develop more effective ways of conveying meaning and to better comprehend the content that they want to express In other words, they believe it provides student writers with writing techniques (e.g drafting technique, peer feedback, and teacher feedback) to help them write and at any point during their writing they can jump backward or forward to any of these activities to improve and polish their writing The learners, therefore, instead of turning in their finished product right away are asked for multiple drafts of a work, which means having more likelihood of producing a better product

In spite of the advantages stated above, process-based writing still has some limitations First, Nunan (1999) states, “process writing has been controversial ` One criticism is that, left to themselves, young writers will produce recounts and narratives, but not the sorts of factual writing that they need to succeed in school.” Rodrigues (1985; as cited in Nunan, 1999, p 272) gives another critic of the approach“Writing without structure accomplishes as little as writing a mock structure [Students] need structures, they need models to practice, they need to improve even mechanical skills, and they still need time to think about their ideas,

to revise them, and to write for real purposes of real audiences” To echo this, Badger and White (2000) affirm that learners instructed in this approach are not offered sufficient input, in terms of linguistic knowledge, to write successfully

Second, the approach has a somewhat monolithic view of writing (Badger and White, 2000) Writing is seen as involving the same process regardless of the target audience and the content of the text It seems to narrowly focus on the skills and processes of writing in the classroom itself and as a result fails to take into account the social and cultural aspects that have an impact on different kinds of writings (Atkinson, 2003) It also denies non-proficient L2 learners the access to hidden values that inform the judgement of good writing by not making them explicit (Li, 1996; Ramanathan & Atkinson, 1999)

As referred to the context of high school in general and the research site in specific, most students are extremely inexperienced in producing a piece of writing

in another language If the “generating ideas” stage is left alone to them, most of the students will end up with narrow topics and themes Besides, high school students have to write essays on pre-determined topics in specific genres; they are not

“encouraged to explore a topic through writing” (Reid, 1993) Therefore, it is essential for them to be equipped with specific genre structures, format and expected content to ensure their chances of meeting the readers’ expectation The introduction of genres to high school students is considered as the prime need

2.4 The genre-based approach

2.4.1 An overview of genre theory

The word genre derives from the French word meaning “kind” or “class”, and according to Chandler (1997), it is broadly used in rhetoric and linguistics to refer to a distinctive type of text It is customary to identify three broad, overlapping schools of genre theory (Hyon, 1996) The New Rhetoric approach, developed by composition researchers in North America, stresses the social and ideological significance of genres and genre studies and considers it “as the motivated, functional relationship between text type and rhetorical situation” (Coe, 2002, p 195) The focus here is mainly on the rhetorical contexts in which genres are employed rather than detailed analyses of text elements The ESP approach is more

13

Chapter 2: Literature review

linguistic in orientation and sees genre as a class of structured communicative events employed by specific discourse communities whose members share broad social purposes (Swales, 1990, pp 45-47) This approach focuses pedagogically on the tertiary level and beyond with the purpose of enabling students to produce appropriate genres A third orientation is based on Halliday’s (1994) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), known in the US as the “SydneySchool’ or the

“Australian school’ This third approach is inspired by the systemic-functional theory of language, and focuses on the interplay between language and the social context This model stresses the purposeful, interactive, and sequential character of different genres and the ways language is systematically linked to context through patterns of lexico-grammatical and rhetorical features (Christie & Martin, 1997) 2.4.2 Genre-based pedagogies

Despite their common attempt to describe and explain the regularities of purpose, form, and situated social action, the three approaches differ in the emphasis they give to text or context, the research methods they employ, and the types of pedagogies they encourage (Hyland, 2002a) New Rhetoric, with its emphasis on the socially constructed nature of genre, has helped demystified some

of the complex relations between text and context and the ways that one reshapes the other For example, Bazerman (1988, p.320) contended that the goal of writing pedagogy should help to enhance students’ understanding of all the “life” embodied

in texts “The more you understand the fundamental assumptions and aims of the

community, the better able you will be to evaluate whether the rhetorical habits

you and your colleagues bring to the task are appropriate and effective,” he argued However, these implications have had little contribution to L2 writing instruction Australian and ESP genre theorists, on the contrary, have closely engaged themselves with issues of L2 teaching and made great efforts to provide students with knowledge of relevant genres so that they can act effectively in their target context Scholars such as Bhatia (1993), Flowerdew (1993) and Swales (1990) (as

cited in Hyon, 1996) have proposed that genre-based application can help nonnative speakers of English master the functions and linguistic conventions of texts that they need to read and write in their disciplines and professions As in ESP, researchers have placed more focus on the implication of genre theory and analysis for English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for professional communication (EPC) classrooms, it can be expected that they particularly emphasize the teaching of genre structures and grammatical features and help students control the organizational and stylistic features of texts in these particular fields effectively

SFL, according to Hyland (2003), perhaps offers the most theoretically sophisticated and pedagogically developed approach of the three Unlike the New Rhetoric focusing on native speakers and the ESP concentrating on tertiary education, genre-based applications in Australia have been centered mainly in child and adolescent contexts, that is primary and secondary schools, in adult migrant English education and workplace training programs Genre-based instruction arose from the concern that students were not being prepared to write a range of text types and a variety of school genres The Australian pedagogy systematically links language to its contexts of use, studying how language varies from one context to another and, within that variation, the underlying patterns which organize texts so that they are culturally and socially recognized are focused The exploration and description of these patterns and their variation has been the focus of genre theory and the resources it exploits to provide disadvantaged learners with access to the cultural capital of socially valued genres (Hyland, 2003)

2.4.3 Instructional frameworks

In turning their pedagogical goals into action, scholars in the three schools of ESP, New Rhetoric and Australian genre have been very different in the amount and types of guidelines they developed for bringing genre into language classroom

15

Chapter 2: Literature review

ằằằẰằ

2.4.3.1 The ESP framework

According to Hyon (1996), although many researchers in ESP have presented their descriptions of genres as useful discourse models for ESP writing instructors, they have not detailed instructional methodologies for presenting this content in the classroom This author cited the worksof a lot of ESP researchers in which no specific methodology is recognized For example, Hopkins and Dudley- Evans (1988) offered their analysis of cyclical move patterns in scientific master’s dissertations as a “teaching/ learning resource” for ESP classroom but did not describe how to convert this model into material and tasks They simply said that,

“We regard it as self-evident that the description and classification of genres and

subgenres will be of value to teachers and learners” (as cited in Hyon, 1996, p 702)

Another example Hyon gave is from the Asian ESP world where Flowerdew (1993) also described activities he used to raise students’ genre awareness in English for Professional Communication (EPC) courses at the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong However, he argued that “there is no way to predict the wide range of possible genres students of EPC will need to participate in”; therefore, students should be trained in the techniques of text analysis that they can use to identify the discourse conventions of new genres outside the classroom Such techniques include “flow chart” analyses of genre structure, “gap filling’ of structural slots, and

“concordancing” of verb forms found in genres such as the sales letter (Flowerdew,

1993, as cited in Hyon, 1996, p 703)

In short, though some explicit techniques have been proposed through research in ESP world, no specific classroom methodology can be identified in converting the pedagogies into classroom practice under the ESP framework

2.4.3.2 The New Rhetoric framework

Like some in the ESP, New Rhetoric scholars have focused on providing descriptions of genres and their contexts and left it up to readers to infer their own teaching applications For example, only in the last paragraph of her article “Genre

as Social Action” does Miller (1984) state that such a theory “has implications for rhetorical education” (p.165) Recently in Freedman and Medway’s Learning and Teaching Genre (1994) (as cited in Hyon, 1996, p 703), a collection of research to consider how New Rhetoric genre theory can inform L1 composition instruction, details that Coe (1994) describes classroom procedures for raising university students’ awareness of the social contexts that shape their writing In each of his assignment, he demands students to specify the rhetorical situation such

as the purpose of the text, the audience of the text and the writing circumstances Then, he assesses students’ texts based on how well they respond to the context

Also, Bialotstosky (1994,as cited in Hyon, 1996, p 703), another researcher in the

collection, depicts the way he shifts students’ attention to everyday speech genres in teaching poetry in undergraduate literature courses Still, the above researchers presented no obvious methodology to apply in the classroom in the New Rhetoric

framework

2.4.3.3 The Australian framework

In contrast with few discussions of classroom methodology in New Rhetoric, the Australian systemic functional literature has promoted several instructional frameworks for implementing genre-based pedagogy (Hyon, 1996) The most widely recognized is the Australian model for genre instruction developed by the Literacy and Education Research Network (LERN) and Sydney’s Disadvantaged Schools Program This model demonstrates a “teaching-learning cycle in the figure of a wheel” (Cope & Kalantzis, p.10)

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỤt, MỦ TP.HCM

THƯ VIỆN

Chapter 2: Literature review

Luycongee220m men

MODELLING

Approximation

to Control of

iSue'

98i86 BLUES BLY UXO) |

researching and disseminating information The independent construction of text is the final phase in which learners produce actual texts through activities such as choosing a topic, researching and writing

The writing instruction in this procedure offers students the knowledge of the typical structure of the content and makes it easier for them to arrange their ideas in terms of both achieving communicative goals and producing more well-organized writing Learners can understand the rhetorical structure and linguistic features better in this approach, which is a sound supplementation to the process approach to writing Because of its pedagogical values and specific methodology in classroom practice, the Australian framework will be understood as the genre-based approach referred in this study from now on Below are the comments on the advantages and drawbacks of the genre-based approach

2.4.4 The positive and negative sides of the genre-based approach

The positive sides of the genre approach are that it acknowledges that writing takes place in a social situation and it is a reflection of a particular purpose, and it understands that learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis (Badger& White, 2000) In the ESL context, the genre approach is also helpful for instructors to link between formal and functional properties that they teach in the classroom As Bhatia (1993) suggested, it is important for writing teachers to connect these two elements in order to help students understand how and why linguistic conventions are used for particular rhetorical effects Moreover, because genres reflect a cultural ideology, the study of genres additionally opens for students

an awareness of the assumption of groups who uses specific genres for specific ends, allowing students to critique not only the types of knowledge they learn, but also the ways in which knowledge is valued and in which it reflects covert assumptions (Coe, 1994)

However, an argument has been raised at times is that teaching students’ genres would degenerate into teaching arbitrary models and textual organization

19

Chapter 2: Literature review

with little connection to a student’s learning purpose (Freedman,1983) It is the misunderstanding of explicit teaching that caused this argument to arise This means that, according to Gibbons (2002), students are encouraged to reflect on how language is used for a range of purposes and with a range of audiences, and that teachers focus explicitly on these aspects of language Another limitation of the genre approach is about students’ role in this approach As Badger and White (2000) point out, the negative aspect of genre approaches is that they undervalue skills needed to produce a text, and see learners as largely passive

2.5 Comparing product, process and genre-based approaches

We can clearly see the differences and similarities of the three approaches when we consider theirpedagogies on writing and the development of writing during the teaching and learning process In the product approach, writing is regarded as mainly concerned with knowledge about the structure of language and writing development as mostly the result of the imitation of texts provided by the teacher.As with process approach, writing is seen as predominantly to do with writing skillsand there is much less concentration on linguistic knowledge Writing development under this philosophy is an unconscious process which happens when teacher facilitates the exercise of writing skills The provision of stimulus or input

in form of texts is not so important as the effort of drawing out the best of the learners’ potential Genre-based approach also sees writing as essentially concerned with knowledge of language like product approach, but it additionally considers writing being tied closely to a social purpose The development of writing is largely viewed as the analysis and imitation of input in the form of model texts provided by

the teacher

Besides, it can be said that the three approaches are different in term of overall focus of the finished product, but the latter does not exclude the former but extends and incorporates the former’s characteristics in an attempt to help students produce a good piece of writing with a meaningful communicative purpose The

product-oriented approach has the main focus on an error-free piece of writing, or in other words, it has the emphasis on the form of a produced text A written text, however, is not only the matter of form but it has the meaning or content to convey

to readers; and the process approach considers it ultimately important The genre- based approach incorporates the social context in which the writing occurs and requires writers to comply with the text-genre’s conventions The development of the approaches can be illustrated in the following diagram

a

Meaning/ Content

Figure 2.5: The development in focus of the writing approaches

Finally, the differences of the three approaches in term of teaching

orientation are detailed in Table 2.1 on page 22 and 23

21

.hapter 2: Literature review

Attribute Product Process Genre

Main Idea - Writing is the - Writing is a -Writing is a social

imitation of input | thinking process activity -Concerned with | -Concerned with -Concerned with the linguistic the act of writing final product

knowledge Teaching -Emphasis on the | -Emphasis on -Emphasis on reader Focus appropriate use of | creative writer expectations and

vocabulary, -Skills in using product syntax, and languages -Knowledge about cohesive devices language

-Knowledge of the context in which writing happens Advantages -How to produce _ | -How to produce -How to express

effectively -Makes textual conventions transparent -Contextualizes writing for audience and purpose

Disadvaríages | -[gnores the -Assumes L1 and -Requires rhetorical

process of writing | L2 writing similar | understanding of texts -Overlooks the -Overlooks L2 -Can result in

sense of purpose | language prescriptive teaching and audience in difficulties of texts

composing a text | -Insufficient -Can lead to over- -Pay no attention | attention to product | attention to written

to the social -Assumes all products context of the text | writing uses the -Undervalues skills

same processes needed to produce

2.6 The process genre approach

As reviewed above each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses Today many writing teachers realize that we need not rigidly adopt just one approach in the writing class In some cases the combination of the approaches results in a new way of thinking about writing Process genre is one approach which has received much suggestion from researchers recently It is the synthesis of the characteristics of the product, process and genre-based approach This section reviews popular models for combining approaches in teaching English writing and justifies the application of the modified Badgerand White’s (2000) model in the experimental teaching of the study

2.6.1 The extended model of process writing and genre (Tribble, 1996)

In combining genre into process writing, Tribble (1996) suggested incorporating the six activities of raising genre understanding proposed by Flowerdew (1993) into the recursive writing process In his view, “these activities can provide opportunities for the teacher to draw students’ attention to

b

23

Chapter 2: Literature review

contextualand textual features of genres ., or allow students to come to their own conclusions about aspects of text and context.” (Tribble, 1996, p 59) The six activities are: 1 using the results of genre analysis; 2 ‘metacommunicating’ (talking about instances of genres); 3 learners doing their own genre analysis; 4 concordancing; 5 ‘on-line’ genre analysis by learners as an aid to creating their own texts; and 6 translation based on samples of instances of a given genre

According to Flowerdew (1993), the first three activities help learners in their consideration of the social context in which the text is being produced, the role that the text takes in genre, and the distinguishing linguistic features of the genre, and lead them towards production informed by these insights The last three activities depend on the availability of a collection of appropriate text examples and they all aim at helping writers to practice familiarizing themselves with certain

genres

The whole process proposed by Flowerdew seems complicated and time- consuming in classroom practice; however, it has great pedagogical value if combined with the process approach Therefore, according to Tribble (1996) we

need to extend the model of process writing to show how content, context, process,

and language knowledge interrelate with each other and can be realized in practical classroom procedures Figure 2.6 on page 25 shows a modified version of the cycle

of writing activities in this sense

Collect corpus data WRITING

STUDENT research into genre" J

REVISING

EDITING PUBLISHING ŸỶ ý

Figure 2.6: The extended modal of process writing and genre (Tribble, 1996, p 60) From the figure above we can see that rather than doing the pre-writing activities which depend merely on the learners’ knowledge of the world, activities can be designed to enhance learners’ understanding of the genre under study This is extremely useful for greenhorn writers like high school students whose control of writing conventions in a particular genre is very limited Specifically, teachers can

do some preparatory work on the genre, take into consideration of its contextual and textual features Having done this, the teacher is able to help provide learners with authentic data to work on and a resource for students to resort to when they feel a lack of sufficient information regarding the text or context they are addressing The learners instructed in this approach can begin their study of genre either before they start writing or they can start off in a process writing cycle and have recourse to genre analysis at moments they need

Obviously, it is not the pure imitation of models that happens in this approach but it is the contextual and textualfeatures of the texts of a particular genre that learners acquire to compose their own piece of writing Also, learners’ voice is not confined but facilitated through the process writing cycle In other words, in this way “writing instruction can both encourage students to express their ideas in

25

Chapter 2: Literature review

a

individually authentic voices and to make texts that are socially appropriate.”

(Tribble, 1996, p 61)

2.6.2 The process genre model of writing (Badger& White, 2000)

Sharing the idea of combining writing approaches, Badgerand White (2000) also proposed the model named the process genre approach which he described in terms of a view of writing and a view of writing development In this approach, writing is viewed as involving knowledge about language (as in product and genre approaches), knowledge of the context in which writing happens and especially the purpose of the writing (as in genre approach) and skills in using the language (as in process approach) The model also describes that writing development happens by drawing out the learners’ potential (as in process approach) and by providing input

to which the learners respond (as in product and genre approaches)

Arguing for their including process into genre analysis, Badger and White (2000) stated that the central insight of genre analysis is that writing is embedded in

a social situation, so that a piece of writing is meant to achieve a certain purpose which comes out of a certain situation This purpose has implications for the subject matter, the writer/audience relationship and organization, channel, or mode While genre analysis focuses on the language use in a particular text, Badgerand White would want to include processes by which the writers produce a text This combination, which they term “process genre”, would cover the process by which the writer decide which aspects of the subject matter should be highlighted, as well

as the knowledge of the appropriate language

Under this philosophy, in the writing class, teachers need to replicate the situation as closely as possible and then provide sufficient support for learners to

identify the purpose and other aspects of the social contexts, such as tenor, field,

and mode of their writing For example, if student writers played the role of a car dealer who has to give a description of a car for his or her potential customers, the

teacher would have to ask the students to take into consideration that their

Jescription is intended to sell the car (purpose), that it might appeal to a certain zroup of people (tenor), that it might include certain information (field), and that here are ways in which car descriptions are presented (mode) After experiencing a whole process of writing, the students would use skills appropriate to the genre, such as redrafting and proof reading, and finally complete their texts With different genres, the requirements for knowledge and sets of skills are different and learners’ knowledge of both the knowledge and skill involved in different genres is limited Therefore, teachers as expert writers of many different genres should draw on their own knowledge of, and skill in, a particular process genre or make use of texts of a particular genre to supply learners with appropriate input and help to bring out the best of students’ potential This idea also goes to the concern of writing development in the process genre approach which is illustrated by Badger and White (2000) in Figure 2.7

Figure 2.7A process genre model of writing (Badger & White, 2000, p 159)

Learners vary in terms of knowledge of a particular genre Those who know

a lot will need little or no input at all In the case of learners who lack knowledge of the organization of the text and the language conventionally used for a particular

27

Chapter 2: Literature review

_ ằằ.ằằằ.ằ——

audience would need some assistance and input As can be seen from Figure 2.7, the input may be obtained from the teachers, other learners as peers, or the model text itself and the dashes indicate that input is not always required The conception of input in this approach is in line with Krashen’s (1985) notion of the Input Hypotheses, Long’s (1990) interactional modifications and Swain’s (1995) negotiation of meaning Therefore, input and interaction through feedback play important roles in the writing process under the process genre approach (Myles,

2002)

To elaborate the concept of input in classroom practice, Badgerand White (2000) suggest that teachers provide input in terms of instruction for learners, or learners help one another in a less threatening context of group work However, in their opinion, language awareness activities are the most distinctive source of input about contextual and linguistic knowledge in a process: genre approach These activities will be based on a corpus of the relevant genre and this corpus is the key material for process genre teachers, as they indicate As for input about the skills needed for writing, it is proposed that learners observe other students and the teacher Teachers may find direct instruction on skills, or demonstration coming from themselves or other skilled writers effective Possibly, the instruction or demonstration should be accompanied by a commentary attempting to explain the processes that underlie the exercise of skill, for example, why writers chose to include certain information about the subject matter and leave out other

information

As we can see from the proposals of Tribble (1996) and Badger and White (2000) above, the process genre approach bears all the strengths and complementary features of the product, process and genre approaches Therefore, the researcher believes in order to teach English writing skill effectively, it is necessary to implement this hybrid approach Hyland (2004) claims process approach can be combined with genre approach, enabling learners to understand and control the

process and purpose of text creation, and contexts where the texts are composed and read Besides, Badger and White (2000) also state that by applying the two sets of instruction, an attempt is made to integrate the input and linguisticknowledge, context and purpose of writing, and writing skill and creativity In this hybrid approach, learners are scaffold to develop their autonomy and receive meaningful feedback from peers and teachers (Kim & Kim, 2005)

2.6.3 The adapted model from Badger& White (2000)

Still following the general philosophy of combining the process and genre approach suggested by Tribble (1996) and Badger and White (2000), Yan (2005) and Belbase (2012) proposed a more detailed model adapted from Badger and White (2000), which the researcher chose as his theoretical framework because it details specific steps and practical activities to apply in the actual writing instructions According to the adapted model, the teaching procedure for the process genre approach is divided into the following six steps: preparation, modeling, planning, joint constructing, independent constructing, and revising

Figure 2.8 on page 30 illustrates how these six steps interact in a recursive way with themselves and with other writing skills

29

“hapter 2: Literature review

Considering the genre

ns h constructing

Drafting

2 | Independent constructing

\_ Editing, responding & evaluating ~~ | 3

Revising, and editing Text | \

Figure 2.8 The adapted model for applying the process genre approach from

Badger and White (2000) First, in the preparation stage, the teacher prepares for the students to write

by defining a situation which requires a written text and categorizing it within a particular genre, such as narrative essay of a personal experience or a persuasive essay arguing for or against an issue This step helps activate the schemata and lets students anticipate the structural features of the genre

Next, the teacher presents a model of the genre and the students consider the social purpose and the potential audience of the text For example, the purpose of an argumentative essay is to persuade the reader to act on something Then, how the text is structured and how its organization develops to accomplish its purpose is

discussed

30

Then, a lot of meaningful activities that activate the students’ schemata about the topic, including brainstorming, discussing, and reading related material are carried out in the planning stage The goal is to help the students develop an interest

in the topic by relating it to their experience Because they have to participate and contribute in the classroom, learners will find the activities interesting and entertaining

In the joint constructing step, the teacher and students work together atthe beginning of writing a text The teacher uses the writing processes of brainstorming, drafting, and revising to facilitate this process The students contribute information

and ideas, and the teacher writes the generated text on the black/white board The

final draft forms a model for students to refer to when they work on their individual written work This step fosters collaborative writing between teacher and students and among students themselves It also provides students with a chance to write in a group and to prepare them for individual work

Students now perform the task of composing their own texts on a related topic in the independent constructing step They use the knowledge, skills, feedbacks and final draft in the previous step to facilitate their writing Teacher should be available to help, clarify, or consult about the process and time should be set aside for students to compose independently The writing task can be continued

as homework assignment with teacher’s clear instructions on what students do for writing homework

Eventually, students will have a draft that needs final revision and editing This process can be done by students’ checking, discussing, and evaluating their work with fellow learners while the teacher again guides and facilitates If the whole process goes on smoothly and fast, the teacher may publish the students’ work, which will create a sense of achievement from learners and motivate them to write better This will also foster self-esteem among learners as they have produced something (Belbase, 2012)

31