Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Applying genre-based approach in teaching 12th graders’ writing skills in Ha Huy Tap high school

 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 bộ môn : Ngoại Ngữ 
 Số điện thoại: 0944211987 
 Năm học : 2022 - 2023
 1 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 20 
action research 
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 
 2 - How is genre-based approach applied? 
 - Does applying genre-based approach help improve the quality of my 
students’ writing? 
4. 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. 
5. 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. 
6. 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. 
 4 ▪ 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 do. 
  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. 
 6 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), 
 8 Although there are seven steps in an action research cycle, because of the 
limited time of study, the researcher conducted the research within 5 steps: Problem 
Identification, Preliminary Investigation, Hypothesis, Intervention, and Evaluation. 
 More specifically, after realizing that most 12th grade students were not 
interested in learning writing, the researcher began to gather data about the target 
population and then interpret the data to see whether they had the same problem. 
After the results were obtained, the study was conducted to improve the situation. 
Finally, the results were evaluated to propose possible next steps. 
3.2. Participants of the study 
 More than seventy students of two classes 12A4 and 12A5 at Ha Huy Tap 
High school were invited to take part in an experimental writing class in which I 
used the genre-based approach in teaching writing English in order to teach the 
student to write. Most of them were not good at learning English, especially their 
writing skills were not acceptable, but eager to master this subject like 
communicating fluently, making a good speech. 
 After that the researcher conducted a cycle, in which the researcher, being the 
only teacher at the research site knowing the genre-based approach, used this method 
to teach them how to write in English. 
3.3. Data collection instruments 
 In order to collect sufficient data for the study, a number of instruments were 
employed: pre-test and post-tests, questionnaires 
3.3.1. Pre-test and post-test 
 To measure the quality of the participants’ written texts before and after the 
research, the researcher designed a pre-test and a post-test (see appendix 1) on 
English writing. The test types selected for this study are popular kinds of writing 
test similar to the tests which students are instructed. Therefore, the students are 
supposed to be familiar with the test format. 
 Actually, the pre-test and the post-test on English writing are similar but not 
the same. They are similar in format, instruction, length, level of difficulty, and 
allotted time. However, the specific writing topics between the two tests are different 
although they are both the same genre, writing a narrative. 
 To score the pre-test and the post-test, the same marking scale (see appendix 
2) will be used. This analytic marking scale with specific evaluation criteria was 
adapted from Jacobs et al’s (1981) (cited in Weigle, 2002: 115-116). The main 
reason for the choice of this analytic marking scale instead of a holistic scale is that 
it provides more useful diagnostic information about students’ writing abilities. 
3.3.2. Pre- Questionnaire and post-questionnaire 
 10 PART III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 
 In this part, the main stages of this action research will be presented under the 
following headings: Problem identification, Preliminary investigation, Hypothesis, 
Intervention and Evaluation. 
3.1. Problem identification 
 During teaching writing for the 12th grade students at Ha Huy Tap High 
school, I realized that my students did not seem interested in writing lessons and 
their writing performance seemed poor. Therefore, the author decided to investigate 
the problem that her students faced. 
3.2. Preliminary investigation 
 To illustrate the problem that students had in learning writing skill, the 
researcher conducted a survey questionnaire and pre test. The collected data was 
analyzed to find out how students were not interested in learning writing and to 
assess students’ writing skill before the new approach to be implemented. 
3.2.1. Analysis of students’ preliminary questionnaire 
 From the preliminary questionnaire, the students’ personal information was 
gathered. There were 71 students taking part in the study. 
3.2.1.1. Students’ attitudes towards writing skill 
 Students’ answers to question 1 and question 2 help the researcher understand 
their attitudes towards writing skill. 
 Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards writing skill 
From chart 1 above, we can see that a majority of the students realized the 
importance of learning writing skill. The results show that most of them answered 
that learning writing skill was important or rather important (25.4% and 38%) 
whereas only 14.1% of students said learning writing was not important and 22.5% 
of them thought it was little important. 
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