The effectiveness of genre based approach in improving efl writing skills for non english major students at dong nai technology university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
---------------------------

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GENRE- BASED
APPROACH IN IMPROVING EFL WRITING
SKILLS FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITY
Submitted to the
Faculty of English Language
in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language

Course code: 60220201
By
HUYNH THUY NHIEN
Supervised by LE XUAN QUYNH, Ph. D

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2020


The thesis entitled “The Effectiveness of Genre- Based Approach in Improving
EFL Writing Skills for Non-English Major Students at Dong Nai Technology
University” was successfully defended and approved on 27th September 2020 at Ho
Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH).
Academic supervisor: LE

XUAN QUYNH, Ph. D

………………………………………………………………...
(full name, title, signature)

Examination Committee
1. NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, Ph. D

Chair

2. TRUONG CONG BANG, Ph. D

Reader 1

3. TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph. D

Reader 2

4. LE DANG NGUYEN, Ph. D

Member

5. LE VAN TUYEN, Ph. D

Secretary Member

On behalf of the Examination Committee
Chair


HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE
HCMC, …..……………2020

MASTER’S THESIS REPORT

Student name: HUỲNH THUỲ NHIÊN

Sex: Female

Date of birth: 28th October 1994

Place of birth: Dong Nai Province

Major: English Language

Student code: 1841900046

I- Thesis title:
The Effectiveness of Genre- Based Approach in Improving EFL Writing Skills
for Non-English Major Students at Dong Nai Technology University.
II- Objectives and contents:
To investigate the effectiveness of this approach, this study has to achieve the major
objectives that are (1) to determine the effectiveness of genre-based approach in
improving writing skills for non-English major students at DNTU and (2) to explore
their attitude towards this approach in learning writing.
III- Starting date: 30th October 2019.
IV- Completing date: 27th September 2020.
V- Academic supervisor: LE XUAN QUYNH, Ph. D
ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR

FACULTY DEAN

(full name, signature)

(full name, signature)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GENRE- BASED APPROACH IN IMPROVING
EFL WRITING SKILLS FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT
DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by
the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2020

HUYNH THUY NHIEN

i


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, HUYNH THUY NHIEN, being a candidate for the degree
of Master of Arts (English Language) 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 Master’s Thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research,
in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the
care, loan, and reproduction for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 2020

HUYNH THUY NHIEN

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep and heartfelt gratitude to
my supervisor, Dr. Le Xuan Quynh, for his devotion, patience, guidance,
insightful advice, and constant encouragement throughout the whole research
process. Without his professional guide and valuable comments, this thesis
would never have been completed.
Next, I also would like to express my sincere appreciation to my colleagues
at the Foreign Language Faculty of Dong Nai Technology University who gave
me valuable advice to help my thesis be better and completed.
Then I would like to give my special thanks to the students at Dong Nai
Technology University, all of whom enthusiastically participated in my study.
Further, I am also very thankful to all my instructors who have taught me in
18SNA11 class with their helpful and valuable lessons and my classmates at
HUTECH University for their support during the whole course.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deep gratefulness to my family
who always stands by me to share the difficulties with me by their love and
mental support to help me complete my research work.

iii

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of Genre- Based Approach
(GBA) in improving EFL writing skills for Non-English Major Students at Dong
Nai Technology University (DNTU) and their attitude to GBA. The participants
of the study included 60 non-English major students at DNTU. Data of the study
were collected by two types of the quantitative research by the quasiexperimental design with the tests including pre-test and post-test for the control
group and the experimental group. The other was the questionnaire. SPSS ver.
25 was employed to analyse the quantitative data in this study. The findings
revealed that the learners in both groups had a positive change in their EFL
writing after the experiment, but the improvement of the experimental group was
greater than the control group in overall writing by GBA, specifically in five
writing components of vocabulary, content, language use, mechanics, and
organization. However, the rate of GBA’s effects on which writing component
was different in the experimental group. The learners’ writing component of
language use was improved the most while their writing component of content
was less enhanced than the others with this approach. In terms of students’
attitude towards learning English writing with GBA, the findings from the
questionnaire revealed that the participants in the experimental group highly
agreed that GBA can bring the positive effects to their EFL writing skills. In
brief, GBA had the effectiveness of enhancing EFL wiring skills for non-English
learners. This study once again examined the potential value of this approach in
education based on the learners’ attitude.

Key words: Genre-based approach, genre pedagogy, EFL writing, non-English
major students, teaching and learning cycle.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................. i
RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ iii
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................. v
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... xi


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. 1
1.1. Background to the study .................................................................................. 1
1.2. Statement of the problem ................................................................................ 3
1.3. Aims and objectives of the study .................................................................... 4
1.4. Research questions .......................................................................................... 5
1.5. Scope of the Study ........................................................................................... 5
1.6. Significance of the study ................................................................................. 5
1.7. Definitions of the key terms ............................................................................ 6
1.8. Organization of the thesis ................................................................................ 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................. 8
2.1. Introduction. .................................................................................................... 8
2.2. Approaches to learning and teaching EFL writing .......................................... 8
2.2.1. Product approach ................................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Process approach.................................................................................... 9
2.3. Genre-based approach ................................................................................... 11
2.3.1. The Nature of Genre in Linguistic Study............................................. 11
2.3.2. The Properties of genre-based approach .............................................. 12
2.3.3. The drawbacks of the genre-based approach. ...................................... 13
2.3.4. A comparison of writing approaches in Teaching EFL. ...................... 14

2.4. Implementation of Genre-based Approach for Writing Instruction. ............. 16
2.5. Assessment of learner’s attitude towards applying the GBA ........................ 18
v


2.6. Previous Studies ............................................................................................ 19
2.7. Conceptual Framework ................................................................................. 21
2.8. Chapter summary .......................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................... 25
3.1. Introduction. .................................................................................................. 25
3.2. Research Design. ........................................................................................... 25
3.3. Research Site ................................................................................................. 26
3.4. Sample and Sampling Procedures ................................................................. 26
3.5. Research Instruments. ................................................................................... 28
3.5.1. Teaching Material ................................................................................ 28
3.5.1.1. The writing genre in the study: Descriptive Paragraph. ............... 28
3.5.1.2. Teaching Materials: Writing Sample Texts. ................................. 29
3.5.1.3. The guide for the future lesson plan. ............................................ 29
3.5.2. The Training. ....................................................................................... 31
3.5.2.1. The Training Plan. ........................................................................ 31
3.5.2.2. Experimental teaching process ..................................................... 35
3.5.3. Tests ..................................................................................................... 36
3.5.3.1. Pre-tests ........................................................................................ 37
3.5.3.2. Post-tests ....................................................................................... 37
3.5.3.3. Scoring Rubric .............................................................................. 37
3.5.4. Questionnaire ....................................................................................... 38
3.6. Data Analysis Procedures .............................................................................. 39
3.6.1. Tests ..................................................................................................... 39
3.6.2. Questionnaire ....................................................................................... 41
3.7. Data Collection Procedures ........................................................................... 41

3.8. Validity and Reliability ................................................................................. 42
3.8.1. Tests ..................................................................................................... 42
3.8.2. Questionnaire ....................................................................................... 45
3.9. Ethical issues ................................................................................................. 46
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................... 47
4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 47
4.2. Results of Pre-tests ........................................................................................ 47
vi


4.2.1. Overall performance of CG and EG .................................................... 47
4.2.2. Componential scores ............................................................................ 48
4.2.2.1. Content ......................................................................................... 50
4.2.2.2. Organization ................................................................................. 50
4.2.2.3. Vocabulary ................................................................................... 51
4.2.2.4. Language Use ............................................................................... 51
4.2.2.5. Mechanics ..................................................................................... 52
4.3. Results of Post-tests ...................................................................................... 52
4.3.1 Overall performance of CG and EG ..................................................... 52
4.3.2. Componential scores ............................................................................ 54
4.3.2.1. Content ......................................................................................... 55
4.3.2.2. Organization ................................................................................. 56
4.3.2.3. Vocabulary ................................................................................... 57
4.3.2.4. Language focus ............................................................................. 58
4.3.2.5. Mechanics ..................................................................................... 58
4.4. Summary of Test results ................................................................................ 59
4.5. Questionnaire................................................................................................. 59
4.5.1. Theme 1: The improvement of learning writing through GBA......... 59
4.5.2. Theme 2: The motivation of learning writing through GBA............. 62
4.5.3. Summary of Questionnaire findings .................................................. 64

4.6. Discussion of findings ................................................................................... 64
4.6.1. Participants’ writing skill................................................................... 64
4.6.2. Participants’ attitude towards applying GBA .................................... 66
4.7. Summary ....................................................................................................... 68
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 70
5.1 Summary of the main findings of the thesis ................................................... 70
5.2 Implications of the research ........................................................................... 71
5.3 Limitations of the research ............................................................................. 72
5.4 Recommendations for further research .......................................................... 73
5.5. Summary ....................................................................................................... 74
References .................................................................................................................. 75


vii


APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 80
APPENDIX A: Writing Sample Texts. ...................................................................... 80
APPENDIX B: Questionnaire (English Version) ....................................................... 82
APPENDIX C: Questionnaire (Vietnamese Version) ................................................ 84
APPENDIX D: The Scoring Rubric for Descriptive Writing ..................................... 87
APPENDIX E: Lesson Plan for Experimental Group. ............................................... 89
APPENDIX E1: Material (for The Lesson Plan above) ............................................. 93
APPENDIX F: Lesson Plan for Control Group. ....................................................... 101
APPENDIX F1: Material (for The Lesson Plan above) ........................................... 105
APPENDIX G: Writing Test – Pre-Test ................................................................... 113
APPENDIX H: Writing Test – Post-Test ................................................................. 114
APPENDIX I: A Recap of Previous Studies. ........................................................... 115
APPENDIX J: The Participant Information Sheets and The Consent Forms ........... 117
APPENDIX J1: The Participant Information Sheets and The Consent Forms

(Vietnamese Version) ............................................................................................... 121
APPENDIX K: Writing Scores ................................................................................. 125
APPENDIX K1: EG’s pre-test scores....................................................................... 125
APPENDIX K2: CG’s pre-test scores ...................................................................... 126
APPENDIX K3: EG’s post-test raw scores .............................................................. 127
APPENDIX K4: CG’s post-test raw scores .............................................................. 128
APPENDIX K5: Frequency table of pre-test and post-test writing band scores ...... 129
APPENDIX K6: Descriptive Statistics of Pre-test scores ........................................ 130
APPENDIX K7: Descriptive Statistics of Post-test scores ....................................... 131
APPENDIX K8: Independent Samples t-test of Pre-test scores ............................... 132
APPENDIX K9: Independent Samples t-test of Post-test scores ............................. 133
APPENDIX L: Questionnaire’s results .................................................................... 134
APPENDIX L1: Item-Total Statistics of Questionnaire’s results............................. 134
APPENDIX L2: Descriptive Statistics of Questionnaire’s results ........................... 135
APPENDIX M: Presentative writing papers of the participants ............................... 136
APPENDIX M1: Students’ writing papers in EG..................................................... 136
APPENDIX M2: Students’ writing papers in CG. ................................................... 139
APPENDIX N: The Institution Approval ................................................................. 142
viii


LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1. The information of the control group and experimental group ................. 27
Table 3.2. Stages of Learning and Teaching Circle for the Lesson Plan (adopted from
Callahanga and Rothery,1988, p. 39)...................................................... 30
Table 3.3. Training for the Experimental Group. ....................................................... 32
Table 3.4. Training for the Control Group. ................................................................ 33
Table 3.5. The difference between GBA and Product Approach ............................... 34
Table 3.6. Description of the Questionnaire Content. ................................................ 38
Table 3.7. Interpretation of Pearson Correlation ........................................................ 40

Table 3.8. Interpretation of Cronbach’s Alpha for inter-rater reliability.................... 40
Table 3.9. Interpretation of Independent samples t-Tests .......................................... 41
Table 3.10. Interpretation of Cronbach’s Alpha for Questionnaire reliability ........... 41
Table 3.11. Inter-rater reliability of pre-test in Pearson Correlation .......................... 43
Table 3.12. Inter-rater reliability of pre-test in Cronbach’s Alpha............................. 44
Table 3.13. Inter-rater reliability of post-test in Pearson Correlation ........................ 44
Table 3.14. Inter-rater reliability of post-test in Cronbach’s Alpha ........................... 45
Table 3.15. Reliability Statistics of Questionnaire ..................................................... 46
Table 4.1. Band scores of Pre-tests for EG and CG ................................................... 47
Table 4.2. Mean scores of Pre-tests for EG and CG .................................................. 48
Table 4.3. T-test value of Pre-tests for EG and CG.................................................... 48
Table 4.4. Descriptive Statistics of Pre-tests for EG and CG ..................................... 49
Table 4.5. T-test value of component scores of Pre-tests for EG and CG ................. 50
Table 4.6. Band scores of post-test for EG and CG ................................................... 53
Table 4.7. Mean scores of post-test for EG and CG ................................................... 54
Table 4.8. T-test value of post-test for EG and CG .................................................... 54
Table 4.9. Descriptive Statistics of post-test for EG and CG ..................................... 55
Table 4.10. T-test value of component scores of post-test for EG and CG ................ 55
Table 4.11. Frequency table of items for the improvement of learning writing
through GBA........................................................................................... 60
Table 4.12. Frequency table of items for the motivation of learning writing through
GBA. ....................................................................................................... 63


ix


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1. The Learning and Teaching Cycle ........................................................... 17
Figure 2.2. The Conceptual Framework ..................................................................... 22

x


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CEFR

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

DNTU

Dong Nai Technology University

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

ESP

English for Specific Purposes

GBA

Genre-based Approach

L1

First Language (native language/mother tongue)

L2

Second Language (Target Language)

SPSS

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

xi


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the study
Writing is known as one of the popular communicative means of the human being.
It helps us express our thoughts, ideas, and feelings to each other using a visual and
written format. Besides, writing is one of two productive skills which create information.
This requires the writers’ carefulness and high accuracy to avoid expressing ambiguous
meanings when they produce a text for the others to read. Emphasizing the importance
of writing in learning and teaching EFL, Ahmed (2010) contends that writing is the way
to stimulate and nurture learners’ ability of “thinking and organizing ideas”. In the same
vein, Fry and Villagomez (2012) posit that writing is one of the most effective
facilitators that help students develop and improve their learning. Thus, writing can be
an integral part in EFL learning.
However, this is a complicated skill to achieve and competence. Shokrpour and
Fallahzadeh (2007) note that writing is a complex activity to achieve in EFL because
learners must occupy themselves with learning and practicing it for a long time to reach
positive results in EFL writing. On this account, the non-native people will consider this
skill as a big challenge when they would like to become mastered in EFL writing.
The first reason for this difficulty mainly comes from the differences in cultural
backgrounds between L1 and L2, especially for the Asian EFL learners. In learning
English writing skill, Uba and Souidi (2020) present that the EFL learners deal with

numerous difficulties in writing English because they have to focus on more EFL writing
elements such as the structures of sentences, grammar, a range of vocabulary and its
meanings in an EFL context, writing styles, coherence, and cohesion. Miri and Joia
(2018) claim that most of the reasons that make the EFL learners feel hard in achieving
the improvement in EFL writing are inappropriate knowledge of grammatical structures
and vocabulary. They also notice that these factors make the learners feel disappointed
and avoid writing that causes a psychological phenomenon called writing anxiety.
Cheng (2002) and Lee (2005) point out that anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence are
factors which affect students’ second language acquisition. For this reason, EFL teachers
must make an effort to help learners reduce their students’ writing anxiety in order to be

1


more proficient in their EFL writing, especially for the low proficiency EFL students or
non-English major students.
Another reason comes from EFL learners. Learning English will be more complex
and unmotivated for students, especially non-English major students. They do not pay
attention to learning and improving their English skills because they think it is not their
major and they have not recognized that English is important for them at that time. For
instance, in the Vietnamese university context, Nguyen Thi Le Nguyen (2015) points
out that non-English major students cannot gain good results in their writing after
spending a long time studying because they do not really pay attention to learn English.
Therefore, non-English major students often ignore English and just learn it because this
is a compulsory subject at university. On that account, these students need much more
motivation, encouragement, patience, and suitable instructions from their teachers to
support them in facing their problems in EFL writing.
Moreover, writing approaches are also one of the reasons for the difficulties in
enhancing EFL writing skills. Wahdan and Buragohain (2019) show that students’
success in EFL writing is also based on the effectiveness of the approaches and

techniques that the teachers apply in their writing class. Therefore, each approach will
be suited to some students, but fell through to the others, so teachers have to take into
consideration applying and updating the different strategies for their students’ success
in EFL writing. As for low proficiency EFL students, Firkins, Forey, and Sengupta
(2007) claim that teaching for the low EFL proficiency students is teaching sentence
level to help them recognize the complete texts later. From this reason, choosing and
applying the appropriate teaching methods to teach writing in English to them will take
much more time and be harder for teachers to help their students construct sentences
and then to organize the whole text such as essays. In EFL writing, among a variety of
writing approaches, three main approaches include product approach, process approach,
and genre-based approach which are frequently used. Previously, product approach and
process approach are used most commonly in teaching EFL writing. Recently, genrebased approach is widely applied in EFL classrooms and has a significant impact on
students’ success in writing, especially, for the low proficiency EFL students in many
studies (e.g., Firkins et al, 2007; Chen and Su, 2011; Bae, 2012; Horverak, 2016).

2


In Viet Nam for several recent years, English has increasingly asserted its position
in many fields such as career, communication, studying and so on. The needs of learning
this language increase with higher requests in communication competence and it also
creates a more competitive and dynamic learning environment for EFL learners in Viet
Nam. From this point, EFL teachers and instructors start to focus on teaching and
enhancing communication abilities for their learners rather than learning only grammar,
vocabulary or learning to pass the exams at most schools many years ago. Because of
this, the teaching methods also are changed to adapt the EFL communication
competence requests. So, EFL Vietnamese teachers at the present stress more on
communicative skills in their class (Tran Thi Ly, 2007). However, Trinh Quoc Lap and
Nguyen Thanh Truc (2014) indicate that writing skill is problematic to Vietnamese
learners and one of the reasons for the challenge in teaching EFL in Viet Nam nowadays.

Among many causes of this challenge, however, the major cause may be from the
teaching methods. Teaching writing reality in Viet Nam was focused on grammar and
sentence structure which are the features of the translation method (Tran Thi Ly, 2007).
The less effective writing approaches are replaced by the others which are more suited
to the needs of the development of EFL communication. They apply one of them that is
the genre-based approach to bring their learners a new way to learn how to write English
scientifically and gain EFL proficiency. The positive results from some studies of genrebased approach in Vietnamese classrooms (e.g, Trinh Quoc Lap & Nguyen Thanh Truc,
2014; Luu Trong Tuan, 2011) demonstrate that GBA can help the EFL learners in these
studies improve and enhance their EFL writing. Therefore, the researcher finds that
GBA will be the potential writing approach for teaching and learning EFL writing for
the learners in this study.
In the context of teaching and learning ELF writing, the researcher found (1) the
importance of writing in achieving the success of EFL communication, (2) the reasons
of the difficulties in teaching and learning EFL writing around the world and in Viet
Nam, (3) the potential writing approaches that are genre-based approach to bring the
effectiveness of teaching and learning writing for the low EFL proficiency students.
1.2. Statement of the problem

3


EFL writing is an anxiety in teaching EFL writing in Vietnamese university
background. Luu Trong Tuan (2011) observes that most EFL writing classes in
Vietnamese universities teach the students to do tests or exams rather than teach them
to be able to write by themselves. So, it cannot help the learners develop their writing
for specific real EFL contexts. Le Thi Thu Trang and Le Thi Khanh Linh (2018) remark
that EFL learners are mostly taught to focus on grammar and sentence structure like
product approach. Recently, teachers have recognized the problems and the
ineffectiveness of these methods. So, most of them have suggested the alternative ways
to teach EFL writing. The findings from several studies of genre-based approach in

Vietnamese writing classroom (e.g., Trinh Quoc Lap & Nguyen Thanh Truc, 2014; Luu
Trong Tuan, 2011; Truong Thi Nhu Thuy, 2017) are proved that this approach has a
positive change in upgrading the EFL learners’ writing ability.
Although several studies have produced the estimates of genre-based approach in
many areas in Viet Nam, this study contributes once more new insight in investigating
the effectiveness of genre-based approach in Dong Nai province, especially, at DNTU
where writing skill is also a big challenge for most of the non-English major students.
They usually do not pay much attention to learning English and they also have low EFL
proficiency. The students cannot express their own ideas and write essays or paragraphs
by themselves. Some of them even lack the appropriate knowledge of vocabulary and
grammatical structures for the specific writing topics. Because of these limits of their
EFL abilities, they cannot be fluent in communicating in English, especially in writing.
In addition, the learning outcomes of DNTU for non-English major students require
them to achieve the EFL competence. Because of these requests of the society and the
University, it is necessary and vital to find out the effective writing approaches to help
the students improve their writing limits they deal with.
In view of this, the researcher has decided to investigate the genre-based approach
in teaching and learning EFL writing to discover how this approach has an impact on
the non-English major students at Dong Nai Technology University and the students’
attitudes towards GBA after they have a trial course with this approach.
1.3. Aims and objectives of the study

4


The aim of the study is to find out whether the genre-based approach can bring a
positive change in writing skill for the non-English major students at DNTU or not. So,
to examine the effectiveness of this approach, this study seeks to achieve two major
objectives:
(1) to investigate the effectiveness of genre-based approach in improving writing

skills for non-English major students at DNTU and
(2) to explore the students’ attitude towards this approach in learning writing.
1.4. Research questions
This dissertation will answer two main research questions:
1. How effective is the genre-based approach to writing skills for non-English major
students at DNTU in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, language use,
mechanics, and overall writing?
2. What is the students’ attitude towards applying the genre-based approach to
learning EFL writing?

1.5. Scope of the Study
The study was conducted at Dong Nai Technology University in Dong Nai province,
Viet Nam. The study only attempted to examine the effectiveness of GBA on EFL
students’ writing skill and their attitude towards applying the GBA in teaching and
learning EFL writing. The participants of this study are 60 non-English major students
who may come from different English courses related to learning EFL communication
skills and have low motivation in learning English and low EFL writing proficiency in
most of their writing assignments and tests.
1.6. Significance of the study
The results of this study are expected to provide the empirical evidence on the
effects of genre-based approach on building up the non-English major students’ writing
abilities. Furthermore, this study also cooperates with its readers in understanding how
to use genre-based approach in teaching and learning writing skills in the university

5


context of Viet Nam. This study was conducted to contribute four things for the readers
below:
(1) EFL teachers might apply the genre-based approach to teach and improve EFL

writing competence for non-English major students at university, especially, for the low
EFL proficiency students.
(2) EFL students can recognize the effectiveness of the genre-based approach in
their writing skill, then they can apply them in their self- study process without teachers’
support.
(3) Dong Nai Technology University might benefit from the application of the
genre-based approach about increasing the quality of learning EFL for non-English
major students and provide qualified students who achieve the English standard
outcomes of the university.
(4) This research will be a useful reference for those who would like to make any
studies related to EFL writing approaches or teaching and learning English.
1.7. Definitions of the key terms
- Genre-based approach: The approach focuses on the social context and the purpose
of writing which helps the learners can apply a range of writing genres with different
situations for their purposes (Flowerdew, 1993).
- EFL writing skill: The skill focuses on writing in English for learners who use
English as a foreign language.
- Non-English major students: The students do not major in English. Their major
can be Engineering, Business Administration, Tourism, etc.
1.8. Organization of the thesis
This study consists of five chapters:
- Chapter one provides the background of the study, presents the statement of the
problem, the aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope, significance,
definitions of the key terms and organization of the study.
- Chapter two reviews and discusses the relevant literature for this study by
presenting the overview of teaching writing at universities context in Vietnam,

6

approaches to learning and teaching EFL writing, the main features of the genre-based
approach, the previous studies and applications of genre-based approach in this study.
- Chapter three justifies the research design and the data collection through study
context, participants, main instruments, and the issues of validity, reliability, and
ethicality.
- Chapter four analyses the data and presents the findings.
- Chapter five concludes and discusses the main findings of the study, performs the
Pedagogical Implications, Limitations, and Recommendations for further research.

7


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction.
This chapter chiefly emphasizes on teaching writing approaches, genre-based
approach and assessment of learner’s attitude towards applying the GBA in the study.
2.2. Approaches to learning and teaching EFL writing
Among a variety of teaching approaches applied in many EFL writing classrooms,
it is hard to say which approach is the best one, each of them will own its advantages
and disadvantages. So, it only can say which one is the most suitable for a specific
learning environment and a specific group of learners. Three crucial writing approaches
include the product approach, the process approach, and the genre-based approach that
are used extensively in teaching and learning EFL writing in over several years.
2.2.1. Product approach
The product approach is to approach writing in traditional ways that focus on the
students’ final written products. Badger and White (2000) state that this approach is
provided to practice and focus on “the learners’ use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive
devices” (p. 153). Nunan (2000) notes that this approach improves the learners’ EFL
writing through classroom activities based on imitating or copying exactly language
features from the given model texts. He also suggests this approach to the level of the

sentence.
In other words, this approach concentrates on helping build and consolidate their
knowledge of vocabulary and grammar through the model texts which are guided and
analyzed by the teachers and the learners. Undoubtedly, teacher-centered methods are
the main role of this approach. It is suggested for the low EFL proficiency students to
practice grammar points through the exercises of sentence formation. Besides, it just
focuses on the learners’ final product rather than the writing process.
Writing followed this approach has four main stages: familiarization, controlled
writing, guided writing, and free writing. In the familiarization stage, the teacher
presents the specific language features such as vocabulary and grammar points of a
particular text for the learners. In the next stage, controlled writing, the learners practice
the vocabulary and grammar points given in the familiarization stage through a variety
of exercises under the teacher's control. In the guided writing stage, the learners write
8


their first drafts based on the model text. In the last stage, freewriting, the students will
conduct final writing drafts freely that are familiar with the model text by themselves
(Badger and White, 2000).
However, this approach also has some obstacles. Firstly, this approach does not
focus on the importance of purposes and audiences when the learners produce their own
text. Zamel (1982) observes that the aspects of audience, purpose, and the process of
composing is paid a little attention in a written product when teaching writing by the
traditional approach. In the product approach, the students only pay attention to write
for the only audience that is the teacher or academic readers, this may make them have
a wrong thought about the role of writing that just puts stress on evaluating, not the real
communication with the other people (Nunan, 1991). The next drawback of this
approach is the fact that it does not teach the students how to write independently, they
depend much on the given model texts and they cannot write without them. This is
shaped by the activities of imitating, copying and reconstructing the model text with the

exact language (Nunan, 1991). Thirdly, it ignores communicative applications. The
students in this approach do not write to communicate, they have to write for the
correction of the sample text. It totally asks the students’ achievement of their lexical
and grammatical accuracy that are shown in the text models, but it does not give them a
chance to connect to the real world. The upcoming obstacle puts stress on the
organization of ideas more important than ideas themselves (Steele, n.d). Their ideas in
this writing approach only concentrate on how to create their written product exactly the
model text. So, they do not have any spaces to develop their creativity. Finally, the role
of the teacher in the classroom of the product approach is controversial. The teacher
completely controls all the students’ activities, this makes the students in the classroom
more passive. Actually, they should spend time learning how to be more creative in
writing, but what they have to do is encapsulated in copying and reproducing the
language from the teacher or the textbook. To be successful in writing, the teacher
should facilitate their students to have a freedom zone to express their ideas and interact
with others to enhance their knowledge in writing EFL.
2.2.2. Process approach

9


The process approach concentrates on how the text is created by the learners rather
than the final written product (Hyland, 2003; Harmer, 2001). Nunan (1991) states that
this approach helps the learners to brainstorm their own ideas without being based on
any writing forms. This reduces their learners’ worry of “formal correction”. Besides,
he also claims that the approach also upgrades the learners’ motivation with
collaborative group work; encourages the learners’ creativity and fluency rather than
accuracy when composing a text. Obviously, this approach aims at the students-centered
methods.
This approach is used through a series of stages including prewriting;
composing/drafting; revising; and editing (Badger and White, 2000). In prewriting, the

learners will practice various activities to generate the ideas for the topic of a writing
lesson such as brainstorming, discussing, etc. At the composing/drafting stage, the
learners apply these ideas to create a plan for the content of vocabulary and structures
to design the first draft. Next, they revise their first draft in pairs or groups. Then they
exchange their drafts to their classmates to read, comment and edit for each other.
Finally, they write and public the final draft individually based on peer feedback. So,
this approach focuses on the writing process rather than the final product.
With this approach, some positive aspects of teaching and learning writing should
be taken into consideration. Firstly, it admits the significance of the writing process and
the purposes when the learners write. Secondly, the teachers play the role of the
facilitators, organizers, and observers in this approach. They give their learners tasks to
do, observe and support when they need it. The teachers do not control every learners’
activities. It means that the students have more space for self-study with their teachers’
support. Thirdly, this approach reduces the learners’ anxiety in writing. This brings the
learners a space to feel comfortable to create their own ideas because the process
approach aims to the fluency of showing ideas rather than the accuracy of grammar.
They use their time to practice to be more fluent, focus on composing their ideas and
content for their text. Thus, they do not need to be stressful in correcting their text too
much. Finally, it develops the learners’ creativity and collaboration through diverse
activities such as group work and peer feedback. In the classroom applied to this
approach, the learners will have a chance to spend more time communicating and
interacting with their classmates through a variety of group-work activities. This also
10


makes an atmosphere for discussing ideas and learning from each other without
depending totally on their teacher.
The similarity to the product approach, the process approach also has its
disadvantages. Badger and White (2000) assert that this approach applied the same
writing process for all writing. So, it does not supply enough essential language

knowledge or lacks the input for the learners to support them to share their ideas and
thoughts in writing in different types of text. Hyland (2002) points out that the success
of writing includes both aspects that are how to write and understand the specific
language knowledge of the text such as the audience, the purpose, the topic and so on.
Bizzell (1982) reveals that focusing on the writing process leads to the neglect of the
students’ social contexts and the function of discourse communities. Secondly, this
approach pays attention to the creativity in composing, but this is complicated for the
learners who are at the low proficiency because they cannot compose a written product
independently while they do not have sufficient knowledge of vocabulary, grammar or
text organization. So, this shows that it should be considered that this approach may be
suitable for learners who have a good EFL level or even more. Thirdly, the process
approach is focused on one aspect of writing, the process, that may reduce the learners’
motivation in writing. Tangpermpoon (2008) proposes that the teacher should train the
learners for the purpose, audience, the text type in writing to help them understand the
other aspects of writing and enhance the knowledge in each type of writing. Finally, this
approach may be time-consuming in large classes. The teachers may not spend enough
time supporting clearly for each individual and scoring a lot of students’ papers.
Shamim, Negash, Chuku, and Demewoz (2007, p. 13) show that teaching in the big
classes is hard to apply the student-centered approach. Besides, the process approach
pays more attention to the student-centered approach.
2.3. Genre-based approach
2.3.1. The Nature of Genre in Linguistic Study
The word “genre” was defined as “type” or “kind” in Oxford Dictionary. “Genre”
appears in many aspects of daily life such as arts or literature. For example, “genre” in
arts refers to film, music, or painting. In literature, it can be novels, short stories or
comedies. In film, it can be an honor film, comedy film or drama.
11