Exploiting model essays in teaching IELTS writing to students in Foundation Studies Department Hanoi University. M.A Thesis Linguistics

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 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Acknowledgement i Abstract ii List of tables and figures v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 An overview of the rest of the paper CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview 2.1.1 IELTS test 2.1.2 IELTS Writing test 2.1.3 Model essays 2.2 Context of teaching IELTS Writing 2.2.1 In Vietnam 2.2.2 In Foundation Studies Department, Hanoi University 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 iv 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 16 4.1.2 Research question 21 4.1.3 Research question 24 4.2 Discussion of results 26 4.2.1 Research question 26 4.2.2 Research question 28 4.2.3 Research question 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 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III v List of tables and figures Table 1: Summary of IELTS writing teachers Table 2: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task Table 3: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task Figure 1: Aspects of model essays most exploited by teachers in IELTS Writing Task Figure 2: Aspects of model essays most exploited by teachers in IELTS Writing Task 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 Englishmediated 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 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: What aspects of model essays teachers exploit to teach IELTS writing in class? What challenges teachers probably face when employing model essays in teaching IELTS writing? 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 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 presents the research methods adopted in the study Justifications of the chosen research instruments as well as their implementation are also provided Chapter 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 gives recommendations for employing model essays effectively to teach IELTS Writing at the target department from pedagogical perspectives Chapter 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 to at intervals of 0.5 Although the total band for the writing section is calculated by marking results for both, the weight of Task is more than Task The official assessment criteria for Task and Task 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 2.1.3 Model essays 2.1.3.1 Definition Very often, answer keys in Writing Test refer to either model essays (model answers) or sample essays (sample answers).‟ As defined by Abe Makoto (2008, p.15), a model essay “tends to refer to a model text written by a native or a writer of native-like proficiency” while a sample essay usually ... Summary of IELTS writing teachers Table 2: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task Table 3: Challenges in using model essays of IELTS Writing Task Figure 1: Aspects of model essays. .. 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)... 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