VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN NGỌC HÀ

THE IMPACT OF A GENRE-BASED APPROACH ON 11
TH

STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE: AN ACTION
RESEARCH AT TUYEN QUANG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL,
TUYEN QUANG

(Nghiên cứu hành động về tác động của phương pháp dạy viết
dựa vào thể loại tới kỹ năng viết của học sinh lớp 11, Trường
THPT Chuyên Tuyên Quang, Tỉnh Tuyên Quang)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.140.111 HANOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

University, Hanoi.
Hanoi 2013
Nguyen Ngoc Ha
ii

ABSTRACT
This research was carried out in an attempt to solve the problems of
students‘ poor writing performance at Tuyen Quang Gifted High School. A
hypothetical solution –the use of genre-based approach to teaching writing – was
tested in this study through a small-scale action research project.
This study was conducted in two cycles following the procedures of the
action research. In the first cycle, a questionnaire was administered to gain
information about the difficulties the students had been encountered with in
completing the writing tasks in the textbook. Then in the second phase, the genre-
based approach was experimented to teach writing to these students. By the time
the experiment terminated, another questionnaire was administered to the students
to find out their opinions on the usefulness and appropriateness of the genre-based
approach to their learning to write. Students‘ writings were also analysed to
complement the questionnaire data and to measure the impact of the treatment
upon students‘ writing.
The results showed that students did make progress in their writing, and
students‘ opinions were positive about the treatment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION 1
ABSTRACT ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii
LIST OF CHARTS viii
LIST OF APPENDICES ix
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the research 1
2. Aims and objectives of the research 1
3. The research questions 2
4. Method of the research 2
5. Structure of the thesis 2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1 4
LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1. 1. Why focus on writing? 4
1.2. Approaches to teach writing 5
1.2.1. The product approach 6
1.2.2. The process approach 7
1.2.3. The genre-based approach 9
1.2.3.1. Definition of a genre 9
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1.2.3.2. Genre-based approach: 10
1.3. Review of the related studies 14
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16
2.1. Rationale of the using action research 16
2.2. Research setting 16

PART C: CONCLUSION 37
1. Summary of major findings 37
2. Concluding remarks 38
3. Plan for the next research cycle 40
REFERENCES 41
APPENDICES

vii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1: Martin‘s models of genre
Table 1- The overall results of students‘ writing tests
Table 2- Students‘ performance in the organization of the writing tests
Table 3- Students‘ self report on their reduced difficulties
Table 4-Students‘ responses on their wanting to continue with new
approach
Table 5- Students‘ responses on the necessity for each student
viii

LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1- Students‘ duration of studying English
Chart 2- Students‘ perceived difficulty of writing in comparison with other
language skills
Chart 3- Students‘ self assessment of their writing competence
Chart 4- Students‘ difficulties to encounter
Chart 5- Students‘ expectation of the new approach
Chart 6- Students‘ performance in the content

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
2

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

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.

4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
LITERATURE REVIEW
Since its commencement in Sydney, Australia in 1980s, genre-based approach to
teaching language in general and teaching writing in particular has gained
considerable prominence. Although there are many factors contributing to the
preference of applying this approach, this review will focus on three main factors
that make genre-based approach outweigh the previous ones, i.e. product approach
and process approach. These factors lie in the connection between classroom
writing tasks and real life contexts and purposes, the exposure of learners to a
variety of genres, and the effective assistance for learners to come out with well-

1.2. Approaches to teach writing
Among the four communicative skills writing is considered to be the most
challenging learners expected to master. An ability to write appropriately and
effectively is a task that most ESL learners faced in spite of the years spent learning
and developing their writing skills. Writing is complex and multifaceted in nature.
Therefore, helping students to write better is also a challenge to the teacher. In the
literature, a variety of approaches to the teaching of writing have been introduced
and applied to facilitate the writing classes. Although there are a great number of
such approaches, three of which are cited for their prominence in teaching writing.
They include the product approach, the process approach and the genre-based
approach. As a matter of fact, each approach has its own advantages and
disadvantages and is suitable for a particular context of learning and teaching EFL.
Nonetheless, this action research will largely focus on the genre-based approach and
its impact on the teaching of writing to high school students.
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1.2.1. The product approach
The product approach is the traditional approach to teaching writing which
focuses on the form and content of the finished writing products, i.e. the paragraph,
letter, an essay. The writing teachers who subscribe to the product approach are
more concerned to see what a final piece of writing will be like and measure it
against criteria of ―vocabulary use, grammar use, and mechanical considerations
such as spelling and punctuations‖, as well as content and organization. Clark
(2003, p4) described how the approach realized in a writing class: ―Learning to
write in those days meant being able to figure out what the teacher wanted in order
to create an acceptable product, and apparently few teaches thought that helping
students acquire a workable writing process was part of their job. Whatever
process students used, they had to manage on their own.”
A model for such an approach is outlined below:
Stage 1: Analyzing the features of the model written text. For instance, if studying a

from the generation of ideas and the collection of data through to the ―publication‖
of a finished text. (1996:37)
The idea of writing as a process was initially introduced at the Conference of
College and Communication in 1963. The conference was the generation of a
process approach to composition and a new research area that focused on
understanding how people write and learn to write. This was ―writing is a process,
not a product‖. It was warmly welcomed by many researchers who developed a
number of process methods and techniques.
Writing in process approach is seen as predominantly to do with linguistic
skills, such as planning and drafting, and there is much less emphasis on linguistic
knowledge, such as knowledge about grammar and text structure.
8

There are different views on the stages that writers go through in producing a
piece of writing, but a typical model identifies four stages: prewriting,
composing/drafting, revising, and editing. The pre-writing activity would involve
introducing techniques that help the students discover and engage a topic. Instead of
turning in a finished product right away, students are asked for multiple drafts of
work. After discussion and feed-back from readers, the learners would revise the
drafts. Rewriting and revision are integral to writing, and editing is an on-going
multiple-level process. In such writing classroom, the central elements are the
writer, the content and the purpose, and multiple drafts. The teacher in a process-
approach classroom becomes the facilitator. Writing is essentially learned, not
taught. Providing input or stimulus for learners is perceived as unimportant, since
the teacher‘s task is only to facilitate the exercise of writing skills and draw out the
learners‘ potential.
In recent years, however, the process approach has come under serious and
thorough examination. The approach has a somewhat monolithic view of writing as
Badger and White (2000) stated. ―The disadvantages of process approaches are
that they often regard all writing as being produced by the same set of processes;

Swale (1990, p.58) defines a genre as ―a class of communicative events, the
member of which share some sets of communicative purposes. These purposes are
recognised by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby
constitute the rationale for the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic structure
of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style.‖ As
pointed out by his definition, each piece of writing serves a particular
communicative purpose within a certain social context and is governed by rules or
conventions.
Genres are also influenced by other features of the situation, such as the subject
matter, the relationships between the writer and the audience, and the pattern of
organization. Martin (1993: 120) offers a diagrammatic explanation of genre.
10

Purpose
(Genre)

Channel Subject matter Interlocutor Relationship
(Mode) (Field) (Tenor) Text
Figure 1- Marin’s models of genre
Hoey (2001) likens readers and writers to dancers following each other‘s steps,
each assembling sense from a text by anticipating what the other is likely to do by
making connections to prior texts. While writing, like dancing, allows for creativity
and the unexpected, established patterns often form the basis of any variations. We
know immediately, for example, whether a text is a recipe, a joke, or a love letter
and can respond to it immediately and even construct a similar one if we need to. As
teachers, we are able to engage in more specialised genres such as lesson plans,
student reports, and feedback sheets, bringing a degree of expertise to the ways we

their essays”
For teachers, genre-based approach not only addresses the needs of ESL writers
but also draws teachers into considering how texts actually work as communication.
Teachers of writing clearly need to be teachers of language as it is necessary to
exercise appropriate linguistic choices in the ways they treat and organize their
topics for particular readers which helps students to give their ideas authority. 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
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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

 Introduce a model of the genre to the class
 Discuss the purposes for which we use this genre in our society (i.e. the
purpose of a recount is to tell what happened)
 With the class identify how the text is structure. Each genre has a distinctive
set of stages which help it to gain its purpose.
 Discuss the function of each stage.
c. Joint construction of the text
- Before students write independent texts, it is useful for them to participate in the
group writing of a text in the chosen genre. A text may be jointly constructed by the
whole class, by a small group, or by a teacher and learner during conference.
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-As well as demonstrating what form the final product may take, the joint
construction of a text should also demonstrate the process involved in writing a text.
d. Independent construction of the text
-Having read and examined the example texts in the chosen text and having
experienced of joint-constructing a similar text, students now are ready to choose
the own texts on a related topic.
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 11 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.
1.3. Review of the related studies
By conducting observation of the two teachers in Indonesia when TIASARI (an