(Skkn 2023) applying genre based approach in teaching 12th graders’ writing skills in ha huy tap high school

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & TRAINING TEACHING INNOVATION APPLYING GENRE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING 12TH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILLS IN HA HUY TAP HIGH SCHOOL GROUP: ENGLISH Năm học: 2022 - 2023 NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & TRAINING HA HUY TAP HIGH SHOOL TEACHING INNOVATION APPLYING GENRE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING 12TH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILLS IN HA HUY TAP HIGH SCHOOL Tác giả : NGUYỄN PHAN QUỲNH TRANG Tổ môn : Ngoại Ngữ Số điện thoại: 0944211987 Năm học : 2022 - 2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of study Aims and objectives of the study 3 Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study PART II: CONTENTS OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 1: THEORERICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 A definition of writing and its importance 1.2 Different approaches to teach writing 1.3 The Genre-based approach 1.3.1 Definition of genre 1.3.2 Genre-based approach CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING SKILLS IN HA HUY TAP HIGH SCHOOL 2.1 Teachers 2.2 Learners 2.3 The textbook CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Rationale of using action research 3.2 Participants of the study 10 3.3 Data collection instrument 10 3.3.1 Pre-test and post-test 10 3.3.2 Pre-questionnaire and post- questionnaire 10 3.4 Data analysis procedure PART III: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 11 12 3.1 Problem identification 12 3.2 Preliminary investigation 12 3.2.1 Analysis of student’s preliminary questionnaire 12 3.2.2 The results of the students’ pre-tests 14 3.3 Hypothesis 15 3.4 Intervention 15 3.5 Evaluation 16 3.5.1 The results of the students’ post- test 16 3.5.2 The results of the questionnaire for student after taking part in action research 20 3.6 Discussion 21 3.7 Survey for the necessity and the possibility of solutions 22 PART IV: CONCLUSION 24 4.1 Conclusions of the study 24 4.2 Suggestions for further study 24 REFERENCES APPENDICES PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has reformed English textbooks concentrating on the four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing Of the four skills, many teachers and students alike consider writing to be most difficult and complicated to teach and to learn In fact, there are a variety of reasons for this problem, and therefore finding appropriate techniques and methods for teaching writing effectively to students requires long serious research English is a required subject for high school students in Vietnam nowadays But most of important tests including graduation and university entrance exams not have a writing component As a result, students only focus on learning grammar and vocabulary They have considerable difficulty in learning the writing skill At Ha Huy Tap High school, the dominant approach to teach writing is process approach which focuses only on process of writing As the teacher of English at Ha Huy Tap High school, when teaching my students in writing lessons, the author realized that my students did not seem to be interested in learning writing and had some difficulties to learn writing better It appears to me that I need to make some changes And the question was raised that “How can teacher help students to make an improvement in learning writing?” Through reading the literature, the writer was impressed with the idea of teaching writing through a genre-based approach I decided to experiment this approach to my teaching writing to my own students in my school The aim of this action research is to examine whether a genre-based approach to writing is helpful to students or not In what follows I shall concentrate on: “APPLYING GENREBASED APPROACH IN TEACHING 12TH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILLS IN HA HUY TAP HIGH SCHOOL” At this paper, teacher observations and student surveys were collected to determine the effectiveness of using this approach The research results of the study become a reference for the process of teaching, testing, assessment and developing the capacity of students in high school Aims and objectives of the study This study is designed with an aim to improve students’ writing performance of English by applying genre-based approach to teach writing skill to students In order to achieve this aim, the following objective was set out for the study: To examine how genre-based approach to teaching writing affected students’ writing performance Research questions My theme focuses on making clear about: - What is genre-based approach? - How is genre-based approach applied? - Does applying genre-based approach help improve the quality of my students’ writing? Scope of the study Because of the limitation of a minor study, the research is only conducted at Ha Huy Tap High School in order to recognize the problems in learning writing skills of the 12th grade students with the textbook “Tieng Anh 12” by Pearson, Vietnam Education Publishing House The study mainly focuses on application of genre-based approach in teaching writing The research scope includes the two classes, namely class 12A4 and class 12A5 at Ha Huy Tap High school, Nghe An province In total, more than 70 students take part in this study Methods of the study The researcher decided to adopt action research because this type of research is aimed at improving a situation After a preliminary investigation had been carried out, a writing instruction course was designed, and then implemented in the school year 2022-2023 with the participation of more than 70 students from two classes 12A4 and 12A5 at Ha Huy Tap High school The data was then collected through survey questionnaires Questionnaire responses were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics In addition to the questionnaires, students’ writing were collected through pre-test and post-test and analyzed to measure the students’ progress in their writing performance Significance of the study Theoretically, the study systemized the theory of a genre-based approach in teaching writing, together with its advantages and disadvantages The study also provides suggestions for successful application of the approach into teaching composition in real classroom Practically, the research provides language teachers and learners with a number of activities and exercises using the genre-based approach in all stages of writing PART II: CONTENTS OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 A definition of writing and its important One way of viewing writing, called cognitive view, is to see writing as decision making When we write something, whether it is an email message, a letter, or an essay, we are engaged in making one decision after another We decide what to begin the text with, whether to include or leave out an idea that comes to mind, whether to begin a new paragraph or continue the same one, what information to place in the beginning of a sentence and so on Successful writing is the result of making the right decisions most of the time the act of composing and revising “The ability to write effectively is becoming increasingly important in our global community and instruction in writing is thus assuming an increasing role in both second and foreign education" (Alderson and Bachman, 2002) Bazerman (1989) stated that "writing makes things happen in the social world, and much of that social world is embodied in previous pieces of writing" In addition, Alderson and Bachman (2002) confirmed that "the ability to speak and write a second language is becoming widely recognized as an important skill for educational, business and personal reason." Nunan (1995) also said "language exists to fulfill a range of communicative functions and that these functions will be reflected in the shape of the language itself” (Nunan, 1995) Therefore, "writing will be an essential component in the learning program.” 1.2 Different approaches to teach writing There are three most widely known approaches to teach writing: product approach, genre approach, and process approach First, the product approach emphasizes the final product of writing with a special focus on correctness and conformity to rules Second, the genre approach focuses on the appropriate writing structure, the content, and the style to be used for the purpose at hand Finally, the process approach is a sequential process where the writer goes through several specific processes to produce a piece of writing, including planning, drafting, revising, and editing 1.3 The genre-based approach 1.3.1 Definition of genre As this paper focuses on the genre-based approach, it’s necessary to understand the concept of “genre” What is genre? For Callaghan and Rothery, “genre is the way people make meaning with one another in stages to achieve their purposes.” (1993:35) Genre has the special characteristics as follow: ▪ It is culture specific, and it develops and changes along with the culture ▪ It is goal oriented ▪ It has distinctive stages: beginning, middle and end ▪ It contains particular linguistic features According to David Butt et al (1995), genre, which relates to the purpose of the text, is one of the contexts of a text The other context is register, which is made up of three variables: field, tenor, and mode Field refers to what is talked about or written about It can be something that happened, is happening or will happen Tenor is the relationship between the writer and the reader or between the speaker and the listener Mode is the channel of communication, the kind of text that is being made to convey a message “Genre” refers not only to types of literary texts but also to the predictable and recurring patterns of everyday, academic, and literary texts occurring within a particular culture (Hammond and Derewianka, 2001) In the Western countries, genre, either spoken or written, is often identified/grouped according to its primary social purposes According to Swale (1990) the genres which share the same purposes belong to the same text-types Derewianka (1990) identified further six main genres according to their primary social purposes:  Narratives: tell a story, usually to entertain  Recount: to tell what happened  Information reports: provide factual information  Instruction: tell the listeners or readers what to  Explanation: explain why or how something happens  Expository texts: present or argue a viewpoint  Procedure: give instructions how to do/ make something These social purposes of the text-genres in turn decide the linguistic inputs of the text (i.e their linguistic conventions, often in form of schematic structure and linguistic features) Specifically, schematic structure refers to internal structure or text organization of the text-type in forms of introduction, body, and conclusion, while language features consist of linguistic aspects such as grammar, vocabulary, connectors, etc that the writers must use to translate information/ideas into a readable text 1.3.2 Genre-based approach Genre-based approach is the approach in which students are explicitly exposed to the language features, text structures and the social purposes of each text type Then, students step by step produce the text with appropriate scaffolding of the teacher Genre-based approach promises very benefits for learners as they pull together language, content, and contexts, while offering teachers a means of presenting students with explicit and systematic explanations of the ways writing works to communicate For teachers, genre-based approach draws teachers into considering how texts actually work as communication By categorizing and analyzing the texts they ask students to write, teachers become more familiar with the ways meanings are created and more sensitive to the specific communicative needs of their students Teachers are therefore in a better position to reflect on their own writing and that of their students, offering them a means to understand, deconstruct, to make decisions about the teaching methods and materials to use, and to approach current instructional examples with a more critical eye Derewianka (1990) indicates that in order for learners to learn to write a specific genre, teachers and learners work through a cyclical process which consists of four stages, namely Building the Field, Modeling, Joint Construction and Independent Writing The first stage is intended to give students time to gather information about what they will be writing Then, in Modeling, they are exposed to an authentic text of a particular genre to familiarize with its generic structure, language features and communicative purpose Then with the help of their teacher, they jointly construct a text Joint writing allows students to experience the processes of thinking and social interaction in writing by observing how meanings and language are chosen to serve a particular communicative purpose and by participating in the decision making which mould them into more confident writers Finally, students write the text of the same genre on their own The principles of the genre based approach are realized in the teaching and learning cycle or model The teaching model consists of a number of stages that the teacher and students go through so that students gradually gain independent control of a particular genre The stages usually come in circle to indicate that there are different points of entry depending on the needs of the students In addition to providing teachers with a way of organizing their courses, genre based writing instruction follows modern theories of learning in giving considerable recognition to the importance of collaboration, or peer interaction, and scaffolding, or teacher-supported learning In short, while study genre-based approach students move backwards and forwards through alternate processes of induction and deduction, between language and meta-language, activity and received knowledge, experience and theory That’s why the aim of teaching genre to grade 12 students in my school would empower them to write a variety of purposes and audiences So writing should be taught as how it can be used in context meaningfully CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING SKILL AT HA HUY TAP HIGH SCHOOL 2.1 Teachers In terms of teaching English writing, most of the teachers just focus on providing their student writers with vocabulary relating to the required topic and some guiding questions in order to help them shape their ideas into the completed paragraphs Teaching writing in this way only benefits them to an extent that it can assist them in producing the error-free texts following the models of correct language In addition, there was a tendency among English teachers to ignore teaching writing Teachers provided students with less opportunity to practice writing English In other word, the English teachers in general were more concentrate on teaching skills such as reading and listening, and language components such as vocabulary and grammar 2.2 Learners Writing skill is seemed to be difficult for all students in learning foreign language at high school The difficulties include those in generating and organizing ideas using an appropriate choice of vocabulary and putting such ideas into an intelligible text For my students, besides these difficulties, they also have to face many other obstacles when learning to write compositions in English They worry about expressing their ideas clearly within the boundaries of correct usage, grammar, spelling, and punctuation Often in the first years of their language learning, there is little focus on the creative aspects of writing because exams focus on grammar, spelling, or punctuation Because of this, students develop a fear of writing and think that everything they write is riddled with errors These fears hinder them and frequently make their writing process slow and also unsuccessful As a result, it is rather difficult to engage all students to the main content of the lessons Apparently, applying teaching approaches and using teaching methods should be taken in order to foster and develop their writing skills efficiently 2.3 The textbook The pilot English 12 textbook is a series of books organized and complied by the Vietnam Education Publishing House according to the pilot English curriculums for upper secondary schools issued by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2012 The series is the continuation of the Elementary English program and the Secondary English program The book series is compiled in a communicative way to help students, through the use of corpus (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar), APPENDIX 6: ACTIVITIES TO BUILD THE FIELD Activity 1.Vocabulary The following adjectives or adverbs can be used instead of other simplistic ones Put them in the correct box, as in the example a) Slight, great, evil, highly, happily, massive, delightful, extremely, successfully, horrible, miniature, tiny, remarkably, gigantic, satisfactorily, absolutely, fabulous, pleasant, huge, terrific, terrible, wicked, enormous, attractive BIG SMALL Slight BAD GOOD/NICE VERY WELL Replace the words in the extract below with suitable ones from the boxes above b) Melisa stepped out into the fresh and 1) nice April morning Her 2) good mood brightened her 3) nice face as she walked 4) well to her new workplace Upon reaching the 5) big skyscraper, she looked up and felt 6) small As she entered the building, she was nervous but 7) very excited This job was a dream comes true for her Activity 2: Underline the correct adverb Ellen screamed angrily / politely at the bus driver to move out of her way Billy spoke rudely / casually to the headmaster, so he was suspended from school for a week The thief crept noisily / silently through the house, hoping that no one would hear him The young man’s hands shook nervously / confidently as the policeman asked to see his driving license Before the plane took off, the passengers chatted excitedly / miserably about their holiday James calmly / hurriedly grabbled his sandwich box, kissed his mum goodbye and ran to school bus which was already waiting outside 34 Activity 3: Join the sentences using present or past participles He closed the door, he heard someone screaming Closing the door, he heard someone screaming She was worried She decided to call the local hospital Worried, she decided to call the local hospital He fell to his knees He started crying They were whispering They walked up the stairs He was frightened He realized no one would help him He stood at the edge of the cliff He watched the magnificent sunset She was covered with a warm blanket She finally felt safe She was annoyed She gathered her things and left the room Activity 4: Read the extract below and underline the correct past tense At first, I 1) wasn’t/ hadn’t been frightened by the noise as I 2) was thinking/ thought it 3) had been/ was just the wind which 4) was rattling/ rattled the windows Then I 5) was freezing/ froze when I 6) heard/ had heard the wooden stairs creaking outside my bedroom door I 7) was deciding/ decided to be brave and 8) went/ was going downstairs to see if it had been/ was really a burglar A few minutes later, I 10) had stood/ was standing terrified at the bottom of the stairs, looking round for a burglar It was then that 11) was seeing/ saw that the„ burglar‟ 12)was/ had been my little brother, who 13) was getting/ had got up to get a class of water 35 APPENDIX 7: MODELING Activity 1: Read the model and then, find out about the structure and language features Language features Structure Introduction (set the scene: who, where, when, what) I stood on the deck, staring at the huge waves From the moment we had left port and sailed into the English Channel, the weather had got worse and worse Now, lightning flashed across the sky, which was covered in dark clouds Use of proper noun, conjunctions and connectives Suddenly, the noise of the engines stopped The ship was slowing, rolling heavily in the rough sea A voice over the loud speakers told us to remain calm – then added that a fire had started in the engine room, and said that all passengers must go immediately to the nearest life boat station Main body Record of events We all ran onto the deck, following the signs to the life boats The ship’s officers arrived; made sure we had lifejackets and showed us how to put them on Verbs in past tense I looked again in horror at the wild, stormy sea The thought of being out there in a tiny boat was terrifying Minutes passed like hours, until at last the voice announced that everything was under control and the danger was over We all cheered as the engines started again and the ship moved forward into the waves Conclusion (refer to moods, feeling, comments….) I still couldn’t believe it was over, though – not until we had reached port and I had stood on solid ground again! Activity 2: Read the plot line below and put the sentences into the correct order • A woman stopped me • I waved goodbye and left • I arrived too late for the correct 36 • I saw the woman I had helped at the entrance of the concert hall • I helped her change the tyre • She got me a front-row seat • I was driving to a correct • After the concert I met the band Activity 3: Now use the plot line to complete the sentences below Then retell the story in your own words • One night last year, I was on my way to see my favorite rook band suddenly………………………………………… • The woman thanked me, then got in her car and drove away • I………………………………………………………………………… • When I arrived at the concert hall, the doors were closed I was about to leave when I saw…………………………………………………… • When it finished, the woman took me backstage to meet……………… …………………………………………………………………………… 37 APPENDIX 8: SOME SAMPLE LESSON PLANS UNIT 6: ENDANGERED SPECIES SKILLS : Writing ENDANGERED SPECIES REPORT A OBJECTIVES:- By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - Learn about a report about endangered species - Develop the writing skills in general - Build up vocabulary supported for writing B AIDS: Posters, pictures C.TEACHING AIDS: Pictures on the internet, textbook, hand outs, pictures… D.PROCEDURE: Teacher’s Activities Student’s Activities Stage 1: Introducing the field Endangered species report Activity 1: Match the pictures with the animals' names Then discuss the questions with a partner - Whole class - Match the pictures with the names of animals - Look at pictures and +Read out the names of animals to make sure to know all of them answer the questions +Come to the board and write down the matching b (Komodo dragon: not found in Viet Nam; eats meat; - Do as directed classified as vulnerable) - Listen to the teacher 38 2.a (Blue whale: sometimes found stranded on Viet Nam's coastal areas; eats small shellfish; classified as endangered) Stage 2: Building the field Activity 2: Read the facts about the Komodo dragon and the blue whale Write a, b, c, d, or e in the space provided to match the title with the correct section - Read and take note - Do as directed - Listen to the teacher - Work in pairs to find out the right words to fill in the blanks -Discuss some information about Komodo dragon and Blue whales -Instruct some vocabulary: + in the wild: vùng hoang dã + hilltop: đỉnh núi + lizard: thằn lằn + migrate (v): di cư + whalers: people for hunt for whales illegally +collision (n): đụng độ -Ask students to match the subheadings with the five parts Key: 1.C2.E3 A4 D5 B Check the answers - Come to the board and write down the matching Stage 3: Modeling the field Activity 3:Choose one of the two species in Activity2 and write a report of 150-200 words to describe it Follow the plan below - Work in groups 39 *Language features: - Discuss the forms of report - Use the Simple Present Tense for current fact - Do as directed - Describe Komodo dragon or Blue whale - Use the Passive Voice and words that show the results - Take note Some - The paragraph is a text presenting an issue It can be structures a spoken or written text of such kinds as a speech, an advertisement, a review, a report … Explain to the students the form of an exposition useful -….are found …They live in… in -Paragraph 2: Physical features and diet -Although they are called …, they look like… -Paragraph 3: Population and conservation status -There are about …… Stage 4: Joint- construction of the field Writing the report -Paragraph 1: Habitat and location of the … Activity 4: Discussion Group 1+2 : - Students work in groups and write their Group 3+4: Divide the class into four groups and ask them to discuss final drafts andwrite the report Ask students to exchange their drafts - Share ideas with other groups with a partner for peer review - Three or four -Come to the board and write down students write the -Exchange writings for peer correction description on the - Ask students to first then giving feedback board Activity 5:Write a report about the species discussed in - Students listen to the teacher’s feedback activity - Ask students to write individually - Move around to conduct the activity Activity 6: Correcting - Introduces peer correction if time allowed - Pick up some writings to correct in front of the class - Tips from language focus the - Write a paragraph individually - Peer correction - Listen to the teacher - Give marks Homework: - Do as required - Ask students to the writing part in workbook and prepare new lesson at home 40 UNIT 7: ARTITIFICAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS: WRITING ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF INTELLIGENT MACHINES I OBJECTIVES:By the end of the lesson, students will be able to : - Writing an essay about the advantages and disadvantages of intelligent machines - Develop the writing skills in general - Build up vocabulary supported for writing II.METHOD: Integrated, mainly communicative III.TEACHING AIDS: TV programmes, textbook, hand outs, pictures… IV.PROCEDURE: Teacher’s Activities Student’s Activities Stage 1: Introducing the field Give a picture of robot and ask students the questions What is this? Do you want to have a robot at home? Why? Why not? - Work in groups - Look at pictures and answer the questions - Ask students to answer - Lead in the advantages and disadvantages of robots Activity 1: Put the following phrases about intelligent robots in the appropriate columns - To provide advantages and disadvantages of intelligent machines - Listen to the teacher - To read the sentences carefully and put the right columns - Do as directed 41 Key: Advantages:2,3,6 Disadvantages:1,4 - Listen to the teacher - Write down Stage 2: Building the field - Activity 2: Read and combine the sentence halves - This activity provides more ideas for the writing task - Ask students to read and match the sentence halves individually - Listen to the teacher - Check the answers D F B A C E - Write down Stage 3: Modeling the field Activity 3: Write an essay of about 220-260 words to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of intelligent robots in industries and medicine - Listen to the teacher - Students plan, and write their drafts individually - Write down Emotive words: most, a lot of, especially, very, almost, - Do as directed too much, only… * Connectors: - Firstly/ First / To begin with / first of all,… - Secondly / Besides, Moreover / Alternatively/ - Finally / Last but not least / … - Because, however, so, although, in addition… - A paragraph is a text presenting one side (for or against) of an argument to persuade the reader or listener It can be a spoken or written text of such 42 kinds as a speech, an advertisement, a review, an - Work in groups argument… - Discuss the advantages * Introduction: giving the writer’s point of view and disadvantages of using intelligent robots * Series of argument: convincing readers - Useful structures: * Conclusion: reaffirming the general issues - Ask students to find out emotive words, connectors, + help/encourage someone to something that are used in the text - T asks them to compare their writing in pairs and + make someone/something + adjective obtain peer feedback - T collects some final drafts and gives feedback Helpful ideas: Introduction: Robots are widely used in the food industry and medicine/they have advantages and disadvantages Body: - Share ideas with other groups Advantages: fewer human workers ,errors, and defects - Write a individually Disadvantages: power failure, malfunction, hackers paragraph Conclusion: help humans improve their lives /a threat to humans or not? - Ask students to first then giving feedback - Give students a chart and explain to them the form of a exposition Expositions ↕ Introduction Arguments Conclusion Writer’s point of view (+ a preview of the argument/ a question or emotional statement) Paragraphs Reaffirming with topic general issues sentences+ emotive words *Language features: - Use the simple present tense for timeless statements & current fact 43 - Use of words that express feelings (emotive words) - Use of words that show the writer’s attitude - Use of words that link cause and effect *Features of a good argument: - Clear point of view - Generalizations/ reasons to support argument - Evidence to prove or support - Cause and effect Stage 4: Joint Construction Activity 4: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using intelligent robots Group 1+2:Discuss about the advantages Group 3+4: Discuss about the disadvantages - Divide the class into groups and ask them to discuss then complete the table below Introduction - Argument Firstly/ First / To begin with / first of all,… (advantage) -Argument (advantage) Secondly / Besides, Moreover / Alternatively/… - Do as directed - Listen to the teacher Argument - Finally / Last but not least / … (disadvantage) Conclusion In conclusion, To sum up, On balance, In short,… - Guide students to and then ask them to share ideas with other groups 44 - Ask students to pay attention to the basic structures - Listen to the teacher used in the table - Move round to help if necessary - Correct if necessary Activity 5:Write a paragraph about the advantages and - Individually disadvantages of using intelligent robots in activity - Ask students to write individually - Move around to conduct the activity Activity 6: Correcting - Introduces peer correction if time allowed - Pick up some writings to correct in front of the class - Peer correction - Give marks Homework: - Ask students to the writing part in workbook and prepare new lesson at home - Do as directed 45 APPENDIX 9: SOME STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES AND WRITING PRODUCTS 46 47 48