The impact of genre based writing teaching on the 11th grade students letter writing ability at go cong dong high school in tien giang province m a 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
--------------    ------------

THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED WRITING TEACHING
ON THE 11th GRADE STUDENTS’ LETTER WRITING ABILITY
AT GO CONG DONG HIGH SCHOOL
IN TIEN GIANG PROVINCE

Submitted to the
Department of English Linguistics and Literature
in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By
NGUYEN THI NHU AN

Supervised by
NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph.D.

HO CHI MINH CITY, MARCH 2013


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby certify my authorship of the Master‟s Thesis submitted today entitled:

THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED WRITING TEACHING
ON THE 11th GRADE STUDENTS’ LETTER WRITING ABILITY
AT GO CONG DONG HIGH SCHOOL IN TIEN GIANG PROVINCE

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master‟s Program issued

by the Higher Degree Committee. This thesis has not previously been submitted
for any degree or diploma at Universities and Institutions.

Ho Chi Minh City, March 2013

NGUYEN THI NHU AN

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS
I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI NHU AN, being the candidate for the
degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University
relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited
in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care,
loan, or reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, March 2013

NGUYEN THI NHU AN

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the kind help of the
following people I would like to express my special thanks to.

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor,
Dr. Nguyen Thu Huong, who offered me his whole-hearted guidance and
invaluable support. He sowed the first idea of the thesis topic in my mind and
provided me with very useful sources of material. His critical comments and
valuable suggestions during our discussions and after reading my drafts helped me
understand what I did and continued to do for my thesis more thoroughly.

My special thanks also go to all teachers who taught me and gave me very
useful knowledge during the time I was a member in class TESOL 2008.

I am indebted to Tien Giang Training and Education Service and the school
managing board of GCD High School, who gave me good conditions and much
support during the time I attended the course for M. A. in TESOL in Ho Chi Minh
University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

I am very grateful to all the students in my study for their enthusiastic
cooperation in the process of my experimental doing. My sincere thanks also go to
all the English teachers of GCD high school, who gave me much assistance.

I owe my sincere thanks to my high school teaching staff, and my friends
for their support, encouragement, and regard during my study.

Finally, I am warmly grateful to my parents, my sister, my brother, and my
sweetheart for their love, support, and encouragement that helped me to finish the
thesis.

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ABSTRACT
The present quasi-experimental study aims to examine the impact of genrebased writing teaching on EFL high school students‟ writing ability, especially on
letter writing.

The study was carried out with the participation of seventy eleventh graders
at GCD high school. Thirty-five students in the experimental group were exposed
to the genre-based writing teaching while the other thirty-five in the comparison
group did not take the treatment. After the intervention, the data collected from the
pretest and posttest results of the two groups were computed and analyzed to
compare and investigate the influences of genre-based writing teaching. In detail,
its effects on EFL high school students‟ letter writing ability in general, and
especially on their letter writing ability in terms of content, organization,
vocabulary, and language use (mainly grammar) were examined.

The findings of the study revealed that the genre-based writing teaching
significantly improved students‟ letter writing ability. In other words, the group
treated with the genre-based writing teaching significantly outperformed the
comparison group not only in their letter writing ability in general but also in such
aspects as content, organization, vocabulary, and language use. Moreover, the
result also showed that the students with more awareness of genre could perform
their letter writing more effectively.

The outcome of the study showed a remarkable improvement that the
experimental group attained in letter writing as a result of the genre-based writing
teaching. Therefore, some implications of applying the genre-based writing
teaching in teaching writing to high school students were made.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Certificate of originality ....................................................................................................i
Retention and use of the thesis ..................................................................................... …ii
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................….iii
Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iv
Table of contents ......................................................................................................... ….v
List of tables............................................................................................................. ... viii
List of figures ............................................................................................................. ... ix
List of abbreviations ......................................................................................................... x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1
1.1. Background of the study .................................................................................... 1
1.2. Statement of the problem ................................................................................... 3
1.3. Aims of the study .............................................................................................. 4
1.4. Significance of the study ................................................................................... 4
1.5. Research questions. ........................................................................................... 4
1.6. Hypotheses ........................................................................................................ 5
1.7. Organization of the study .................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 6
2.1. Teaching writing .............................................................................................. 6
2.1.1. Writing: Views on Writing ........................................................................ 6
2.1.2. Teaching L2 writing: any trends ........................................................................ 7

2.2. Major approaches to teaching L2 writing .......................................................... 9
2.2.1. The product approach ................................................................................ 9
2.2.1.1. Strengths of the product approach ................................................. 9
2.2.1.2. Drawbacks of the product approach.............................................. 10
2.2.2. The process approach ....................................................................................11

2.2.2.1. Strengths of the process approach ................................................ 11

2.2.1.2. Drawbacks of the process approach .............................................. 12
2.2.3. The genre approach.........................................................................................13

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2.2.3.1. The concept of genre in the SFL view ......................................... 15
2.2.3.2. Theoretical background of the SFL genre-based approach............ 15
2.2.3.3. A general framework for designing writing teaching lessons
based on the SFL genre-based approach.................................................... 17
2.2.3.4. Previous studies on the SFL genre-based approach to teaching
writing ...................................................................................................... 25
2.3. Summary ........................................................................................................ 29
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 30
3.1. Research design ............................................................................................... 30
3.2. Study setting.................................................................................................... 31
3.3. Subjects and Sampling .................................................................................... 31
3.4. Experimental teaching ..................................................................................... 34
3.4.1. Material .................................................................................................. 34
3.4.2. The experimental teaching outline ........................................................... 35
3.4.3. Lesson plans ........................................................................................... 36
3.4.3.1. General description of lesson plans for teaching students in the
experimental group ................................................................................... 36
3.4.3.2. General description of lesson plans for teaching students in the
comparison group ..................................................................................... 37
3.5. Data collection instrument ............................................................................... 38
3.5.1. Description of pretest and posttest ........................................................... 38
3.5.2. Test administration ................................................................................. 38
3.5.3. Scoring.................................................................................................... 39
3.5.3.1. Answer sheet coding .................................................................... 39

3.5.3.2. Scoring method ............................................................................ 40
3.5.3.3. Scoring criteria ............................................................................. 40
3.5.3.4. Raters ........................................................................................... 41
3.5.3.5. Scoring procedure ........................................................................ 41
3.6. Data collection procedure. ............................................................................... 42
3.7. Data analysis ................................................................................................... 42
3.8. Summary ......................................................................................................... 43

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................... 44
4.1 Reliability of the pretest and posttest scores. .................................................... 44
4.2. Results............................................................................................................. 45
4.2.1. Students‟ ability in writing letter ............................................................ 45
4.2.2. Students‟ ability in writing letter in terms of content, organization,
vocabulary, and language use ......................................................................................... 51
4.2.3. Correlations between genre awareness and students‟ letter writing
ability after the treatment................................................................................................ 58
4.3. Discussion ....................................................................................................... 60
4.4. Summary ......................................................................................................... 67
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 68
5.1. Summary of the research ................................................................................. 68
5.2. Pedagogical implications ................................................................................. 70
5.3. Limitations of the study ................................................................................... 71
5.4. Recommendations for further research ........................................................... 71
5.5. Summary ........................................................................................................ 72
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 73
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... ... 80
APPENDIX 1: Test for sample selection ....................................................................... .80

APPENDIX 2: Pretest ............................................................................................ ……86
APPENDIX 3: Posttest .................................................................................................. .87
APPENDIX 4: Rating sheet .......................................................................................... .89
APPENDIX 5: Criteria for rating students‟ score results ............................................... .91
APPENDIX 6: Correlations between genre awareness and letter writing ability ......... …92
APPENDIX 7: Scoring criteria ...................................................................................... .93
APPENDIX 8: Lesson plans for the experimental group ............................................... .97
APPENDIX 9: Lesson plans for the comparison group ............................................... .153
APPENDIX 10: Statistical data ................................................................................... .173

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LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 3.1: The Experimental and Comparison groups‟ information .................................. 33
Table 3.2: Five letter-writing lessons ................................................................................ 35
Table 4.1: Cronbach‟s Alpha for inter-rater reliability in pretest and posttest ratings ........ 44
Table 4.2: Table 4.2: Independent Sample T-Test results of posttest scores between the
two groups ....................................................................................................................... 45
Table 4.3:Independent Sample T-Test results of pretest scores between the two groups ... 46
Table 4.4: Score type distribution of pretest between the two groups .............................. 48
Table 4.5: Score type distribution of posttest between the two groups .............................. 49
Table 4.6: Independent Sample T-Test results of posttest scores on content,
organization, vocabulary, and language use between the two groups ................................. 51
Table 4.7: Independent Sample T-Test results of pretest scores on content,
organization, vocabulary, and language use between the two groups ................................. 52
Table 4.8: Correlations between genre awareness and students‟ ability in writing
letters of the two groups in the posttest ............................................................................. 59

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LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS
Pages
Figure 2.1: The Teaching-Learning Cycle ..................................................................... 19
Figure 3.1:Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest comparison group design ...................... 31
Chart 4.1: Mean scores of pretest and posttest of the comparison group
and the experimental one ................................................................................................ 47
Chart 4.2: Score type distribution in pretest between the two groups ............................ 48
Chart 4.3: Score type distribution in posttest between the two groups ........................... 50
Chart 4.4: Mean scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use in
pretest between the two groups ....................................................................................... 53
Chart 4.5: Mean scores on content, organization, vocabulary, and language use in
posttest between the two groups ..................................................................................... 54
Chart 4.6: Score type distribution in content of pretest .................................................. 55
Chart 4.7: Score type distribution in organization of pretest .......................................... 55
Chart 4.8: Score type distribution in vocabulary of pretest ............................................ 56
Chart 4.9: Score type distribution in language use of pretest ......................................... 56
Chart 4.10: Score type distribution in content of posttest .............................................. 57
Chart 4.11: Score type distribution in organization of posttest ...................................... 57
Chart 4.12: Score type distribution in vocabulary of posttest......................................... 58
Chart 4.13: Score type distribution in language use of posttest ...................................... 58

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

ESL

English as a Second Language

SFL

Systemic Functional Linguistics

L2

Second/ Foreign Language

ESP

English for Specific Purposes

ZPD

Zone of Proximal Development

DSP

Disadvantaged Schools Program

GCD

Go Cong Dong

N

Number of students

G

Good

F

Fair

A

Average

W

Weak

VW

Very Weak

SPSS

Statistics Package for Social Sciences

M

Mean

SD

Standard Deviation

Sig. (2-tailed)

Significance (two-tailed)

MD

Mean Difference

d.f.

degree(s) of freedom

CG

Comparison Group

EG

Experimental Group

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter begins with providing the background of the study. The next
sections present the statement of the problem, the aim, and the significance of the
study. Then it focuses on the research questions and hypotheses. Finally, it
concludes with the organization of the thesis.
1.1

Background of the study

In the setting of global integration, English is considered to be an
international language. Therefore, learning English is a popular need over the
world, not except Vietnam. To contribute to learners‟ success in this target
language, writing, one of the language skills, cannot be ignored.
In four language skills, writing may be said to be the most difficult skill for
L2 learners to master. To support this, Richards and Renandya point that “the
difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating
these ideas into readable texts.” (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p. 303). However,
“the ability to write effectively is becoming increasingly important in our global
communication” (Weigle, 2002, p. 1). In reality, people communicate with each
other not only in spoken language but also in written language. As stated by
Weigle, along with the ability to speak a language as a foreign or second language,
the ability to write it is “becoming widely recognized as an essential skill for
educational, business, and personal reasons” (2002, p. 1).
As a result, writing has become an important part of learning and teaching

English in EFL/ESL context over the world, including in Vietnam. Under this
circumstance, writing has been paid much attention to, even in Vietnamese high
school English curriculum. Thus, how to help EFL high school students improve
their writing ability is really a challenge to teachers. For this, the application of an

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alternative method in teaching writing of English to EFL high school students
would be considered as one of the essential solutions.
In fact, in the last decades, there has been a shift of the major approaches to
teaching writing in favor of the genre–based approach. As known, the product
approach comes under some heavy criticisms that the written pieces are mainly the
imitation of the input and the writing skills are almost ignored (Pincas, 1982;
Silva, 1990; Nunan, 1991; Badger and White, 2000). In the same way, the process
approach is blamed for overemphasizing on the writing skills but paying little
attention to the linguistic knowledge L2 students need to write effectively (Badger
& White, 2000). Meanwhile, the genre-based approach to teaching writing
emphasizes on language, discourse features of the text, and the context in which
the text in a certain genre is produced (Paltridge, 2004). Similarly, in the way of
Munice (2002), the genre approach focuses more on the reader and on the
conventions that a written piece needs to follow in order to be successfully
accepted by its readership. Noticeably, in recent years, the genre-based writing
instruction has become one of the mainstreams of researching and applying in the
field of English language teaching as EFL/ESL, especially teaching of writing
(Hyland, 2004; Johns, 2002; Paltridge, 2001). Strongly influenced by

achievements from Australia, where the genre theory and its applications have
been developed better than elsewhere, many studies of teaching writing of English
by using the genre-based approach have been carried out in EFL contexts. The
results of these studies have shown the genre-based approach to teaching writing
helps students write much better.
Although the genre-based writing instruction is widely used in different parts
of the world even in several countries in the neighborhood of Vietnam like
Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, etc, it seems to be
unfamiliar to teachers in Vietnam, especially with EFL high school teachers. With
the effectiveness of the genre-based writing teaching, the researcher of the present
study, also a high school teacher of English for years, is urged to conduct the
current study “the impact of genre-based writing teaching on the 11th grade
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students‟ letter writing ability at Go Cong Dong high school in Tien Giang
province”.
1.2 Statement of the problem
From the practical need of improving learners‟ English ability in general,
writing ability in particular, new English textbooks of high school English
curriculum have been used for years. However, a big challenge has still existed in
teaching and learning English writing at Go Cong Dong (GCD) high school is that
the results of the students‟ writing are always unsatisfactory. This can be seen
through the low writing scores of the students‟ writing tests over years. Moreover,
during the researcher‟s teaching, she can see that her students face many writing
problems from their written products. First, they have difficulty in selecting

relevant ideas or lack supporting ideas to express what they are writing about.
Second, they also face difficulties in using appropriately linguistic features
(lexical-grammatical features) as well as organizational structures for their written
pieces. Moreover, a large number of them cannot write coherently due to their
failure in arranging the ideas logically, and making use of cohesive devices, etc.
Hence, such problems prevent these EFL high school students from writing to
achieve communicative purposes successfully as well as to be accepted
satisfactorily by intended audiences. These problems are also consistent with those
mentioned in the pilot study to some problems EFL students in a gifted high school
in Soc Trang, Vietnam carried out by Tuyen (2010).
On that account, a deep thought of an alternative way for teaching writing, the
genre-based writing teaching, came into the researcher‟s mind. This writing
instruction is different from the one her colleagues and she have been using.
Therefore, a strong motivation appeared in her mind to conduct the study “The
impact of genre-based writing teaching on the 11th grade students‟ letter writing
ability at Go Cong Dong high school in Tien Giang province”. It also implies that
applying the genre-based writing teaching aims to improve writing skill of senior
high school students in general.

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1.3 Aim of the study
The major aim of the study in great effort is to investigate the impact of the
genre-based writing teaching on the eleventh graders‟ letter writing ability at Go
Cong Dong high school in Tien Giang province. More particularly, the impact of

the genre-based writing instruction on these students‟ ability of writing letter in
terms of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use are examined.
1.4 Significance of the study
Theoretically, it is hoped that the study will be a very useful reference for
EFL high school teachers as well as other researchers about the study on teaching
English writing based on the genre-based approach.
The results of the study has shown that the genre-based writing teaching
really helped to improve these high school students‟ ability in writing letters,
especially in the areas of writing such as content, language use, vocabulary, and
organization. Therefore, practically, the study may provide a useful guidance for
teachers to design and apply an appropriate way of teaching writing to get much
effectiveness in pedagogy.
Moreover, the success of the study hopefully makes a meaningful
contribution to teaching and learning in response to the call of the Vietnamese
Ministry of Education and Training: encouraging teachers to use the innovative
way in teaching in general, and English teaching in particular.
1.5 Research questions
To conduct this study, the following research questions are focused:
1. Does the genre-based writing teaching significantly improve the
eleventh graders‟ letter writing ability?
a.

Does the experimental group significantly outperform the
comparison group in terms of letter writing ability?
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b.

If the experimental group outperforms the comparison one
significantly, what are the areas (content, organization,
vocabulary, and language use) that they outperform?

2. Are there any correlations between genre awareness and students‟ letter
writing ability after the treatment?
1.6 Hypotheses
Built on the study aims and research questions, hypotheses are stated as
follows.
Hypothesis 1: the genre-based writing teaching significantly improves the
11th grade students‟ letter writing ability. Specifically, the experimental group
significantly outperforms the comparison one in terms of letter writing ability in
general and in terms of letter writing ability of content, organization, vocabulary,
and language use.
Hypothesis 2: Prompt giving does not make any difference in students‟
writing ability. However, if awareness is raised, positive gains may result. This
suggests a consciousness-raising acting of the genre may be indicator of writing
ability gains.
1.7 Organization of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the
study. Chapter 2 is literature review, presenting the theoretical background that is
the basis for the thesis to be conducted. Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology
employed in the study. Chapter 4 is about the results and discussion. In this
chapter, the collected data are analyzed and discussed in detail. Chapter 5 gives the
conclusion to the thesis.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides the conceptual framework related to the present
study. Therefore, the chapter first begins with some issues of writing and teaching
writing. Secondly, it presents major approaches to teaching writing, especially it is
mainly concerned with the SFL genre-based approach to teaching writing. Finally,
the chapter ends with its summary.
2.1 Teaching writing
2.1.1 Writing: Views on writing
In traditional view, writing was considered as an only representation of
speech as well as transcribed speech. As stated by Morris (1996, p. 24) “Writing is
primarily a means of recording speech even though it must be acknowledged as a
secondary medium of communication in its own right”. By this way, writing was
not regarded to be one of the appropriate purposes of language learning. In
language classroom, writing was mainly used for helping to learn speech because
it was assumed that anyone would be able to write with his or her knowledge of
spelling and grammar.
In contrast to the traditional view, this viewpoint of writing considers
writing as a language skill used for communication and writing is a very complex
process. To support this view, Washe expresses that writing is not merely “talk
written down”, but involves in “a deeper kind of thinking” (Washe, 1986, p. 174).
In agreement with this viewpoint, Nunan (1999, p. 273) also states “Writing is a
complex, cognitive process that requires sustained effort over a considerable
period of time”. Moreover, in his words about second language writing, Weigle

(2002, p. 1) expresses that “The traditional view in language classes that writing
functions primarily to support and reinforce patterns of oral language use,
grammar, and vocabulary, is being supplanted by the notion that writing in a
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second language is a worthwhile enterprise in and of itself”. Furthermore, some
authors (Kaplan, 1966; Matsuda, 1997; Moffett, 1982) make a claim that writing
does not take place in a vacuum; it is involved in the complexity of relationships
among different elements such as the writer, the reader (the audience), the text, and
reality (context). For researchers as well as teachers of writing, therefore, writing
is a means of linguistic expression and communication.
Because writing is a complex phenomenon, managing this skill requires
some necessary kinds of knowledge from learner. In relation to this matter, Tribble
(1996) and Hyland (2003) share their outlook. Besides the common things, Hyland
has proposed one more, consisting of genre knowledge. The knowledge considered
to help writer to get effective in his writing can be outlined as follows.
- Content knowledge – knowledge of the ideas and concepts
involved in the topic area that the text will write about.
- Language system knowledge – knowledge of the aspects of
language system necessary for the task completion such as vocabulary, grammar,
etc.
- Context knowledge – knowledge of social context related to
reader‟s expectation, of cultural preferences, and of related texts.
- Writing process knowledge – knowledge of the most suitable way
of preparing and carrying out a particular writing task

- Genre knowledge – knowledge of communicative purposes and
value of the genre in specific contexts
2.1.2 Teaching L2 writing: any trends
In the teaching of writing in English to L2 learners, there have been a
number of trends influencing much on teaching writing. Among them are the three
remarkable tendencies in L2 writing instruction over the last 30 years that attract
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much attention, including focusing on language structures (forms), focusing on the
writing process, and focusing on the genre.
The trend of writing instruction focuses on language structures was
dominant from the 1960s to the early 1970s. At the beginning of this stage, due to
the influence of the view seeing writing merely as useful assistance to learning oral
language, teaching writing mainly emphasized on sentence pattern drills such as
fill-ins, substitution, transformation, completions, and so on. Then, using passages
of connected discourse as classroom material, writing was guided inflexibly
through controlled composition tasks. In these kinds of tasks, learners are given
texts and asked to manage the linguistic forms within the texts by filling in gaps,
completing sentences, transforming tenses, etc. Teaching of writing this way, as
Hyland (2003, p. 3) states, “directs attention to writing as a product and
encourages a focus on formal text units or grammatical features of texts”.
Another tendency of teaching writing is the emphasis on the writer.
Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, writing instruction in this trend began
to be popular with writing teachers. Such a trend in teaching writing was born due
to the influence of L1 writing researches on composing processes. L2 writing

teachers and researchers shifted their interest in the writer. In this perspective, the
writer is emphasized as “language learner and creator of text” (Raimes, 1991) or
“an independent producer of texts” (Hyland, 2003). Paying much attention to the
writer is consistent with placing the primary focus on what the writer really does as
he/ she writes.
Focus on genre is also a salient trend in teaching writing. Since the early
1990s, this trend has been a strong position in teaching writing with the attraction
of most writing researchers and teachers as well as its successful application in
classroom. In this tendency, the principal concern is placed on the text and context
with a great effort to effectively communicate with readers in different situations.
In other words, this way of teaching writing, as Muncie (2002) notes, emphasizes

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“more on the reader and on the conventions that a piece of writing needs to follow
in order to be successfully accepted by its readership”.
In short, this section has summarized some writing-related issues and major
tendencies to teaching writing. All these things can be considered to be the
fundamental background for some striking approaches to L2 writing teaching. The
next section will elaborate some main approaches to teaching writing.
2.2 Major approaches to teaching L2 writing
Due to the researchers‟ attempt in researching on L2 writing teaching, the
dramatic changes in this field have been seen over years. In history of L2 writing
teaching, some main approaches have been developed like the product approach,
the process approach, and the genre approach. Although all of them share the same

purpose to help teaching writing with more effectiveness, they have their own
characteristics. The following sections look at these approaches in great detail.
2.2.1 The product approach
2.2.1.1 Strengths of the product approach
Under the influence of the trend of teaching writing focusing on language
structures, the product approach is considered predominant during this time.
According to writing researchers, writing in this approach is involved much in
knowledge about language structures and writing developing is merely the
imitation of the input of the texts given by teachers. Teaching writing by this
approach through four stages includes familiarization, controlled writing, guided
writing, and free writing.
Familiarization: Learners are taught certain grammar and
vocabulary, usually through a text.
Controlled writing: Learners manipulate fixed patterns,
often from substitution tables.

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Guided writing: Learners imitate model texts.
Free writing: Learners use the patterns they have
developed to write an essay, letter, and so forth.
Hyland (2003, p. 4)
The salient strength of this approach is that it is helpful in encouraging
students to develop their linguistic knowledge, grammatical patterns, etc. For this
aspect, Badger and White (2000) indicates that since writing this way concerns

with linguistic knowledge of text, learners can learn partly through imitation. Also,
Arndt (1987) believes that the importance of models used in this approach is useful
for imitation. Moreover, exposing model of written texts to learners can help them
reduce their writing errors (Myles, 2002).
Briefly, the product approach is considered useful for developing learners‟
vocabulary, sentence patterns, grammatical rules, and accuracy in writing but this
approach faces some strong criticisms.
2.2.1.2 Drawbacks of the product approach
There are several drawbacks in the product approach. The main drawback is
that it ignores writing skills. Badger and White (2000) argue that in this approach,
writing skills such as planning a text play a relatively small role. In addition,
according to Prodromou (1995), this approach undervalues learners‟ potential.
Because it only focuses on the imitation of the model text, there is little or no
opportunity for learners to express their own ideas and creativity. Furthermore,
overemphasis on accuracy and form can also lead to a serious “writing blocks”
(Halsted, 1975) as well as “sterile” and “unimaginative” writing pieces (Mahon,
1992). To support this aspect, Hyland (2003, p. 5) makes a claim that “nor is it
easy to see how a focus restricted to grammar can lead to better writing… Most
teachers are familiar with students who can construct accurate sentences and yet
are unable to produce appropriate written texts…” One more criticism mentioned

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here is that this approach requires a constant error correction, which may affect
students‟ motivation and self-esteem.

With such disadvantages mentioned above, writing teachers and researchers
continue their effort to lead to another approach to teaching writing, the process
approach.
2.2.2 The process approach
2.2.2.1 Strengths of the process approach
One of the most widespread influences on writing instruction until now is
the process approach to teaching writing. It began to take the place of the product
approach in the mid 1970s. This approach emphasizes much on how a text is
written. In other words, it makes a focus on how L2 writers actually do when they
write. In regard to this, Hyland (2003) notes that the process approach has a major
impact on understanding the nature of writing and the way writing is taught. A
large number of researchers (Arndt, 1987; Byrne, 1988; Harmer, 2004; Hedge,
1988; Hyland, 2003; Raimes, 1991; Tribble, 1996; Zamel, 1983) assert that the
writing process is a complex, recursive procedure which requires writers or
learners to move through identifiable stages of developing the text from data
collection to publishing it. For this reason, cognitive strategies play an important
role in the working of this approach.
There are several various views on the stages of the writing process in this
approach. However, a typical model of this process includes recursive stages such
as prewriting, composing/ drafting, revising, editing, publishing (Tribble, 1996).
The prewriting stage engages students in some activities in which students plan
what they are going to write, make detailed notes, and think about the purpose, the
audience, and the content structure of the writing piece (Harmer, 2004; Tribble,
1996). In the stage of drafting/ composing, the writers begin to “translate plans and
ideas into provisional text” (Harris, 1993, p. 55) and “moves from thinking about
writing to doing it” (Tribble, 1996, p. 112). Moreover, Tribble (1996) also adds
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that during composing/ drafting, “writers move towards a text that most closely
matches what they want to convey to their reader” (p. 112).

After drafting,

students read it again and may share it with their partners, peers, or teacher. The
stage of revising is concentrated on “reorganizing, shifting emphasis, focusing on
information and style for your readership” (Tribble, 1996, p. 38). After getting
feedback to their writing piece, students make some adjustments, which come to
the stage of editing. Editing is involved in checking and correcting grammar, lexis,
surface structures like punctuation, spelling, layout, etc (Tribble, 1996) or doing
any correction if necessary. Publishing is the last one once writers have made
edition and changes to their written piece and now they are ready to send their
written text to its intended audience (Harmer, 2004)
From what has been presented, it can be said that the process approach has
many advantages to teaching L2 writing. One of its outstanding benefits is that it
focuses much on the writer as an independent producer of the text. Through this
way, students have time and opportunity to develop their abilities to plan, define a
rhetorical problem, a purpose and evaluate a solution. Moreover, through the
stages of writing, students also have chance to explore their ideas, discover
meaning, and develop a sense of audience (Murray, 1985). In this approach,
students become centered while teacher plays a role of facilitator to give students
help in their writing. Therefore, it encourages learners‟ creativity and gives much
motivation to engage them in learning process.
Because the process approach tends to put much emphasis on language
skills rather than linguistic knowledge and text structure to develop student writers
as authors when they are not yet ready to be second language writers, it is open to

some criticisms.
2.2.2.2 Drawbacks of the process approach
Obviously, the process approach suffers from an argument about its
drawbacks (Bazerman, 1980). First, this approach often considers all writing as

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being produced by the same set of processes, regardless of what the topic is and
who the writer or the reader is. Second, it gives insufficient importance to the kind
of text writers produce and why such texts are produced. Third, according to
Badger and White (2000), it offers learners insufficient input, particularly in terms
of linguistic knowledge, to write successfully. In the view of Atkinson (2003), the
process approach seems to narrowly focus on the skills and processes of writing in
the classroom itself, so it fails to take into account the social and cultural aspects
that have an impact on different kinds of writing.
The disadvantages urge writing researchers, especially opponents of the
process approach in their attempts to develop what is known as the genre approach
to L2 teaching writing.
2.2.3 The genre approach
Since the mid 1980s, considerable attention has been paid to the genre
approach to teaching writing. This alternative to teaching writing was developed
in response to the process approach which overemphasizes the process of writing
and gives learners insufficient input in terms of linguistic knowledge (Badger &
White, 2000). The genre-based approach considers writing as a social and cultural
practice. It places much emphasis on language and discourse features of particular

texts and contexts in which the texts are used (Hyland, 2004).
A general view of the genre approach to teaching writing can be outlined
under some judgments from different scholars as follows:
The genre approach is more socially oriented and focuses on the ways in which
writers and texts need to interact with readers. In this approach, writing is seen as
an essentially social activity in which texts are written to do things, the
assumption being that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text,
communication will not be successful.

(Tribble, 1996, p. 37)

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Muncie (2002) states that the genre approach focuses more on the reader,
and on the conventions that a piece of writing needs to follow in order to be
successfully accepted by its readership.
According to Hyland (2004), the genre-based writing teaching is concerned
with what learners do when they write. Teaching writing based on genres is an
attempt to communicate with readers to better understand the ways that language
patterns are used to accomplish coherent, purposeful written piece. Put it another
way, the genre-based writing instruction is a way of pulling together language,
content, and context. At the same time, it is a chance for writing teachers to present
students with explicit and systematic explanations of the ways writing works to
communicate.
In Paltridge‟s view, the genre approach to teaching writing focuses on

“teaching particular genres that students need control of in order to succeed in
particular setting. This might include a focus on language and discourse features of
the texts as well as the context in which the text is produced.” (2004, p. 1).
According to the researchers of genre and genre pedagogies, the genre
approach is mainly discussed from three perspectives: Systemic Functional
Linguistics (SFL), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and New Rhetoric studies
(Hyland, 2004; Hyon, 1996; Johns, 2002; Paltridge, 2001). Among them are the
SFL and ESP genre approaches that are much influential in language instruction,
particularly in writing teaching. In contrast, the genre approach influenced by the
New Rhetoric school has been less concerned with establishing a clear pedagogic
frame work (Hyland, 2002). Instead, emphasis is given to raising students‟
consciousness of contextual features and the assumptions and aims of the
communities who use the genres in order to provide a critical understanding of
rhetorical features and their effectiveness (Bazerman, 1988; Hyland, 2002).
This current study takes the SFL genre-based approach as its theoretical
background because “within SFL, a rich and sophisticated methodology has

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