VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
********************* NGUYỄN THỊ LAN ANH USING A MODEL-BASED APPROACH TO TEACH ENGLISH
WRITING TO 10
TH
GRADERS IN BA ĐÌNH HIGH SCHOOL,
NGA SƠN, THANH HÓA

Sử dụng bài viết mẫu để dạy viết tiếng Anh cho học sinh khối 10 trƣờng
THPT Ba Đình, Nga Sơn, Thanh Hóa

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111 Ha noi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

I, Nguyễn Thị Lan Anh, hereby certify that the thesis entitled ‗Using a
Model-Based Approach to Teach English Writing to 10
th
Graders in Ba Dinh
High School, Nga Son, Thanh Hoa‘ is the result of my own research in the
fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of english teaching
methodology – University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi. Signature

Nguyễn Thị Lan Anh
iii
ABSTRACT

Teaching L2 composition is not an easy task for L2 teachers since it is
affected by the culture and writing conventions of the native speakers. In an
attempt to seek an alternative method to teach L2 writing, this paper reports the
results of the empirical study in which the model-based approach/model-based
teaching was applied to teach English composition to the Vietnamese 10
th
graders.
The study employed questionnaire, direct observation, reflective portfolio and
cross-case analysis technique to discover various aspects of using the teaching
approach in a Vietnamese context. The results suggest that the teaching technique
could be used productively in the Vietnamese EFL environment. Several
suggestions for applying the model-based approach into other similar pedagogical
settings are provided.
v
LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

Figure 1. Illustration of the concept of ZPD 9
Table 3.1. Writing tasks in English Textbook 10 18
Table 3.2. Classification of writing tasks in English Textbook 10 19
Table 3.3. Comprarison of the mean scores of the question items 20
Table 3.4. Comparison of the test-based scores 27
Table 3.5. Truth table of the Boolean configurations 27
Chart 3.1. Comparison of the mean values of the paragraph-level question items 22
Chart 3.2. Comparison of the mean values of the item ‗I clearly know how to cope
with a writing task‘ 23
Chart 3.3. Test-based scores of the two groups 26
1.3. A model-based approach in EFL 8
1.3.1. An overview of MBA/MBT 8
2.3.2. MBT/MBT and EFL/ESL 9
2.3.3. MBA/MBT and Vietnamese EFL contexts 11
vii
1.3.2. Implementation of a model-based approach in a writing class 12
CHAPTER II: 13
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY 13
2.1. Setting of the study 13
2.1.1. English teaching and learning at Ba Dinh High School 13
2.1.2. English textbook 10 and writing lessons 13
2.2. Design and methodology 14
2.2.1. The participants 14
2.2.2. Data collection instruments 14
2.2.3. Data collection procedure 16
2.2.4. Data analysis procedures 17
CHAPTER III: 18
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 18
3.1. Writing tasks at the 10
th
grade and MBA/MBT 18
3.2. Students difficulties in writing tasks 19
3.3. Implementation of the model-based approach 23
3.4. Effectiveness of using MBA/MBT to teach writing to the 10
th
graders 26
3.5. Major findings 30
PART C: CONCLUSION 31
1. Conclusion 31
2. Pedagogical suggestions 32

language by providing student writers with vocabulary relating to the required topic
and some guiding questions to form their ideas into the finished paragraphs. This
predominantly language-based teaching of writing cannot help the student writer
create compositions to serve the many purposes outside the classroom context. The
endeavour to seek innovative methods to enhance students‘ writing skills and
building up their positive attitudes towards learning this skill is the very drive for us
to engage in this study entitled ‗Using a model-based approach to teach English
writing to 10
th
Graders in Ba Dinh High School, Nga Son, Thanh Hoa’, which
2

implements the model-based approach in an actual classroom to discover its down
and up sides of the teaching technique in a Vietnamese context.
2. Aims of the study
 Investigating the situation of teaching and learning English writing to 10
th

Graders in Ba Dinh High School, Nga Son, Thanh Hoa;
 Investigating the effectiveness and difficulties in using a model-based
approach to teach English writing to these students;
 Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of writing
teaching at Ba Dinh High School by using a model-based approach.
3. Research questions (RQ)
(1). What are the types of writing tasks and topics provided for in English 10
textbook that 10
th
graders in Ba Đình High School (BĐHS) have to perform?
(2). What are the difficulties that 10
th

TOSMANA software.
6. Significance of the study
Theoretically, the study systemised the theory of a model-based approach to
teaching writing, together with its advantages and disadvantages. The study also
provides suggestions for successful application of the approach into teaching
composition in a real classroom.
Practically, the research provides language teachers and learners with a
number of activities and exercises using the model-based approach in all stages of
writing in English Textbook 10.
7. Thesis structure
 Part I – Introduction; This part presents basic information like the rationale,
aims, research questions, scope, significance, methods, and organization of
the study; Part II - Development
a. Chapter 1: Literature Review
The chapter provides an overview of the writing act, writing difficulties
and MBA/MBT, which serves as a theoretical basis for the whole study.
b. Chapter 2: Design and Analysis of the Study
The chapter includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the
study, with a thorough description of the data collection and analysis
procedure.
4

c. Chapter 3: Result and Discussion
The chapter reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent
aspects to answer the research questions stated in the previous chapter.
 Part III - Conclusion
This part presents the conclusions of the whole study, pedagogical
recommendations, limitations of this research, and suggestions for further
studies.


is ―a language skill which is difficult to acquire‖ (Tribble, 1996: 3) and ―a process
that occurs over a period of time‖ (Harris, 1993:10).
To sum up, writing is creative, progressive and interactive; it needs practice
and study to develop and requires both physical and mental powers from the
writers.
1.2. Approaches to teaching writing
According to Raimes (1983), there are six approaches to teaching writing,
namely: The Controlled-to-Free Approach, The Free-Writing Approach, The
Paragraph-Pattern Approach, The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach, The
Communicative Approach, and The Process Approach.
1.2.1. The ‘Controlled-to-Free’ Approach
In this approach, writing is sequential. At low levels, students are given
sentence-level exercises or controlled compositions to imitate, copy and manipulate.
Students therefore make few mistakes. Only at advanced levels are students allowed
to try some free compositions, in which they can express their own ideas. As a
result, the focus of the teaching of writing is grammar, syntax and mechanics and
accuracy rather than fluency, which likely results in students‘ good grammatical
competence and low communication skills.
6

1.2.2 The Free-Writing Approach
This approach emphasizes both content and fluency. Students work with
given topics and write with little correction from teachers; they are often asked to
write freely on any topic without worrying about grammar and spelling. Frequent
practice helps them write fluently with confidence. Teachers do not correct these
short pieces of free writing but simply read them and may comment on the ideas the
writer expressed, but this lack of concern for accuracy and form has very likely
negative effect on learner‘s grammar competence in writing.
1.2.3. The Paragraph-Pattern Approach
As the name suggests, the paragraph-pattern approach stresses on

reader is emphasized. Writers, thus, not only concern about the purpose and audience of
their writing but also have to make decision on how to begin and organize their writing.
When writing in class, students involve in many stages: setting out ideas, making
plans, writing a first draft, revising the draft after peer feedback, editing their
writing or writing other drafts and finishing the final version.
The viewpoints on the number of stages in the writing process vary. Oshima and
Hogue (1999) suggest five: pre-writing, planning, writing and revising draft and writing
the final copy, but Tribble (1996) recommend four: pre-writing, drafting, revising and
editing. In practice, Vietnamese L2 teachers often divide the writing proccess into three
stages: pre- writing, while- writing, and post-writing.
1.2.7 Writing difficulties
A writer might generally encounter three obstacles, including: psychological
problem, linguistics problems and cognitive ones (Byrne, 1991). In ESL/EFL, L2
learners‘ writing is affected by contexts, cognitive processing, affective factors, and
constraints (Flowerdew, 1999). Also, Kellogg (1994) asserts that anxiety,
motivation, and apprehension towards writing in the L2 have a direct effect on the
development of the writing skills of language learners. Practically, research shows
that L2 learners‘ difficulties in L2 writing include limited vocabulary, problems
with organization and coherence, and deficiencies in the L2 linguistic mechanisms
(Hirose, 2001; Lee, 2002; Fujioka & Shi, 2003) and cohesion (Granger & Tyson,
8

1996).Fan and Hsu (2008) found that students often give irrelevant examples or
inappropriate supporting ideas in their writing and many claim to have ―the ideas‖
but neither the ability nor the skill in the L2 to express them (Khaldieh, 2000).
Besides, L1-L2 variations also impact on students‘ writing negatively.
Research states that L2 learners employ their L1 resources in their L2 composition
(Berman & Slobin 1994) and inform their inability to free themselves from the
influence of the L1 when they write in L2 (Williams, 1984; Zamel, 1983).L2
learners, in fact, use L1 for global organization (Friedlander, 1990) and pay less

assistance provided by the teacher in helping students carry out tasks or develop an
understanding of the subject so that the students are capable of accomplishing the
tasks by themselves (Hammond & Gibbons, 2001)–is needed. In EFL,
demonstration and modelling are important aspects of scaffolding learning (Burns
& Joyce, 2001), especially in a writing course (Cotterall &Cohen, 2003).
2.3.2. MBT/MBT and EFL/ESL
2.3.2.1. Benefits of using MBA/MBT
MBA/MBT benefits L2 learners in various ways. It meets the requirement of
writing in any culture, which consists of three basic forms of knowledge requisite
for the writer: semantic knowledge, knowledge of models, and knowledge of social
and cultural rules (Purves & Purves, 1986). Models provide exposure to the lexical
items, structural patterns, and conventions of the target language at all levels of What I can
do
with help
What I
can do
What I can‘t
do
Zone of
Proximal
Development
10

discourse (Watson, 1982). They also allow learners to stress their efforts on one
section of the essay at a time, while introducing them to the important rhetorical
patterns. Some may argue that this approach is overtly prescriptive, but the
predictability of structure enhances learners‘ sense of sercurity (Cotterall &Cohen,

positively and it significantly improvetheir writing quality compared to those did
not experience MBT (Crowhurst, 1991; Ferris, 1994). Especially, non-native
speakers who had a higher subtopics to sentences ratio than the native speakers
could benefit from learning how to analyze the topical structure of their essays
(Ferris, 1994). Thus, it can be concluded that MBA/MBT has a positive impacts on
L2 learners‘ writing ability and L2 teachers around the world strongly support the
approach.
2.3.3. MBA/MBT and Vietnamese EFL contexts
Presently, that the ―so-called‖ teaching writing approach of composition used
by Vietnamese teachers fails to help students realize and master such features as
purposes, audiences, context and linguistic conventions of text which are the
important features of any text-types (Tuan Luu, 2011), and this claims is strongly
supported by a recent study carried out in a Vietnamese EFL context:
―[…] most students are not able to distinguish between a paragraph
and an essay. Further, as regards the structure of a paragraph
(including a topic sentence, supporting sentences, a closing sentence),
many have not master it yet, so their ideas are arranged randomly and
unclearly and their writings are incomplete [ ] (Thao Lai, 2011: 20).
Non-native speakers normally come into composing situations with a
different set of discoursal and rhetorical expectations as a result of differing in
rhetorical conventions between L2 and L1. This is especially true to Vietnamese
students, whose redundant and indirect style of writing is opposite to English native
writers‘ (Thuy Nguyen, 2008). In EFL, Ferris (1994) claims that these differences
need to be studied within the context of the non-native speakers' first languages,
and need to be taken into consideration in the composition classroom.
12

The above discussion raises the necessity of an alternative approach to
teching composition to Vietnamese learners of English, and MBA/MTB appears to
be a productive approach.

Though Ba Dinh High School is the only gifted high school in Nga Son, its
English teaching and learning has several difficulties. Firstly, the class size far
exceeds the standard number for a language class, with approximately 40 students
each. Secondly, the number of technology-aided classrooms is very limited;
therefore, teachers can not apply electronic lessons to the extent that they desire
for. Finally, there is lack of visual aids such as pictures and portable boards from
the school. Thus, the teachers and students are not offered the most convenient
and modern environment to the teaching and learning of English.
As regards students, they are strictly selected to enroll in the school, most are
academically qualified. There are 10 classes in the 10
th
grade with one English
gifted class whose students‘ English proficiency are supposed to be better than
those from the others. In this study, the average level of the majority of the 10
th

graders in the school was selected.
2.1.2. English textbook 10 and writing lessons
CLT underpins the design of English Textbook 10, so the structure of each
unit includes four skills: reading, speaking, listeningand writing. Linguistic
knowledge such as phonetics, vocabulary and grammar areconsidered the means
and condition to form and improve communicative ability. In fact, the learner-
centered approach is also adapted in order to promote students' activeness and
creativeness, in which teachersact as theorganizer and facilitator in the class.
The content of the book is theme-based, with 16 units covering different
topicswhich were contextualized to be suited to Vietnamese students. Further,
learning is task-based, with the activities are designed in the way in which students
are offered opportunities to interact and co-operate.
14


under the model-based approach (see Appendix B for details).

15

Reflective portfolio–a kind of reflective writing (Hughes & Moore, 2007) to
help the researcher to obtain better insights into her teaching by re-examining it.
This provides the basis for improvement in the next teaching segment. Since a
portfolio is a very personal document, it does not conform to any templates but
varies according to individual needs. In this study, the researcher employs Gibbs'
(1988) reflective cycle (see Appendix C) as the guideline for her critical reflection.
2.2.2.4. Crisp-set Comparative Qualitative Analysis and the TOSMANA
software
The csQCA belongs to Configurational Comaprative Methods, which
―allows systematic cross-case comparisions, while at the same time giving justice to
within-case complexity, particularly in samll- and intermediate-N research design‖
(Rihoux & Ragin, 2009, p.20). The method is often used with computer software
named TOSMANA (Tool for Small-N Analysis , which allows to reduce the
complexity of data sets by using Boolean algebra. A
To enable the csCQA work, an assessment grading tools was design to score
the participants‘ writing and a set of characteristics of effective writing—which then
becomes the ‗conditions‘ for the analysis using TOSMANA—were identified.
 Assessment grading tool
The assessment grading tool was designed based on the Continua Model of a
Guide to Making Judgments suggested by Grainger (2013). The tool consists of a
continua set of criteria for marking students‘ writing and the equivalent grades for
each set of criteria (see Appendix D). The assessment grading tool allows
examining how better the experiment group perform than the control group, and it is
the basis for later analysis using the TOSMANA software.
 Charateristics of effective writing
Several characteristics of effective writing are suggested by researchers and

Finally, the data on students‘ writing difficulties were collected after
students‘ finishing the writing test; 70 questionaireswere delivered to the two
classes and all returned.