exploiting model essays in teaching ielts writing to students in foundation studies department hanoi university

List of tables and figures Table 1: Summary of IELTS writing teachers Table 2: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task 1 Table 3: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

TRẦN THỊ THU HƯỜNG

EXPLOITING MODEL ESSAYS IN TEACHING IELTS WRITING

TO STUDENTS IN FOUNDATION STUDIES DEPARTMENT,

HANOI UNIVERSITY

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TEFL)

Hanoi, May 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Methods of the study 3

1.6 An overview of the rest of the paper 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Overview 5

2.1.1 IELTS test 5

2.1.2 IELTS Writing test 5

2.1.3 Model essays 6

2.2 Context of teaching IELTS Writing 9

2.2.1 In Vietnam 9

2.2.2 In Foundation Studies Department, Hanoi University 9

2.3 Related studies and fitness of the present study into the field 10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 12

3.1 Participants 12

3.2 Instruments 13

3.3 Data collection procedure 14

3.5 Data analysis procedure 15

CHAPTER 14: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 16

4.1 Results 16

4.1.1 Research question 1 16

4.1.2 Research question 2 21

4.1.3 Research question 3 24

4.2 Discussion of results 26

4.2.1 Research question 1 26

4.2.2 Research question 2 28

4.2.3 Research question 3 30

CHAPTER 5: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 32

5.1 When to exploit model essays 32

5.2 What elements to exploit from model essays 33

5.3 How to exploit model essays 34

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 38

List of tables and figures

Table 1: Summary of IELTS writing teachers

Table 2: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task 1

Table 3: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task 2

Figure 1: Aspects of model essays most exploited by teachers in IELTS Writing Task 1 Figure 2: Aspects of model essays most exploited by teachers in IELTS Writing Task 2

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The first chapter states the research problem and justifies the rationale for the study Afterwards, three research questions, the aims, scope as well as the methods of the study are presented The chapter ends with an overview of later chapters, which acts as a clear outline for the whole paper

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

Over the decades, there have been a growing number of English learners wishing to study at tertiary level in English speaking countries As a result, many non-native students are trained to go through English language tests such as the International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS), which is widely recognized as a language requirement for entering universities mainly in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand

In the standardized IELTS test, academic essay writing is one of the important skills which international students must acquire both for their prospective studies in English-mediated courses and for obtaining the required score in the writing section However, due

to the complexities of learning to write well in a second language, there has been vigorous debate on more effective teaching methods and feedback among many IELTS writing teachers In recent years, several studies on strategic tools for teaching IELTS writing

have been conducted Emerged from Rick VanDeWeghe’s theory about teaching:

“whatever we want our students to do well, we first have to show them how” (2006), the

use of model essays as one type of strategic tool, unquestioningly plays a crucial role in

assisting teachers to better facilitate students in their writing skills Being intrigued to further explore how teachers apply this efficient tool, the researcher makes investigation in the context of Vietnam for two main reasons

Initially, in Vietnam recently, teaching IELTS is getting more and more popular in

a larger proportion of educational settings to meet the learners’ demand However, research

on methods or tools for teaching IELTS in general and IELTS writing in particular has just kept a modest number As far as the researcher could find, there has been no research delving into the exploitation of model essays in teaching IELTS writing Therefore, the

researcher hopes to fill this gap to certain extent by digging deeper into the exploitation of this powerful teaching tool Secondly, referring to Vietnamese pedagogical context, teaching IELTS writing is proven to be challenging due to its nature as well as the high pressure of achieving the target band score Such a fact highly demonstrated the need for researching ways, strategies or tools that help promote effective teaching Among those teaching tools, model essays are selected to be the subject matter of investigation The researcher expects the study can provide guidelines for Vietnamese teachers to fully employ model essays as substantial assistance for teaching IELTS writing

In Foundation Studies Department of Hanoi University, where IELTS has been taught as one subject to prepare students for the final conditional test, writing section has kept a part of every lesson Nevertheless, due to a number of reasons, teaching writing component still appears hard for teachers owing to their ineffective application of strategic tools In this context, the researcher feels an urge to carry out a study on employing model essays as one efficient teaching tool to guide students for the IELTS writing sub-test at the end of term

1.2 Aims of the study

At the outset, this study is an attempt to shed more light on what aspects teachers explore from the model essays to teach IELTS writing in the target educational setting Moreover, this study also aims at investigating some difficulties for teachers when employing model essays as a teaching tool Finally, through discovering those problems, the paper could also serve as a detailed proposal to efficiently exploit model essays in facilitating students to perform better in IELTS writing test

In order to achieve the abovementioned aims, the study will be conducted to answer three research questions:

1 What aspects of model essays do teachers exploit to teach IELTS writing in class?

2 What challenges do teachers probably face when employing model essays in teaching IELTS writing?

3 What measures could be taken to help teachers overcome those challenges?

1.3 Significance of the study

As the present study investigated the use of model essays to teach IELTS writing in Foundation Studies Department, its benefits to the target population, which are the teachers

of Foundation Studies Department are substantial Specifically, the study serves as: firstly,

an overall review of what aspects of model essays have been employed in teaching IELTS writing; secondly, a critical analysis of challenges of applying these strategic tools; and lastly, a concrete proposal to exploit them effectively in teaching IELTS writing in the investigated department Apart from that, teachers who have been teaching IELTS writing

in other educational settings throughout the country can also benefit tremendously from this paper

1.4 Scope of the study

The study focused on exploiting model essays to teach writing in IELTS format in particular, not writing skill in general Apart from that, due to the small scale of the study, only Foundation Studies Department, Hanoi University was chosen as the research setting The samples of the study, as a result, were restricted to eight teachers This number of participants is sufficient to provide valid and reliable information, the contributions of which are vital to the success of the study Students were not involved because the research exclusively delved into how exploitation of model essays assisted the teaching of IELTS, not the learning process

1.5 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aforementioned aims, the study applied such methods as follows

As for data collection methods, interviews and observations were delivered to

collect data Semi-structured interviews were conducted among eight teachers from different eight classes in Foundation Studies Department For lesson observations, two were done and chosen as representative samples to be analyzed in order to validate the data collected from the first instrument

As for data analysis methods, the researcher recorded all eight interviews and

they were then transcribed, analyzed and synthesized so as to provide a deeper insight into

the matter Regarding two lesson observations, detailed descriptions were provided first, followed by in-depth analyses

1.6 An overview of the rest of the paper

The rest of the paper includes five chapters as follows:

Chapter 2 provides the background of the study, including a review on key concepts relating to the research topic This chapter also briefly discusses the literature in the field to reveal the research gap that needs to be filled

Chapter 3 presents the research methods adopted in the study Justifications of the chosen research instruments as well as their implementation are also provided

Chapter 4 reveals the results of the research and gives critical interpretations and analyses of those results Subsequently, the discussion refers back to the literature in the research areas to show both the similarities and differences in the findings

Chapter 5 gives recommendations for employing model essays effectively to teach IELTS Writing at the target department from pedagogical perspectives

Chapter 6 summarizes the major findings of the study, and then indicates some contributions as well as limitations of the study In addition, suggestions for further study are put forward Following this chapter are Appendices and References

Conclusion

In brief, the chapter has discussed the research problem, rationale for the study, significance, scope as well as methods of the study Ending the chapter is the overview of the rest of the paper With such contents, this chapter acts as a guideline or orientation for the development of the later chapters of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction

This chapter gives an overview of the literature of the study, including the key concepts and related research in the field to disclose the research gap, which will be filled

to a certain extent by the present study Simultaneously, it also provides the context of teaching IELTS writing in Vietnam in general and in the investigated department in particular

2.1 Overview

2.1.1 IELTS test

IELTS is a set of examinations managed by the British Council, the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, and IDP IELTS Australia IELTS has become increasingly

recognized as a “secure, valid and reliable indicator of true to life ability to communicate

in English for education, immigration and professional accreditation” (UCLES, 2007,

p.3) It has been adopted by many English-medium universities all over the world, mainly

in the United Kingdom and Australia

There are two modules in IELTS, namely academic and general The former is for candidates expecting to study at tertiary level, while the latter is mainly for immigration purposes

The test is divided into four sections: speaking, listening, reading, and writing Speaking and listening sections in both general and academic module are the same while reading and writing tasks are completely different This study particularly works on the academic module, which serves study purposes

2.1.2 IELTS writing test

2.1.2.1 Test format

The IELTS writing test (academic module) embraces two distinct tasks In Task 1, examinees are required to write a short description of information presented in the visual data such as charts, tables and diagram The minimum length of their essay is 150 words

In Task 2, candidates are expected to write an argumentative essay in response to controversial issue or emerging problem They have to show an ability to demonstrate an

argument from a certain standpoint, suggest the solution and justify their opinion by drawing on their own knowledge and experience The candidate must write at least 250 words (UCLES, 2007, p.3)

2.1.2.2 Assessment Criteria

Each task is marked separately and the total score is reported on a scale of 1 to 9 at intervals of 0.5 Although the total band for the writing section is calculated by marking results for both, the weight of Task 2 is more than Task 1 The official assessment criteria for Task 1 and Task 2 are as follows:

(1) Task Achievement (Task 1) / Task Response (Task 2): This examines how much

candidates fulfill task requirements using the limited number of words Task achievement refers to how visual data is described whereas task response is whether candidates construct

an argument responding to the matter given in the task and whether the argument is supported by their knowledge, personal experiences, solid evidence, and concrete examples

(2) Coherence and Cohesion: these two criteria relates to the clarity and fluency of

the passage Specifically, coherence means how each sentence and paragraph are logically linked and cohesion concerns the proper use for cohesive device (e.g., conjunction, pronoun, repetition of synonym) to achieve the referential relationships between sentences and paragraphs

(3) Lexical Resource: This refers to the range of vocabulary the candidate uses and

how appropriate the use of vocabulary is

(4) Grammatical Range and Accuracy: This criterion examines how variedly and

accurately the candidate uses grammatical resources at sentence-level

means a text composed by a non-native writer Another difference between these two types lies in the quality Sample essays can be either good or bad but for any essays regarded as model, they must be of good quality This is evidenced by Slater Stephen (2009, p.12):

“Model essays are the examples of certain documents that have strict requirements

They are the guides that help students to write different kinds of essays They serve as a framework, helping the students to follow the main issues and include necessary information in their own work.”

This study exclusively investigates the use of model essays composed by a native or

native-like proficiency writer

2.1.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of model essays

• It provides writing assistance Students may use writing samples as a guide in

creating their own works The examples may help students directly on how to make their own compositions Some of these are actually instructive, providing significant pointers

aiming to help students “crop up an extremely impressive job”

• It enhances students’ work Students’ work may truly be improved when the author takes the time to read other writer’s thoughts Examining these works may “add gist and intensify the expression of reasons and important arguments.”

• It serves as a writing source, when necessary It is normally required for papers to

have a specific number of sources to be used and students may benefit from written

samples that are now widely available by “using intelligent quotes and striking remarks written by impressive authors”

Furthermore, Ferris and Hedgcock (1998) argue that writers have to be exposed to various types of reading material since it is difficult to acquire writing skills by only writing He also argues that given the opportunities to learn the available model texts, learners can eventually apply their knowledge about those texts to their writing Before that, Smagorinsky (1992) discusses that model essays are the most helpful tool if writers have a sufficient amount of content knowledge

Writing instruction with model essays has also been criticized by other researchers (Collins & Gentner, 1980; Judy, 1980) for laying emphasis not on content but on form They insist that language form and the content of composition are inseparable There has been agreement that reading model essays is important but not totally sufficient (Ferris and Hedgcock, 1998; Hyland, 2003) In short, due to those limitations, teachers are required to have full awareness as well as flexibility in certain circumstances

Finally, Kees Dave (2009) raised the issue of “complex high-level language” in model essays as another drawback “What students need is language that is at their target level or very slightly above This kind of language is accessible This kind of language is highly learnable” Model essays, however, often times embrace complicated language or structures as they are composed by “a native or a writer of native-like proficiency”

2.2 Context of teaching IELTS writing

2.2.1 In Vietnam

In recent years, thanks to the economic development and global integration, the number of Vietnamese students who wish to study in English speaking countries is getting higher and higher, leading to the increasing demand for learning IELTS Henceforth, a large proportion of new English language centers have been established throughout the country to address the learning needs Students of all levels, from elementary to intermediate have taken part in a series of IELTS preparation courses to get themselves well-equipped with sufficient knowledge of English

Innovatively, in Vietnam now, not only such English language centers provide IELTS classes, some colleges, universities and academies have also started to officially train their students language skills for IELTS Implementation of IELTS textbooks have been monitored and achieved success to some extent The context of teaching IELTS in Vietnam, therefore has been far improved than some decades ago

2.2.2 In Foundation Studies Department, Hanoi University

Established in 1959, Hanoi University has always held a high rank in the top list of educational settings which train and produce the most competent students of foreign languages throughout the city

Since 2005, several new departments (which do not specialize in languages but other majors) have been founded such as IT, Banking and Finance, Tourism Management etc However, those departments of Hanoi University differ from their counterparts in other universities in that students have to learn their majors in English, which is not their mother tongue In the first year, students learn to consolidate their English to achieve IELTS overall band score of at least 6.0 Foundation Studies Department, therefore, was born to assist those students as it exclusively trains and equips non-English majors in their first year with sufficient knowledge of English to pass the conditional IELTS test If students cannot achieve such a target band score, they are not allowed to continue their major courses in the aforementioned departments (IT, Tourism management, Banking and Finance etc.)

Due to such a demanding target, teaching and learning IETLS is recognized as compulsory and crucial Both teachers and students in Foundation Studies Department have been working seriously on IELTS in every course Regarding teaching IELTS writing

in specific, the design of appropriate syllabus for one-year program, implementation of both general English and IELTS textbooks have been revised and re-adapted from year to year to best suit the learning needs

2.3 Related studies and fitness of the present study into the field

As one of the most powerful tools for teaching writing, the use of model essays has been discussed in several studies David C Hughes (1999) in his research named

“The use of model essays to reduce context effects in essay scoring” revealed the

existence of context effects in the scoring of essays He also emphasized on the effectiveness of providing scorers with model essays to reduce the influence of context Although his findings were unquestioningly illuminating and served very well the educational purposes, there were still some limitations Firstly, his paper purely delved into the exploitation of model essays to prevent learners from context effects in order to score high in their academic writing Other outstanding benefits of model essays were not investigated, which left a gap for the researcher to fill in Secondly, David C Hughes just mentioned the matter of essay writing in general, not IELTS writing in particular

Concerning IELTS writing, there have been some investigations into effective

strategic tools for teachers In the paper named “The IELTS Writing Test - text issues and teaching strategies”, Slater Stephen (2002) explored some of the issues surrounding

candidate performance on the Writing section of the IELTS test and discussed some

practical strategies for assisting the written performance of IELTS test candidates

Nevertheless, the paper gave a list of strategic tools for teaching IELTS writing and did not focus on any particular tool Model essays, therefore, were not thoroughly researched

as a way to improve students’ writing in IELTS test

The exploitation of model essays in teaching IELTS writing was closely

investigated in a rare paper named “Exploring the role of model essays in the IELTS

WRITING test: A feedback tool” by Abe Makoto (2008) She attempted to identify the

role of a model essay as a feedback tool for writing instruction More specifically, her

paper aimed to reveal how Japanese ESL students notice their language problems by comparing their own writing with a model essay in the context of preparation for the IELTS writing test Obviously, Makoto Abe is oriented to investigate the role of model

essays perceived by IELTS students The research gap is that teachers’ perspectives on

the usefulness of model essays and ways to exploit them in teaching have hardly ever been researched As a result, this gap has intrigued the researcher to conduct a study on

“Exploiting model essays in teaching IELTS WRITING to ESL students in Foundation Studies Department, Hanoi University” Also, the scope of the study is narrowed with

different groups of target participants, namely ESL students in Foundation Studies Department, who have been learning IELTS in one-year program with the target band score of 6.0

Conclusion

This chapter has provided an overview of the relevant literature in the field of study, namely the definitions of key terms, the context of teaching IELTS writing in Vietnam and in the investigated department, and finally a review of related study to expose the research gap Those will be referred back in the following chapters

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY Introduction

This chapter embraces the main points regarding the methodology applied in the study, namely the participants, research instruments as well as data collection procedure In addition, it is notable that data analysis will be delayed until the next chapter- Results and Discussion

3.1 Participants

Teachers in Foundation Studies Department as respondents actively took part in the data collection procedure with the total number of eight, the majority of whom are female

In fact, eight was not a big number but it was enough for in-depth interviews, which aimed

at exploiting the “real and rich” data (Freeman & Long, 1991, p.12) Besides, as the study exclusively investigated the role of model essays from teaching perspectives, teachers are the sole participants Their students in IELTS class, therefore, were not involved

The researcher purposefully selected teachers of different teaching experience in the target department, ranging from three to five years Those with five-year experience could provide an overview of the context of teaching IELTS through years and evaluation

of the development while those with less-than-five-year experience showed their recognition of innovations in the teaching methodology Description of teachers was

summarized in Table 1 below:

Class Number Years of teaching IELTS writing

3.2 Instruments

In order to sufficiently collect reliable and valid data for the study, face-to-face interviews and lesson observations were fully employed as powerful research methods The combination of the two instruments helped enhance the preciseness of data since data

collected from one method could “help to inform and refine” the other (Hancock, 1988,

p.12)

3.2.1 Interviews

Ten semi-interviews were conducted among teachers of Foundation Studies Department Each lasted for an average of fifty to twenty minutes Every interview consisted of two parts, namely personal information and the main content with the latter being the focus Purposefully, the face-to-face interviews were conducted among teachers

to achieve the aim of addressing all three research questions With the approval of all subjects, all of the talks were tape-recorded for later reference Language for interviews was mainly Vietnamese due to the preference of all respondents This choice of language did not threaten the reliability of data collected In stead, it helped consolidate the preciseness of data as well as avoid any misunderstanding among both interviewers and interviewees

Unarguably, the exploitation of semi-structured interviews was advantageous in two aspects First, the researcher both closely followed a list of questions and flexibly extended the content to best exploit the information from interviewees As asserted by

Mathers, Fox and Hunn (1998), semi-structured interviews provided “opportunities for both interviewer and interviewee to discuss some topics in more details” Hancock (1998, p.7) also emphasized on the advantage of offering “a richness and depth of information” and the chances to “obtain a variety of responses from the interviewees” As a result, the interviewer could flexibly develop the free-flowing talks to make the most of information

Secondly, through verbal talks, the interviewer could recognize the interviewees’ attitudes towards the investigated issue through their non-verbal expressions, then check whether or

not they conveyed the reliable answers “Real and rich data” was then could be

guaranteed (Freeman & Long, 1991, p.12)

Briefly, thanks to the assistance of semi-structured interviews, in-depth data was gathered, which helped address the three research questions It is worth mentioning that teachers, the interviewees, through face-to-face talks, provided a variety of explanations, elaborations as well as pedagogical-oriented recommendations to fully address the last research question

3.2.3 Lesson observations

Due to the scope of the study and the rich amount of data gathered, two observations were done and selected as a representative samples The researcher purposefully chose to observe lessons of two out of eight interviewed teachers to double check the data collected from them Observation scheme and criteria checklist were applied for later descriptions and analyses

The first observed lesson was on IELTS Writing Task 1 and the other entirely focused on Task 2 They took place in two different classes with the duration of 90 minutes for each Critical analyses of teacher’s exploitation of model essays would be discussed in details in the following chapter- Results and Discussion

The application of lesson observations could be explained for one reason As

pointed out by Gajendia, V & Kanka, M.(1999), observation was” a tool for collecting information without directly questioning on the part of researcher” It proved to be an appropriate and effective instrument to refine and re-check the reliability of data gathered

from interviews

Overall, the two data collection instruments, namely semi-structured interviews and lesson observations, were implemented in order to best gather a sufficient amount of needed information

3.3 Data collection procedure

The process of collecting data could be divided into four main phases, which are elaborated on as follows

Phase 1: The initial stage was making careful preparations for the main task of

collecting data in the investigated place Specifically, questions in in-depth interviews were designed, based on three research questions The researcher always considered to keep all

personal information of participants confidential and anonymous for ethical reasons Apart from that, pilot interviews were also conducted with voluntary respondents, the results of

which were seriously taken into account in order to produce the best final versions

In addition, for the preparation for lesson observations, close contacts with teachers

at the investigated setting were built up so that permission for observation was obtained in advance

Phase 2: The second stage took place at the target department, where face to face

interviews were conducted among the participants Normally, all of the interviews were preceded by establishing a good rapport between the researcher and the respondents

Henceforth, all participants felt free and comfortable to participate in ten interviews

Following verbal interviews was the application of two lesson observations Audio records along with a checklist of criteria for observations were done so that the researcher could have detailed reference to consult when analyzing

Phase 3: The last phase was synthesizing and classifying the data collected from interviews and lesson observation As regards interviews, some abstracts including

contributive information were fully transcribed For two selected lesson observations, their checklist of criteria was summarized, from which assessments and analyses were

undertaken

3.4 Data analysis procedure

Face-to-face interviews were recorded, transcribed, analyzed and summarized in order to provide a deeper insight into the research matter

For the lesson observations, detailed descriptions of two observed writing lessons together with the criteria checklist were done first Then in-depth analyses on the exploitation of model essay in real IELTS writing lessons were carried out in such a critical way to make the most of collected data

It was noteworthy that all the results gathered from two methods would be comprehensively analyzed and discussed in the following chapter- Results and Discussion

Conclusion

All in all, the chapter has justified the methodology applied in the present study by clarifying four aspects, namely participants, instruments, data collection as well as data analysis procedure The presentation along with the interpretation of findings will be elaborated on in the up-coming chapter

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Introduction

This chapter covers two separate sections, including Results and Discussion of results In the former section, there is a comprehensive presentation and interpretation of findings in accordance with three research questions, which paves the way for further discussion in the latter section Justifications and analyses of the collected results are also provided in connection with those of the literature in the field

Regarding Task 1, language use was most frequently exploited from the model

essays with the dominant proportion of teachers’ votes, at 75% The use of vocabulary proved to be the focus of all IELTS writing task 1 lessons, as asserted by teacher 1 (T1):

“Describing charts or graphs in English is completely new to Vietnamese students

So it is vital that teachers provide students with enough language input Particularly in Task 1, two typical kinds of language are language for trend and for comparison I often use model essays to show students clearly how to use those two kinds of language.”

To advocate the exploitation of language use, T6 added: “When delivering model essays for Task 1 to my students, I usually tell them to underline verbs, nouns, adjectives or adverbs that describe the data Then I ask them to discuss how those words are used And

it works very well in my lessons.”

Occupying the second biggest percentage (62.5%) was data description, which

referred to how to interpret and compare data effectively in Task 1

“Reading a chart or a diagram”, said T7, “is often complicated and problematic to

my students Even if they can understand the information in the chart, they may not know how to organize their description of data: where to start, what data to highlight, how to compare data together etc That is why I always use model essays and give students chances to see and analyze how the writer describes and compares data A given essay seems to be the most convenient tool to teach students how to write about statistics.”

Another teacher (T3) indicated data description as one distinctive feature of IELTS

Writing Task 1: “IELTS Writing test differs from that of TOEFL, GMAT or any other tests

in that students have to describe visual information (data) presented in charts, diagrams…Thus, when teaching Task 1, this is what I focus on”

The analysis of sentence types or structures in model essays came third with one quarter of teachers’ votes Essay organization, predictably, captured only a modest rate of

participants, namely 12.5% and appeared to be the least exploited item on the list This was evidenced by T4:

“Unlike in Writing Task 2, IELTS Format in Task 1 is not so difficult for students to follow All my students know very well the structure of one essay for Task 1 They are well aware of what to write in the introduction, main body and conclusion after some beginning lessons Therefore, I don’t have to spend time analyzing the essay organization anymore.”

Figure 1: Aspects of model essays most exploited by

teachers in IELTS Writing Task 1

on IELTS Writing Task 1, in which language use and data description were exploited

with high frequency The lesson, which aimed at describing line graph, was divided into two stages In the first stage, teacher gave an introduction of what made a line graph, then provided students with language for trends to describe the data A number of practice exercises on how to use this kind of language were afterwards delivered to ensure students’ understanding The first stage lasted for roughly 45 minutes, exclusively focusing on

language use Turning to the second stage, teacher asked students to read a model essay on

a particular line graph about wheat exports in three regions The model essay was designed

in gap-filling activities, aimed to test students’ use of language for trends This activity took students 10 minutes to complete, followed by guiding questions related to how to describe data Obviously, the model essay was used first for reviewing language, then for

analyzing the description of data The results from observation, therefore, reinforced the reliability of data collected from face-to-face interviews

Concerning Task 2, the rating revealed a striking difference from that of Task 1

Language use no longer captured the largest percentage It was voted by only a modest

proportion of respondents, namely 25%

T4 who highly recommended the analysis of language use in Task 1 said: “In

contrast to Task 1, language use in Task 2 is rarely what I select to analyze from model essays Topics in Task 2 varied greatly, so it is very difficult for teachers to teach students how to remember and use vocabulary I focus more on the ideas and arguments.”

Another major dissimilarity was attributed to the figure of essay organization This

element in Task 1 was rated by only one teacher while in Task 2 five out of eight teachers

voted for it, making essay organization the second most regularly exploited T8 showed

her opinion as such:

“If in Task 1, students are asked to describe data only, in Task 2 they have to do more jobs: justify opinion, discuss argument or suggest solutions to certain problem All those different jobs require students to write different types of essay, each of which has particular structure As a result, I focus more on essay organization in Task 2”

The selection of essay organization was supported by T5 as such: “Actually, I have

to be very selective to choose model essays because several of them do not follow strictly IELTS Task 2 format The essays I chose to bring into class must be some kind of standard

so that I feel confident to teach my students about essay organization for particular type in Task 2.”

Striking, 100% teachers indicated idea delivery as the most useful aspect to

employ from the model essays All eight interviewees met in agreement that the exploitation of idea delivery was definitely beneficial to their teaching In contrast,

sentence types/structures, along with language use shared the lowest rate, at 25%

The high frequency of idea delivery was justified by T7:

“If Task 1 typically referred to how to describe data, Task 2 is distinctive in how to deliver ideas or arguments There is no reason why I should not exploit this aspect from

the model essays to teach my students how to write When my students are fully conscious

of the effective ways to express ideas and opinions, they will perform very well in their essay.”

Approving upon the employment of idea delivery from model essay, T3 added:

“Model essays are very beneficial for students to notice the convincingness of good ideas When students have opportunities to read a good piece of writing, they will be impressed

by how the author supports their opinions Then it will be the right time for teachers to encourage students to learn how to argue in Task 2.”

Figure 2: Aspects of model essays most exploited by teachers

in IELTS Writing Task 2

ideas about the topic After a ten-minute discussion, teacher elicited students’ answers, then delivered a model essay to students for reading and analyzing First, teacher

encouraged students to figure out the essay structure/organization and make an outline When the outline was written, teacher asked students to focus only on idea delivery

Students were permitted to collaborate to work on this aspect in 20 minutes Afterwards, they were motivated to present their analyses on how main points were delivered and

supported by sub points Apparently, the element of idea delivery in the model essay was

exploited to the fullest Teacher was very creative to ask students actively explore this aspect by themselves, which assisted students a great deal in their learning how to write an argument-led essay

In conclusion, both findings from interviews and lesson observations reinforced the reliability as well as validity of data collected, which helped fully address the very first research question

4.1.2 Research question 2: Challenges teachers probably face when employing model essays in teaching IELTS writing

As emphasized by T5, “model essays are a very useful kind of teaching tools but it

is not simple to make full use of them”, all eight teachers confronted certain stumbling

blocks when they utilized model essays to teach IELTS writing

In terms of Task 1, it was convincingly evidenced by Table 4 that using model essays to explain how to describe data effectively appeared to be most challenging to three

quarters of the respondents

“Describing figures in charts or tables is a completely new task to almost all students”, said T5, “As a teacher, I can work out the way very quickly from the model, but explaining it for students is not simple at all Lots of them do not know how to read the data, thus are very weak at understanding the description of data ”

Sharing the same opinion with T5, T8 asserted that:“I find it quite hard to make students see clearly what to do with the data in particular chart Some charts are simple to students to read the data but others are not So, for more complicated charts, even when I provide students with model answers and explain explicitly for them, many are still confused.”

Predictably, the job of selecting appropriate model essays was not an easy task for

half of IELTS writing teachers:

“Well, actually I have a lot of IELTS books and references but choosing a good model essays still bothers me a lot Before deciding on one, I have to think about the level, the language, the style etc Are they suitable for my students? You know, if we select on the wrong one, we will fail to teach our demanding students.”

Only one quarter of teachers mentioned the difficulty in designing relevant activities to make full use of model essays This complaint is given by T7 as follows:

“If we just give students to model to read all the time, it will be so boring I always try to think of activities related to the model essay so that I can make full use of it But sometimes I run out of ideas and have few things to exploit from the model one.”

Finally, the trouble of teaching students how to apply good sentence structures from model essays bothered only one teacher It seemed that guiding students at sentence-

level is not a hard job for almost all respondents

Using model essays to explain how to describe data

effectively

75%

Selecting appropriate model essays 50%

Designing relevant activities to make full use of model

essays

25%

Teaching students how to apply good sentence structures

from model essays

12.5%

Table 2: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task 1

As regards to Task 2, it is interesting that teachers shared the same two difficulties

as in Task 1, namely selecting appropriate model essays and designing relevant activities

to make full use model essays While the former still accounted for second largest

proportion of teachers’ votes, the latter made up only one third of that with 25% This finding revealed that fact that in both Task 1 and Task 2, selecting appropriate model essays proved to be the major challenge to almost all teachers

Prominently, the majority of teachers (87.5%) found troubles with illustrating how ideas are delivered and support each other in Task 2

With more than 3 years of teaching IELTS, T5 shared her approval upon this

matter: “What challenges my students most in Task 2 is giving argument and supporting it They are short of background knowledge and ideas for particular topics in IELTS Therefore, I usually exploit ideas from model essays to teach my students But I have difficulty with illustrating how ideas are delivered and support each other “

“Sometimes, I am not so successful in showing students how the writer of the model essay supports his ideas”, T2 added, “I have to point out which are the main ideas and which are just supporting details However, some model essays might not have clear idea delivery And that leads to students’ confusion.”

Lastly, the job of using model essays to analyze IELTS format for different types

of essays was difficult to only two out of eight teachers T6 illustrated this challenge by

comparing IELTS format in Task 1 and that in Task 2:

“Format for Task 2 is more complicated than Task 1 In Task 2, we have three different types of essay, each of which has its own format Teachers, therefore, have to be very clear about the format for specific type But the problem is not all model essays follow strictly the format And it causes troubles ”

Those results are summarized in table 5 as follows:

Illustrating how ideas are delivered and support each

other

87.5%

Selecting appropriate model essays 75%

Designing relevant activities to make full use of model

In brief, no matter what obstacles those teachers encountered, they all reached an agreement that “fully utilizing model essays is a difficult task” Although they advocated the use of model essays in IELTS Writing lessons, they all admitted not making the best of those teaching tools due to those aforesaid stumbling blocks

4.1.3 Research question 3: Suggested measures to overcome those challenges

Unquestioningly, those obstacles, to some extent, affected negatively the effectiveness of the lessons However, when being asked whether teachers had any solutions to address those problems, they all said “yes” and appeared to be very enthusiastic to share experience

 Tackling the challenge of using model essays to explain how to describe data

effectively (for Task 1) and illustrating how ideas are delivered and support each other

(for Task 2)

While Task 1 exclusively required the candidates to describe data in charts or diagrams, Task 2 placed the focus on how to argue about a particular topic Though these two tasks were completely different, many teachers applied the same procedure to exploit

the model essays in their teaching They proposed three steps, namely provision of time for students’ analyses and discovery of the model essays, elicitation of students’ ideas and teachers’ wrap-up This three-step procedure, as stated by T5, must be strictly

followed in order to ensure the logics of the lesson:

“After I give students to model to read, I first let them work on their own to

discover how data is described by the writer (task 1) As they have finished their work, I

will then elicit their ideas I let them openly express how they understand the description

from the model essay Sometimes I may ask them to write the outline of the description on the board for the whole class to see When all ideas are collected from the students, I

started to voice my comments and wrap up the ideas At this point, I make the final

conclusion on how to describe the data in Task 1.”

 Tackling the challenge of choosing appropriate model essays (in Task 1 & Task 2)

It was advised by three teachers that considering students’ level as well as the focus of the lesson would definitely helped teachers to select a suitable model essay For

the former suggestion, T1 gave her explanation as follows:

“If the model essay is too complicated for students to understand, it fails to help teachers I therefore tend to choose the one with simple use of vocabulary together with simple structures You know, my students are just of intermediate level.”

Another teacher particularly emphasized on taking the focus of the lesson into

account: “Any lesson must have the focus The model essay we choose, as a result, must helps stress on the focus There may be a lot of interesting model answers, but teachers have to choose the one that has something to serve the focus of the lesson.”

 Tackling the challenge of designing relevant activities to make full use of model

essays ( in both Task 1 and Task 2)

As confirmed by T7, it would be boring to just give students the model essays to read without doing something else with it Thus, it was teachers’ job to create related activities to make the most of the model, which seemed not easy at all In order to cope

with this stumbling block, T7 laid emphasis on the consideration of three aspects: skill, language and students’ interests To elaborate on this, T7 asserted:

“The activities play a crucial role in exploiting model essays to the fullest However, when designing activities, teachers must be very clear about their own purpose

To be more specific, the activities are skill-focused, or language-focused or simply to interest students and motivate them I’m sure when teachers know very well what they will

do with model essays, the activities will be relevant and assist effectively their teaching.”

 Tackling the challenge of teaching students how to apply good sentence structures

from model essays (in Task 1)

To overcome this obstacle, T6 indicated the repeated introduction of structures along with teacher’s regular encouragement and correction as one feasible solution

She highlighted the need for regular check by teachers

“The point is”, said T6, “if we just introduce the structures once only, students will soon forget them Teachers should repeatedly introduce the structures and constantly encourage them to apply those structures into their own writing A lot of students just know and understand the structures, but have no intention to use them So to avoid this situation, teachers had better remind students of applying the structures they learn, then check and correct their work.”

 Tackling the challenge of using model essays to analyze IELTS format for

different types of essays (in Task 2)

Two out of eight teachers agreed upon on the fact that not all model essays for Task

2 follow the same format, making it troublesome for them to guide students how to

organize their writing To address this problem, teachers both vote for the carefulness in

selecting model essays As reasoned by T2, “it is vital to choose the very standard one

Model essays are available in many IELTS books but teachers need to be selective Choose the ones with clear and logical structures.” This solution, unquestioningly, was

enormously helpful in erasing students’ confusion

In summary, all eight respondents proposed many feasible solutions to certain difficulties they confronted when employing model essays in writing class Such measures would be seriously taken into consideration and justified in the following chapter – Pedagogical Implications and Recommendations

The present study indicated that teachers exploited four elements from model

essays, three of which were the same in both Task 1 and Task 2, namely language use, essay organization, sentence types/structures The distinctive aspect in Task 1 was data description whereas Task 2 was characterized by idea delivery Predictably, reason for teachers’ exploitation of those four elements for each task originates from four assessment criteria for IELTS Writing Test, specifically Task achievement (Task 1)/ Task response

(Task 2), Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical resource and Grammar range & accuracy From teaching perspective, model essays are employed as concrete examples for students to notice how their own essays might be evaluated and marked by IELTS examiners Teachers, accordingly, pick up four elements corresponding to four assessment criteria to guide students how to write effectively, which is a very comprehensible and appropriate method of teaching

 Aspects exploited from model essays in Task 1:

Among four selected elements for Task 1, language use dominated others,

occupying three quarters of teachers’ votes This striking result, surprisingly, closely

coincided with that of Abe Makoto’s study named “Exploring the role of model essays in IELTS writing test: a feedback tool” in 2008 Although Abe Makoto researched the

function of model essays as feedback tool from learners’ perspective, she also figured out

lexical element as “the most frequently verbalized by the participants” Findings from her

study revealed that the majority of the IELTS candidates referred to the discovery of more appropriate, sophisticated, and academic vocabulary in the model essay (77.4%)

Interestingly, such a coincidence is well supported by Moore and Morton (1999), when they compared IELTS writing task items with 155 assignments given in two

Australian universities They found that IELTS Task 1 was “representative of the target language use” In other words, the range of vocabulary differentiated IELTS Task 1 with

other writing tasks The fact that teachers selected the aspect “language use” for full exploitation, therefore, was reasonable

Another prominent element for utilization in Task 1 was data description,

amounting to 62.5% of the total As far as the researcher could find, this result was previously presented by Abe Makoto who made investigation on students’ concern about

“what information in the table/chart should be included in their descriptive essay” In her

study, Makoto sought explanation for this finding from the particular requirement in Task

1 Since the task involves candidates to analyze and interpret data, model essays are valuable sources for them to learn and reflect on how to describe Data description, as a result, is exploited with a fairly high frequency

 Aspects exploited from model essays in Task 2:

Findings for Task 2 revealed a sharp contrast with those for Task 1 Unexpectedly,

language use, the most regular aspect for analysis in Task 1 was not frequently used in

Task 2, making up just the lowest proportion of participants’ votes (25%) This significant result, however, well corresponded with ideas from Moore and Morton (1999) who made

a critical review on IELTS writing test As stated in their review, “IELTS Task 1 was representative of the target language use (TLU) content, while IELTS Task 2, which requires students to agree or disagree with a proposition, did not match exactly with any of

the academic genres in the TLU domain because it was based on prior knowledge as a source of information.”

The most striking finding in Task 2 was attributed to the high frequency of

exploitation of idea delivery which occupied up to 100% of respondents’ votes

Apparently, it was the major element for teachers’ analysis This result, nevertheless, slightly different from that in Abe Makoto’s research Her study put an emphasis on three

main aspects for use, namely lexical, form and content The last element, content, which

“entailed own opinions, knowledge, experiences, evidences, counter-evidences, and supportive ideas”, was the second most regularly exploited by students Here, idea delivery

in the present study, understood as “content” as defined by Abe Makoto was the most outstanding one

A marked dissimilarity between the present study and Abe Makoto’s lies in the

element “essay organization” Makoto named this element “discourse” to refer mainly to

the organization of paragraphs and inter-paragraph cohesion While this aspect was the second most common in the present study, accounting for more than 60% votes, it was least exploited by participants in Abe Makoto’s research

Apparently, both the present study and related ones in the field shared the same indication of four elements However, they differed in the frequency of using them This

difference can be justified by the perspective of teaching and learning The present study

investigated the exploitation of model essays from teachers’ perspective whereas Abe Makoto viewed the research matter from learners’ angle Although both teachers and learners exploit the same aspects from model essays, it does not necessarily mean they use them with the same frequency

4.2.2 Research question 2: Challenges teachers probably face when employing model essays in teaching IELTS writing

One of the most interesting findings from collected data is the shared challenges for

teachers in both Task 1 and Task 2, namely selecting appropriate model essays and designing relevant activities to make full use of model essays

The former troubled half of teachers in Task 1 and three quarters in Task 2 Undeniably, such high rates specify teachers’ constant headache in choosing highly valued model essays to serve their teaching purpose Reason for this obstacle was cited by Kees