Skkn helping 11th students at mai anh tuan high school to write better argumentative essays through the application of the genre based approach

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Abstract
II. Aims of the Research
1. Research Questions
2. Definitions of terms
2.1. Definition of a genre
2.2. Definition of an argumentative essay
III. Rationale and Justification of the Research
IV. Literature review
V. Methodology and Research Schedule
1. Research Design
2. Independent and Dependent Variables
3. Data Collection Procedure
3.1. Selection of Subjects
3.2. Data Collection Plan
3.2.1. Lesson Plans
3.2.2. Teacher’s Diary
3.2.3. Samples of Students’ Work
3.2.4. Questionnaires
3.2.5. Writing Tests
3.3. Data Analysis
3.3.1 Quantitative Method
3.3.2. Qualitative Method
3.4. Research Procedure
4. Research Schedule
VI. Expected findings and Closing Remarks
1.Suggestions
2. Here are some examples
3. Result
4. REFERENCES
5. Appendixes

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I. Abstract
It is evident that writing is the most challenging skill for EFL learners.
How to help our students tackle their writing tasks would seem to prey on all EFL
teachers.
Since the day I realised my dream of being a teacher and became aware of
my students’ weaknesses in writing skill, particularly writing argumentative
essays, I have been nursing an ambition to help them conquer these weaknesses.
Thanks to the valuable studying time at Regional Language Centre in Singapore,
I have been enlightened with many practical teaching methods, which can help to
make a difference in my teaching career. Among these is the genre-based
approach to teaching writing whose application is expected to help my students
write better argumentative essays as this approach gives students sufficient
scaffolding to enable them to produce pieces of writing which are linguistically
accurate and structurally appropriate and hence mould them into more confident
writers who can utilise writing as a means of persuasion to gain readers’
adherence to their point of view.
It is hoped that the action research on ‘Helping 11th students at Mai Anh
Tuan high school to write better argumentative essays through the application
of the genre-based approach’ can culminate in ‘one giant leap’ for my beloved
students.
II. Aims of the Research
1. Research Questions
1.1 To what extent does the application of the genre-based approach to teaching
writing help to improve my students’ argumentative essays?

1.2. What are my students’ attitudes towards the genre-based approach?
2. Definitions of terms
2.1. Definition of a genre
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

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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.
2.2. Definition of an argumentative essay
‘The argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires the student to
investigate a topic, collect, generate, and evaluate evidence, and establish a
position on the topic in a concise manner.’
( />III. Rationale and Justification of the Research
Since its foundation 35 years ago, Mai Anh Tuan high school has always
been prestigious for its achievements of academic excellence. Our tenacity in the
pursuit of academic excellence and character development has nurtured millions
of students into well-rounded individuals and upright citizens, who have made
remarkable contributions to the building of our province and our nation as well.
For twenty seven years’ working as a teacher of English at Mai Anh Tuan High
School , I have been assigned to teach English-gifted students as well as train the
best of them for Examinations for the English at the provincial and national

levels. The provincial Test for English-gifted Students, which takes place every
year, consists of four parts, namely Listening, Lexico-Grammar, Reading and
Writing. Transforming sentences, describing a graph or table and writing an
argumentative essay are comprised of the writing part. To my students, it is
writing an argumentative essay that is the hardest nut to crack. Being aware of
their struggle with this type of essay and its pivotal role in determining my
students’ examination results, I have harboured a burning desire to help my
students to write better argumentative essays.
Argumentative essays require students to utilise their higher-order thinking
skills to argue for a certain point of view and have the reader adopt their
viewpoint and/ or take a particular action.

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Students’ weaknesses in writing argumentative essays lie in the fact that they are
unfamiliar with the genre they are asked to write. Thus, they merely end up in
listing ideas which may be grammatically accurate but jump all over the place
and hence fail to achieve the communicative purpose of the genre. Therefore,
familiarising students with the genre to help them master its schematic structure
and language features can give rise to their better writing products as learning
how to write takes place through analysis and imitation of modals provided
(Badger and White, 2000, p.156).
As such, my choice of the genre-based approach to teaching writing shows
great promise in helping my students to write better argumentative essays.
IV. Literature review
Among the four communicative skills, writing is considered the most
challenging one, especially to EFL learners. Therefore, 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 application in the teaching
of writing argumentative essays to EFL learners.
According to functional linguists, language is a social phenomenon and is
shaped by the purposes to which it is put and the audiences to which it is
addressed. Hence, there exist various genres, each of which has its own structural
features, that is the organizational structure and linguistic features according to its
communicative purpose. As stated by Badger and White (2000, p.156), in the
genre-based approach, writing is seen as essentially concerned with the
knowledge of language and as being attached to a social purpose and learning
how to write takes place through analysis and imitation of modals provided.
Accordingly, thanks to the application of the genre-based approach in teaching

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writing, we can help EFL students to minimise the difficulties of limited language
proficiency and to logically organise their ideas by activating their prior
knowledge on writing experiences when they are asked to produce a piece of
writing in a familiar genre. Furthermore, being aware of the rhetorical goals can
ensure more persuasive writing. This application is particularly beneficial in the
case of argumentative essays where students as writers are expected to utilise
their knowledge on the issue under discussion to take sides and persuade the

reader to adopt their viewpoint through sound reasoning and solid evidence.
In conclusion, it is my belief that the genre-based approach is beneficial to
the teaching of writing argumentative essays in that it shows learners what to
write linguistically; helps them to master the structural features and, most
importantly, enables them to utilize writing as a means of persuasion to gain
readers’ adherence to their point of view.
V. Methodology and Research Schedule
1. Research Design
Research questions

Research

Subjects

instruments

Tools of
analysis

1. To what extent does

Teacher’s

English 11th

Frequency

the application of the

lesson plans

graders at Mai

count

genre-based approach

Teacher’s diary

Anh Tuan High

Percentage

help to improve my

Pre-test

School for the

Critical

students’

Samples of

Gifted

Discourse

argumentative essays? students’ work

Age: 17

Analysis

2. What are my

Post-test

Sample size: 84

students’ attitudes

Questionnaires

towards the genrebased approach?

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2. Independent and Dependent Variables
[Type a quote from the document
or the summary of an interesting
point. You can position the text
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Use the Text Box Tools tab to
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Students’

quote text box.]

The application
of the genre-

argumentative

based approach

essays

to teaching
writing

Operational definition

Operational definition

- Teacher applies the
genre-based approach to
teach students to write
argumentative essays

- Students write better
argumentative essays.
This is measured largely
by the pre-test and posttest.

3. Data Collection Procedure
3.1. Selection of Subjects

My choice of one English-gifted 11th class as the subjects of my action research
stems from the following reasons.
- They have been my students since they started high school, so we have got to
know each other well enough to make every lesson go smoothly.
- There still exists a gap to bridge between the curriculum requirements and
students’ writing skills, especially their writing of argumentative essays.
- The best of them will be chosen to represent the school to take part in the
National Examination for the English-gifted. Of all the exercises in this
examination paper, it is writing an argumentative essay that my students find the
most challenging. Therefore, I have been desirous to ease their burden and to get
better examination results.

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3.2. Data Collection Plan
For the sake of research findings, sources of requisite data are listed as follows:
3.2.1. Lesson Plans
One of the indispensable instruments to undertake this action research is lesson
plans. There will be eight lesson plans, all of which are carefully prepared by the
researcher using the genre-based approach.
3.2.2. Teacher’s Diary
Keeping a diary after the delivery of each lesson helps the teacher to record
the overall impression of the lesson and point out both the strong points and the
shortcomings of the lesson. Then pedagogic implications can be drawn to better
the subsequent lesson plans.
3.2.3. Samples of Students’ Work
At the end of each lesson, the students’ writing products will be collected

to mark and analyse for the sake of keeping track of their progress and the extent
of improvements on students’ writing argumentative essays the approach can
make through each lesson.
3.2.4. Questionnaires
The Likert Scale questionnaires will be designed to know my students’
attitudes and my colleagues’ towards the genre-based approach. It will be
administrated and after the post-test.
3.2.5. Writing Tests
Both the pre-test and the post-test are to ask students to write an
argumentative essay under time pressure of 40 minutes. The writing products of
the pre-test will be marked and analysed to detect what hinders the students’

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ability to write argumentative essays. The scores of both the tests will be recorded
and compared to chart their progress.
3.3. Data Analysis
The following methods are employed in order to interpret the data.
3.3.1 Quantitative Method
I will have two senior colleagues of mine to mark the students’ pre-test and
post-test based on the marking scheme provided. The scores of both tests will be
recorded and compared by dint of frequency count and percentage. This method
will also be used for analysis of information from the questionnaires.
3.3.2. Qualitative Method
For a closer view of the problems facing my students in writing
argumentative essays, critical discourse analysis of their writing test papers will
be utilised.

The students’ work samples after each writing lesson during the research
will also be analysed by dint of critical discourse analysis to keep track of the
students’ progress in writing argumentative essays, which will aid in the final
evaluation of students’ improvements.
3.4. Research Procedure
The following flow chart will reveal the collection of data for this action research.

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ENGLISH 11TH
GRADERS OF MAI ANH
TUAN HIGH SCHOOL

WRITING PRE-TEST

THE APPLICATION OF
GENRE-BASED APPROACH

WRITING POST-TEST

COMPARING THE RESULTS
OF THE TWO TESTS

QUESTIONNAIRES

FINDINGS AND
CONCLUSIONS

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4. Research Schedule
Number

Activities

Time to carry out

1

Preparing and administrating the pre-test

September, 2021, week 2

2

Marking the test based on the marking

September, 2021, week 3

scheme provided and recording the scores
3

Analysing the problems facing students in September, 2021, week 4
writing argumentative essays through

critical discourse analysis of the pretest
and the questionnaire.

4
5

Teaching argumentative essays based on

October and November,

the genre based approach

2021

Preparing and administrating the post -

December, 2021, week 1

test
6

Comparing and analyzing the results of

December, 2021 week 2

the pre-test and the post-test
7

Designing and administrating the

December, 2021 week 3

questionnaires
8

Writing a report on the findings and

December, 2021 week 4

conclusion
VI. Expected findings and Closing Remarks
Through the action research, I seek to find out how well the application of
the genre-based approach works in helping my students to write better
argumentative essays. Moreover, I would like to know my students’ attitudes and
my colleagues’ towards this approach. The action research will sample one
English 11th class at Mai Anh Tuan High School for the Gifted. I am sanguine that
I will enjoy the support of the school boards of governors and all of my
colleagues as well as the cooperation of my students when I conduct the action
research, which can aid in making it a success.
Painstaking as the research is, it would have limitations as it is intended for
English-gifted students, especially those who are eligible for the National

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Examination for the English-gifted. Nonetheless, it is hoped to be a source of
reference to all who share interest in this field.
1.Suggestions

From the study, I would like to give some suggestions for the teachers, for
the students in my school and other schools in Thanh Hoa province can use it
more popularly in teaching reading comprehension.
2. Here are some examples
ESSAY WRITING

TASK 1: “Women are equal to men”, do you agree with this statement?
Write an essay of about 250 words about this topic.
MODEL 1
INDRODUCTION
The thesis
statement.
(a kind of minoutline for the
essay) – the ideas

It is said that women hold up half the
sky and I want to make this simpler:
women are equal to men.
Thus, it is time for us to recognize that
women have the ability to do many
things like men, women play an
important role in society and women
are created equal to men
BODY
The primary role of a woman is as a
The topic sentence wife and a mother. However, the wife
and the mother can do many things
as the husband and the father can.
Women can be politicians, soldiers,
doctors, university professors, or

(Examples)
scientists. After all, we have had so
many great women such as Cleopatra,
Amelia Earheart, Marie Curie and
Margaret Thatcher and some great
Vietnamese women are Ba Trung, Ba
Trieu, Ng Thi Dinh, Phan Nu Diem
Hang And so on. These women are
always highly valued for their great
talents.
BODY
Another reason for women’s
The topic sentence equality to men is that they play an
important role in society. The home
(The argument)
is our “first school” and every home

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Getting the
reader’s interest
What the
writing is going
to be about

 The first idea
(The most
important/
strongest one)

 The second
idea

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has a woman in it. As a result, we can
have no good citizen without good
homes. Thus nobody can deny the
women’s contribution to the
development of society.
BODY
Finally, we all know that all people are
The topic sentence created equal, regardless of their sex,
color and race. Both men and women
(The argument)
have the same rights and position in
society. They also have the same
responsibilities
for
themselves,
families and society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is the time for us to
(A summary of the recognize the equality of women all
three main points
over the world. I am a girl and if I
from the body of
could choose my gender, I would still
the essay)

choose to be a girl because women are
equal to men in ability, roles in
society and the recreation.

 The third
(last) idea.(The
weakest, least
important idea)

A restatement of
the thesis
statement
- a final statement
that gives readers
signals that the
discussion has
come to an end

TASK 2
Computers may be considered the most important tool in modern society. Do
you agree? Write an essay of about 250 words about this topic.
A. Generating ideas:
- Why is computer the most important tool in modern society? (What are the
advantages of the computer?)
- Why isn’t the computer the most important tool in modern society? (What are
the advantages of the computer?)
- Balanced: The computer has both advantages and disadvantages.

Agree
(advantages)

- using for listening to music

Disagree
(Disadvantages)
- using

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too

Balance
(advantages and
disadvantages)
much
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-

accessing information
playing games
chatting
drawing
storing information
booking rooms, tickets
communicating with people
all over the world
getting information about
every field
working

better,
more
effectively
shopping via the Internet
Making friends with people
all over the world
Etc

-

-

power
too expensive to
buy
lack of contact
with other people
causing
some
health
problems
such as stress,
backache and eye
damaging
Etc

B. Organization (logical organization)
- Order of time (time order): items, events; ideas are arranged in the order in
which they occur.
- Order of importance:

+ General  specific order
+ Specific  general order
+ Most familiar  less familiar
+ Simplest  most complex
+ Order of frequency
Etc
- useful tool for working
and studying
- important to get up-todate information
- a form of entertainment
 Three points to
discuss

- costing a lot of money - advantages
- making people lonely
- disadvantages
- causing some health
problems
 Three
discuss

points

to  Two
discuss

points

to

3. Result
At the beginning of the school-year 2021-2022
Classes Students Excellent
Good

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Average

Under

13


11A
11k

45
42

9→1
0
2
0

%

7→8

%

5→6

%

5
0

3
5

7

11
12

27

At the end of the school-year 2021 – 2022
Classes Students Excellent
Good

11A
11k

45
42

9→1
0

11
6

Average

Average
1→4
%
25
23

61

Under
Average

%

7→8

%

5→6

%

1→4

%

21
15

13
11

26
22

17
19

39
48

5
6

12
15

Kết quả học sinh giỏi tỉnh
Năm học

Tổng số giải hs giỏi tỉnh

2019 - 2020

Không thi

2020 - 2021

4 giải ( 1 nhì, 2 ba, 1kk)

2021 - 2022

4 giải ( 1 nhì, 2 ba, 1kk)
Thanh hóa, ngày 26 tháng 05 năm 2022

Xác nhận của hiệu trưởng

Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN

trường THPT Mai Anh Tuấn

của mình viết, khơng sao chéo
nội dung của người khác.
Người viết SKKN

Lê Hồng Phong

REFERENCES

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Badger, R. and White, G. (2000). A process genre approach to teaching writing.
ELT

Journal Volume 54/2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bruce, I. (2008). Academic Writing and Genre. London: Continuum.
Chandrasegaran, A and Kum, K. T. (2008). Teaching Expository Writing.
Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education.
Greetham, B. (2001). How to Write Better Essays. New York: Palgrave
Leki, I (1998). Academic Writing: Exploring Processes and Strategies.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I.S.P. (2009). Teaching ESL/ EFL Reading and Writing. New York:
Routledge.
Swale, F. (1990). Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wendy, B. and Ostrom, H. (1997). Genre and Writing. Portsmouth:
Boynton/Cook Publishers.
Website:
/>
Appendix
Marking Scheme for Essay Writing

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Bands
Criteria
26-30 Ideas – very substantial, very relevant and very logical. All ideas are well developed and
supported.
Organisation of ideas is very coherent and well-organised. Very adequate paragraphing
with very appropriate topic and supportive sentences. Very smooth flow of ideas with

excellent use of cohesive devices.
Language – Excellent command of English. Very frequent use of excellent complex
sentences without any errors. An impressive range of appropriate vocabulary and
idiomatic language is used.
Evident display of impressive creativity and flair throughout the writing.
21-25 Ideas – substantial, relevant and logical. Most ideas or arguments - well developed and
supported.
Organism of ideas is generally coherent and well-organised. Adequate paragraphing with
appropriate topic and supportive sentences. Smooth flow of ideas with good use of
cohesive devices.
Language – Good command of English. Frequent use of complex sentences with
occasional minor errors. A wide range of appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language
is used.
Good display of creativity and flair throughout the writing.
16-20 Ideas – reasonably substantial, relevant and fairly logical. Some ideas or arguments –
well developed and supported.
Organism of ideas is satisfactorily coherent. Flow of ideas is occasionally hindered by
paragraphs with inappropriate topic and supportive sentences. Satisfactory use of
cohesive devices.
Language – Satisfactory command of English. Frequent use of complex sentences with
rather frequent minor errors and occasional gross errors are evident. A satisfactory range
of appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic language is used. Satisfactory display of
creativity and flair in most part of the writing.
11-15 Ideas – fairly substantial, occasionally irrelevant and lack of logic. Some ideas or
arguments lack elaboration and support.
Organisation of ideas is generally weak. Flow of ideas is evidently impeded with one or
two weak paragraphs. Occasional inappropriate topic and supportive sentences. Fair use
of cohesive devices.
Language – Fair command of English. Frequent use of compound sentences. Complex
sentences are few with frequent minor errors and occasional gross errors. A fair range of

appropriate vocabulary. Limited use of idiomatic language. Occasional display of
creativity and flair in writing. Generally, a conventional way of writing.
6-10
Ideas – inadequate, frequently irrelevant and illogical. Many ideas or arguments lack
elaboration and support.
Organisation of ideas is evidently weak. Flow of ideas is evidently erratic and awkward.
Most paragraphs are poor with frequent inappropriate topic and supportive sentences.
Weak use of cohesive devices.
Language – Weak command of English. Mostly compound or simple sentences are used.
Complex sentences are hardly used. Frequent gross errors. A limited range of
vocabulary. Hardly any use of idiomatic language.
Hardly any display of creativity and flair in writing.
0–5
Ideas – barely adequate, irrelevant and lack of logic. Little/ no evidence of ability to put
forth ideas.
Coherence is absent in text.
Very poor command of English. Numerous errors impeding fluency of communication.
No creativity at all.

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