The impact of a genre-based approach on 11th students’ writing performance An action research at Tuyen Quang Gifted High School, Tuyen Quang

The impact of a genre-based approach on 11 th students‘ writing performance: An action research at Tuyen Quang Gifted High School, Tuyen Quang Nguyễn Ngọc Hà Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Le Van Canh Năm bảo vệ: 2013 Keywords: Kỹ năng viết; Lớp 11; Tuyên Quang; Phương pháp giảng dạy Content PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the research Writing is one of the four skills that are mandated in the English textbooks for high school students. However, the writing competence leaves much to be desired. Students find it too challenging to write well while teachers feel frustrated. The question is ―how can teachers help to improve students‘ writing in the context of a high school in a mountainous area?‖. Through reading the literature, I was impressed by the idea of teaching writing through a genre-based approach. However, the literature review also showed me that this approach to writing was little researched in Vietnamese high schools. So, 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 my students or not. 2. Aims and objectives of the research The research is aimed at investigating students‘ attitudes towards the genre-based approach, which was new to them, and examining whether this teaching approach helped students to make progress in their writing performance. In order to achieve these aims, the following objectives were set out for the study: 1. To gain understanding of what students like and dislike about the genre-based approach to teaching writing; 2. To identify the extent to which this new approach to teaching writing helped the students to improve their writing performance. The research focused only on the students‘ difficulties in learning the writing skill and the impact of genre-based approach to their writing performance at Tuyen Quang Gifted High School, Tuyen Quang, Vietnam. The research lasted for 5 weeks and the treatment was applied to all students in a classroom. The research mainly focused on 11 th form students majored in Mathematics. 3. The research questions In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the study as presented in section 2, the following research questions were raised: 1. What are the students’attitudes towards learning to write in English with the genre-based approach? 2. To what extent does the use of the genre-based approach help to improve my students’ writing performance? 4. Method of the research Quantitative methods were used in this action research. To be more specific, the questionnaire was an instrument that was applied for collecting the data. Questionnaire responses were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. This research method was aimed at providing information on students‘ attitudes towards, and opinions about, the genre-based approach that their teacher (also the researcher) used. In addition to the questionnaire, students‘ writings were collected and analysed throughout the treatment period to measure the students‘ progress in their writing performance. 5. Structure of the thesis This thesis is divided into three main parts: Part I is the INTRODUCTION. In this part, the rationale of the research, the aims, objectives, research questions, methods of the research, and also its design Part II is the DEVELOPMENT which includes 3 smaller chapters. Chaper I deals with some theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study. Chapter II describes the situation where the research was conducted and the informants involved in the research. It includes the writing tasks in the textbook, research design, the teaching cycle in the study. The method of data collection and its procedures. Chapter III presents the results found out about the impact of genre-based approach to the 11th form students‘ writing performance. This chapter is by far the most dominant one Part III is the CONCLUSION which includes the major findings, concluding remarks and plan for the next research cycle. APPENDICES and REFERENCES are presented in the last pages of the research. REFERENCES 1. Anderson, M., & Anderson, K. (1996). Text types in English 1. Australia: Macmillan Education Australia PTY LTD. 2. Atkinson, D. 2003. Writing and culture in the post-process era. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12: 49-63. 3. Badger, R & White, G. (2000) Product, process and genre: Approaches to writing in EAP. ELT Journal. Oxford University Press in association with the British Council. 4. Badger, R. & G. White. 2000. 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Cambridge: Harvard University Press. . The impact of a genre-based approach on 11 th students‘ writing performance: An action research at Tuyen Quang Gifted High School, Tuyen Quang Nguyễn Ngọc Hà . writing performance at Tuyen Quang Gifted High School, Tuyen Quang, Vietnam. The research lasted for 5 weeks and the treatment was applied to all students in a classroom. The research mainly. collecting the data. Questionnaire responses were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. This research method was aimed at providing information on students‘ attitudes towards, and opinions about,