A survey on the application of the genre based approach to the teaching of writing skills to twelfth graders hau nghĩa high school in long an province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCIES & HUMANITIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

A SURVEY ON THE APPLICATION OF THE GENRE-BASED
APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF WRITING SKILLS TO
TWELFTH GRADERS AT HAU NGHIA HIGH SCHOOL
IN LONG AN PROVINCE

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

By
NGUYEN THI HUYNH NHU

Supervised by
Prof. Dr. DO HUY THINH
DOAN HUE DUNG, Ph. D.

HO CHI MINH CITY, APRIL 2013


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my former thesis
supervisor, Prof. Dr. Do Huy Thinh, who had great contribution for the very
beginning of the thesis.
I owe a great deal to my supervisor Doan Hue Dung Ph. D., for her patient
guidance, thoughtful comments, and valuable assistance from the embryo to
completion of the thesis. Without her help and encouragement, I could not have

finished the thesis
I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers for their helpful
instructions during the Master course at the University of Social Sciences and
Humanities and to all of my classmates who have inspired and encouraged me
during the study process and completion of the thesis.
My special thanks go to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Van, Principal of Hau Nghia
High School and Mrs. Hoang Thi Hong, leader of English Teacher Staff, for their
enthusiastic help in approving me to carry out the research. I would also like to
thank all teachers and students at Hau Nghia High School for their help and cooperation in completing the questionnaires.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my parents, my two younger sisters,
my colleagues at the Reunification Palace, especially my husband, Majority Tran
Dinh Luong, who always encourage and stand by me during the course. Without
their suggestions, support and kindness, I would never have been able to pursue
this work to the end.

i


STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:
“A survey on the application of the Genre-based Approach in the teaching
of writing skills to twelfth graders at Hau Nghia High School in Long An
Province”
in terms of the statement of Requirements for Thesis in Master’s Programs
issued by Higher Degree Committee
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any
other institution
Ho Chi Minh City, October 17th 2012

Nguyen Thi Huynh Nhu

ii


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Nguyen Thi Huynh Nhu, being the candidate for the degree
of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the
retention and use of Master’s Thesis 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 purpose of the study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan
or reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, October 17, 2012

Nguyen Thi Huynh Nhu

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ i
Statement of originality ..................................................................................... ii
Retention and use of the thesis.......................................................................... iii
Table of contents .............................................................................................. iv
List of abbreviations ........................................................................................ vii
List of figures .................................................................................................... ix
List of tables ...................................................................................................... x

Abstract ............................................................................................................ xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................1
1.1 Background to the study ............................................................................ 1
1.1.1 The need of teaching writing in high school ........................................ 2
1.1.2 Description of English language program at HNHS............................. 4
1.1.3 Teaching writing in HNHS ................................................................. 7
1.2 Purpose of the study.................................................................................. 9
1.3 Significance of the study .......................................................................... 10
1.4 Delimitations and limitations .................................................................. 10
1.5 The organization of the study .................................................................. 10
Summary ......................................................................................................... 11

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................... 13
2.1 Common approaches to the teaching of writing skills ................................. 13
2.1.1 Approaches to teach writing .............................................................. 13
2.1.1.1 The Controlled-to-Free Approach .......................................... 13
2.1.1.2 The Product/Pattern Approach ................................................ 14
2.1.1.3 The Communicative Approach .............................................. 14
2.1.1.4 The Process Approach ............................................................ 14
2.1.2 From the Process Approach to the Genre-based Approach ............... 15
2.2 The Genre-based Approach in the teaching of writing skills ...................... 17

iv


2.2.1 The connection of Genre, Texts and Grammar ................................... 17
2.2.1.1 The nature of genre ........................................................................ 17
2.2.1.2 Texts ............................................................................................. 20
2.2.1.3 Function of grammar ...................................................................... 21

2.2.1.4 Cohesion and Coherence ................................................................ 23
2.2.2 Pedagogical principles of the Genre-based Approach ............................ 24
2.2.3 The benefits and problems of the Genre-based Approach to teaching
writing .............................................................................................................. 26
2.2.4 The Curriculum Cycle .......................................................................... 27
2.2.4.1 The building knowledge of the field .............................................. 28
2.2.4.2 Modeling of the text ...................................................................... 28
2.2.4.3 Joint construction of texts............................................................... 29
2.2.4.4 Independent construction of texts ................................................... 29
2.3 The Genre-based approach as an integrated approach ............................... 31
2.3.1 The relationship between writing and reading .................................. 31
2.3.2 The relationship between writing and speaking ................................ 32
2.3.3 The GBA as an integrated approach................................................. 34
Summary ......................................................................................................... 36

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 37

3.1 Research contexts ...................................................................................... 37
3.2 Research questions .................................................................................... 38
3.3 Research design ......................................................................................... 39
3.3.1 Participants ....................................................................................... 39
3.3.1.1 Students................................................................................. 39
3.3.1.2 Teachers ................................................................................ 39
3.3.2 Instruments ....................................................................................... 40
3.3.2.1 Questionnaires ........................................................................ 40
3.3.2.1.1 Student Questionnaire .............................................. 41
3.3.2.1.2 Teacher Questionnaire .............................................. 42
3.3.2.2 Interviews ................................................................................ 43

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3.4 Data collection ...................................................................................... 44
3.4.1 Student Questionnaire .................................................................. 44
3.4.2 Teacher Questionnaire and interviews ........................................... 44
3.5 Data analysis ........................................................................................ 45
Summary ......................................................................................................... 45

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ..... 46
4.1 Students’ responses .............................................................................. 47
4.1.1 Students’ views on the learning of writing skills .......................... 47
4.1.2 Students’ attitudes to teachers’ ways of conducting writing
period………………………………………... ....................................... 51
4.1.3Students’ writing activities ............................................................ 54
4.1.4 Students’ suggestions .................................................................... 59
4.1.5 Discussion of the results of student questionnaire ......................... 60
4.2 Teachers’ responses............................................................................... 63
4.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes to the teaching of writing skills ...................... 63
4.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes to the application of the GBA ......................... 67
4.2.3 The learning – teaching cycle ....................................................... 70
4.2.4 Teachers’ suggestions on the use of the GBA ............................... 74
4.2.5 Discussion of the results of teacher questionnaire ........................ 75
Summary ......................................................................................................... 77

CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION ............ 79
5.1 Summary of findings ............................................................................ 79
5.2 Suggestions ........................................................................................... 81
5.2.1 To teachers.................................................................................... 81

5.2.2 To students.................................................................................... 85
5.2.3 To the lesson plan ......................................................................... 87
5.3 Suggestions for further research ............................................................ 88
5.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 88

vi


REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 91
APPENDIX 1 Student Questionnaire .............................................................. 97
APPENDIX 2 Teacher Questionnaire ..............................................................102
APPENDIX 3 Student Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) ............................107
APPENDIX 4 Teacher Questionnaire (English Version) .................................112
APPENDIX 5 Interview transcript...................................................................117
APPENDIX 6 Interview transcript...................................................................120
APPENDIX 7 Interview transcript...................................................................122
APPENDIX 8 Interview transcript...................................................................124

vii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

GBA

Genre-based Approach

GBI

Genre-based Instruction

HNHS

Hau Nghia High School

EFL

English as Foreign Language

ESL

English as Second Language

ESP

English as Specific Purpose

ELT

English Language Teaching

L2

Second Language

MOET

Ministry of Education and Training

USSH

University of Social Sciences and Humanities

HCMC

Ho Chi Minh City

viii


LIST OF TABLES

Table 1

Writing genres for 12th graders........................................................... 7

Table 3.1 Teachers’ general information........................................................... 38
Table 4.1 Teachers’ ways of conducting the writing class................................. 52
Table 4.2 Information students want to know before starting to write ............... 54
Table 4.3 Students’ ideas about the assistance of genre analysis ...................... 56
Table 4.4 The ways students deal with materials from teachers ........................ 57
Table 4.5 Students’ suggestions to teachers ................................................... 59
Table 4.6 Students’ suggestions on writing activities as adopting the GBA ...... 60
Table 4.7 Teachers’ teaching experiences ......................................................... 63
Table 4.8 Students’ mistakes in writing ........................................................... 65
Table 4.9 Attentions drawn in designing the lesson plan .................................. 66
Table 4.10 Frequency of using activities in teaching writing ........................... 68
Table 4.11 Ways of conducting the second stage of the learning – teaching cycle
......................................................................................................................... 72

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 The Curriculum Cycle by Callaghan, Knapp and Noble (1993) ...... 30
Figure 2.1 The Curriculum Cycle by Vigotsky (1978) ..................................... 31
Figure 4.1 Students’ interests in learning writing ............................................. 48
Figure 4.2 Language skills students pay most attention to................................ 49
Figure 4.3 The most important component in writing ...................................... 50
Figure 4.4 Students’ attitudes to teachers’ teaching approaches ....................... 53
Figure 4.5 Students’ attitudes to teachers’ teaching approaches in learning other
skills ................................................................................................................ 53
Figure 4.6 Students’ ideas about writing tasks in the textbook ......................... 58
Figure 4.7 The most difficult skills to teach ..................................................... 64
Figure 4.8 Teachers’ ideas about writing process as adopting the GBA ........... 70
Figure 4.9 The most difficult stage in the learning – teaching cycle ................. 71
Figure 4.10 Teachers’ ideas about the last stage of the learning – teaching
cycle ................................................................................................................ 73
Figure 4.11 Teachers’ ideas about writing tasks in the textbook ...................... 74

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ABSTRACT
The research studies the advantages and disadvantages of the application of the
Genre-based Approach in the teaching and learning of writing skills to 12th
graders at Hau Nghia High School. This research also tries to find out the
difficulties that teachers are facing with as adopting this approach. The subjects
consist of 395 students of the twelfth grade and eleven English teachers at this
school. The research uses the questionnaires and interviews as the main tools to

get necessary data which are analyzed carefully using frequency analysis.
The findings indicate most of teachers and students realize that the knowledge of
genre has strong affects on students’ learning of writing. In term of theory, the
GBA help students gain the understanding of genre including the specific
linguistic features (grammar, vocabulary and discourse) as well as the whole
generic structures, approaching the communicative purposes of texts. It provides
students organizational skills and opportunities to experience with reading skills.
In term of practice, students can work together on how to produce the texts that
reflect the specific genre. Additionally, the four stages of the teaching – learning
cycle also show its benefits to teachers in designing the lesson plan and in
generating the class activities. However, it is the fact that the difficulties still
exist. They are identified as the limited span of time, students’ low awareness of
the importance of the learning of writing skills and low interests in in-class
activities, the ignorance of writing process and the role of teachers and students.
Some suggestions for improving this situation are presented based on the study’s
findings in three sections: to teachers, to students and to the lesson plan, which
are interrelated. These suggestions aim at helping students and teachers, to what
extent, improve the quality of the teaching and learning of writing skills as using
the Genre-based Approach. Furthermore, the suggestions for further research are
also introduced in order to have a full view of the GBA in different contexts and
in

teaching

English

in

general

and

writing

in

specific.

xi


Chapte1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the
study
In recent years, English has become increasingly important especially since
Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). There has been a
boom of studying English. The Government has continuously made efforts to
provide the best learning environment for English learners. Obvious
evidence can be found in the huge investment made by the Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) to improve the English language teaching
programs for high school students. A great number of teachers get further
training for teaching in general and teaching English in particular.
However, reality shows that Vietnamese high school students who have
finished the twelfth form can hardly produce a good piece of writing
in terms of grammar, vocabulary and text structures in English although
they have spent years learning English and most of them can do their written
tests rather well. It can be said that writing has been a great challenge for
both teachers and students in high school.

In the past, writing has been treated poorly and usually left to the last stage
of learning. Hedge (1998, cited in Simpson, 2004) notes that this skill was
often relegated to the status of “homework” due to pressure of time and
syllabus requirements. According to Tribble (1998, cited in Simpson, 2004),
writing was considered as a tool for the practice and reinforcement of
specific grammatical and lexical patterns. He also claims that students
were basically “writing to learn” and not “learning to write” as
instructed by this traditional product- oriented approach. When students
write in foreign language, the purpose of writing is to catch grammar,
spelling and punctuation errors.

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However, teaching English in general and writing in particular has been
changed positively when the ability to write accurately and effectively is
necessary for almost all people not only in their work and study but also in
their real life. At work, employees have to write formal documents, letters of
application, reports,
minutes and so on. They sometimes write thank-you notes to their
grandmothers, messages, love letters, dreamy poems, secret diaries,
personal wish lists, and - just for fun – stories of romance, science
fiction, and adventure. At schools, stated by Zemelman and Daniels (1998),
junior and senior high school students want to write, can write, and do write.
They write school assignments, at higher levels, they have to write up
researches and dissertations. Moreover, as Lindemanm (1995:172) stated
“writing permits us to understand not only the world, but also the self”.
1.1.1 The need of teaching writing in high
school
Obviously, speech is not the only way to communicate with each other.

Written language also does this function and even better. That is the reason
why writing skills have been paid much attention in teaching and learning
second/foreign language. It is the fact that writing is usually included as a
part of our second/foreign-language syllabus. Liz Hamp_Lyons & Ben
Heasley (2006:3) state that “writing helps our students learn” is an
additional and very important reason. Furthermore, they think writing itself
helps reinforce the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary. In
writing, students have a chance to adventure with the language, to go beyond
what they have just learned to say, to take risks. Writing engages students
with the new language; the effort to express ideas and the constant use of
eye, hand, and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning. As writing,
students think a lot and carefully consider finding the right word or the right
sentence to convey their messages. Besides, the close relationship between
thinking and writing makes writing a valuable part of any language course.

2


Harmer (1998) has the same idea. According to him, writing provides
students of English as a foreign language with reinforcement, language
development, learning style and, most importantly, writing as a skill of its
own right.
Penny Ur (1996) assumes that learners of a foreign language should have
the ability to perform serious kinds of written texts which are similar to
those educated people are expected to produce in their own language.

3


Zemelman & Daniels (1998) state that junior and senior high school students

want to write, can write, and do write. After all, in learning to write, students are
invited – compelled, really – to make sense of the world, to weigh ideas, to
explore values, to find their own connections, to invent voices, styles, personae
on a page and then most importantly, to test everything out by communicating
with others, sharing writing and exchanging responses
According to Trible (1998), he simply finds that writing is a language skill which
is difficult to acquire but writing is the most wonderful and meaningful subject to
teach. As for Harmer (1998), writing is a basic skill, just as important as
speaking, listening and reading. Therefore, there should have a greater need to
learn and teach writing.
Another reason for the teaching of writing stated by Raimes (1998) is that
writing is an effective tool in learning new vocabulary or grammatical structures
in many of the integrated syllabuses, especially at lower level.
More broadly, Lindemanm (1995) considers writing as economic power which
well opens doors to better career. In the context of high school, writing well
helps students a lot to write their term papers and essays, perhaps in college. He
adds that writing is as social necessity which helps human beings make sense of
the world, establishing form of social commitment because in our society
“putting it in writing” has greater force than speaking.
As mentioned above, writing is a skill which is both limited in value and difficult
to acquire. However, writing, to some extent, serves a variety of pedagogical
purposes. Byrne (1988) gives us some. First, writing enables us to provide for
different learning styles and needs. It is likely that writing is an aid to retention to
make students feel more ease and relaxed. Second, written work serves to
provide learners with some tangible evidence that they are making progress in
the language. The third purpose lies in the exposure to the foreign language
through more than one medium, especially if skills are properly integrated,
appears to be more effective than relying on a single medium alone. Forth,
writing provides variety in classroom activities, increasing the amount of

4


language contact through work that can be set out of class and needed for formal
and informal setting.
In summary, the ability to write has to be consciously learned. In the context of
education, it is also worth remembering that most exams, whether they are
testing foreign language abilities or other skills, often rely on the students‟
writing proficiency in order to measure their knowledge. As Harmer (1998: 3)
said “being able to write is a vital skill for “speakers” of a foreign language as
much as for everyone using their own first language. Training students to write
thus demands the care and attention of language teachers.
1.1.2 Description of English language program at HNHS
The English syllabus for 12 th graders at HNHS is a part of the general syllabus
from the MOET. Students use English 12 as their main course book. The course
book includes 16 units in which four language skills (listening, speaking, reading
and writing) are heavily focused and equally considered. Moreover, there are 6
consolidations. Each unit is about a certain topic. Teachers and students work
together in 2 semesters totally 37 weeks with 111 periods (one period = 45
minutes). Every semester, students will do three 15-minute tests and two 45minute tests and of course there are also parts of correction for those tests given
by teachers. The first 8 units are taught in the first semester and the rest in the
second one. Each unit is often taught in 5 periods. Each language skill accounts
for 1 period; the last period is devoted for reviewing “Language Focus”.
-

Reading: students deal with normally a text (less than 300 words). This
part aims at helping students get acquainted with the topic. It also
provides information of the whole unit and develops students‟ reading
skills.

-

Speaking part includes many activities for practicing speaking skills
according to language functions and the topic of the unit. Those activities
are communicative ones in which students can work in pair, groups or
individually.

5


-

Listening part is often a refined paragraph or a dialogue concerning the
main topic of the unit. Its purpose is to enhance students‟ listening
comprehension as well as to correct students‟ mistakes in pronunciation
and grammatical structures.

-

Writing: supplies students many tasks that helps students improve their
writing skills in English. Writing is both theme-based and genre-based
designed such as letters, description paragraphs, reports, messages…

-

Language Focus concentrates in three main parts: Pronunciation,
Grammar and Vocabulary. As for Pronunciation, students have chance to
practice how to pronounce ending syllables, stress in two/three syllable
words, rhythm, basic intonation in English. Grammar (and vocabulary)
provides all of the main grammatical points for the whole unit, helps

students easier to understand and use it.

After studying any unit, there is always a period for consolidation. Therefore,
students have chance to look back again what they have already learnt in class.
The consolidation units are presented as “TEST YOURSELF” basing on the
standards from the MOET. Those tests help students check again their ability and
understanding of the lesson
However, one period for each skill is not long enough for students to practice in
class and teachers find hard to convey all of the messages of the lesson. There is
no doubt that with such little time, teachers and students have a challenge in
reality. A lot of problems for teachers as well as students in teaching and
learning English in general and writing in specific still remain. This matter
requires both teachers and students great efforts to handle the lesson.
Writing is, actually, a very difficult subject for students to learn at HNHS. How
to help students engaged in learning writing is hard reality for teachers at this
school. In 2008, the MOET in Long An Province held a yearly program which
introduced some new teaching approaches to teachers in order to improve the
quality of teaching and learning English in general and writing skills in specific
for high school students. Among those approaches is the GBA. This program had
6


a strong influence on the improvement of teaching and learning of English.
Teachers collected a lot of useful instructions on how this approach worked
effectively. In other word, all of teachers at HNHS have been trained to apply the
GBA. It is the fact that this approach has been applied in the teaching of English
at HNHS for a few years. According to the course book, 12 th graders learn to use
a variety of writing genres. Some writing genres that 12 th students deal with are
described in table 1. The writing genre is dictated by purpose and audience.
Classifying various writing genres provides an insight into that particular style of

writing. Whether it be descriptive, expository, or letters, learning about different
writing genres helps students become better writers and more critical evaluators
of information. Therefore, the GBA is assumed to help students a lot in writing
those genres effectively with confidence.
Although teachers were trained to apply this approach and this approach is
instructed by the MOET, teachers and students face with lots of difficulties as
using the GBA. Teachers always take their students‟ learning abilities into
careful consideration so that teachers will find how to design the lesson
appropriately, especially with the application of the GBA. As designing the
lesson plan for writing, teachers tend to design more activities that help students
get familiar with the writing lessons. As usual, teachers often give students a
piece of model to illustrate what they will write. Teachers explicitly teach the
theory and help students to make the outlines. After students finish their first
draft, teachers also give comments to their writings. English program for students
in high school was innovated, however, in teachers‟ opinions, some topics are
not practical and appropriate with students‟ ability. This research tries to make
clear and has a closer look at writing situation at this school.

7


Genre

Class assignment
- describing typical features of a Vietnamese conical
leaf hat
- describing school education system in Vietnam
- describing the world you would like to live in the

Descriptive writing

future
-describing main features of a desert
- describing a book
- describing a sport event (a football match)
- a short description of an international organization
- describing a chart
- writing a report based on given information

Expository writing

- writing about measures to protect endangered species
and possible results
- giving instructions
- letter of requests

Letters

- formal letter of job application
- a letter of recommendation
Table 1 Writing genres for 12th graders

1.1.3 Teaching writing skills at HNHS
Leki (2004) found that instead of being the last skills taught and instead of being
a servant to grammar, writing now has become much more important in language
curriculum. That is true in our country now. English has been a required subject
in high school curriculum for a long time. In recent years, the new curriculum of
the subject English in high school education program has created a great change
in learning and teaching this subject. In this curriculum, all language skills
(reading, writing, listening and speaking) have been included. Teaching and

learning writing skills at Hau Nghia High School (HNHS) in Long An Province
is such a case. Some teaching approaches have been applied to enhance students‟
8


learning of writing skills. The current method that English teachers are using to
teach writing skills is the Genre-based Approach (the GBA). This approach has
been applied for a few years at this school. Obviously, this approach places its
emphasis on the importance of exploring the social and cultural context of
language use on a piece of writing as Derewianka (2001) says. It also highlights
the magnitude of readers and the linguistic conventions that a piece of writing
needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted by readers in regards to
grammar, organization and content. It means that this approach emphasizes the
important role of writer-reader interaction on a piece of writing (Reid, 1995).
The teacher‟s role in this approach is viewed as authoritative rather than
authoritarian (Rothery, 1996). As an expert in the classroom, the teacher
provides students with systematic guidance and careful support through various
activities so that students ultimately gain the control of written genres. At the
same time, he/she also recognizes the importance of students‟ contributions to
the teaching-learning process
Last but not least, the genre-based approach emphasizes the explicit teaching of
the linguistic conventions of the genre for second language novice student
writers (Christie, 1990). It is argued that students cannot produce a particular
text-type successfully if they are not taught explicitly about linguistic
conventions of that text-type with respect to language features and schematic
structure
However, teaching and learning writing skills does not seem to meet the
objectives. And writing seems to be the most difficult to teach and learn.
Generally speaking, students at HNHS still find writing boring and make little
progress. Having a close look through the writing paper assignments that the

students write at home as well as through the writing parts from some final tests,
a lot of problems can be found. They seem to pay more attention to other skills
such as speaking, reading and listening. As a result, their ability to do a piece of
writing becomes problematic.
The most difficult thing is that teachers cannot engage their students‟ interests in
learning writing as applying the GBA due to many reasons such as the course
9


book design and the content, the course objectives, students‟ level or due to the
teaching approaches. Hence, it can be said that there still exists some difficulties
in the application of the GBA in the teaching writing skills.
1.2 Purpose of the study
Most of 12 th graders at HNHS do not seem to have a good motivation in learning
writing skills. Although the GBA is involved in the communication purpose,
reader expectation, and the schemata structures, the students have to struggle
with structural issues including selecting the proper words, using the correct
grammar, generating and developing ideas from the specific topic. They fail to
do their communicative purposes in writing or concerning with the social
context. They feel very confused of the organization, discourse or grammatical
structures to suit such writing genre. Therefore, their problems in writing still
exist.
Since the writing skill is necessary to 12 th graders at HNHS and there still exist
problems in the learning and teaching of writing skill as using the GBA. Thus,
the purposes of the study are:
1. To find out the advantages and disadvantages of the GBA in the teaching
of writing skills to 12th graders at HNHS.
2. To investigate difficulties that students and teachers at HNHS are facing
as applying the GBA in teaching and learning of writing skills.
3. To suggest solutions toward improving the teaching and learning of

writing skills as applying the GBA.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to reach these objectives stated above, the study focuses on answering
these following questions:
1. What are advantages and disadvantages of the GBA in the teaching and
learning of writing skills?

10


2. What difficulties do teachers at HNHS have as applying the GBA in the
teaching of writing skills?
3. What kinds of activities in the classrooms that enhance the teaching and
learning of writing skills as applying the GBA?
1.3 The significance of the study
The analysis of the findings from the survey will help to identify the causes of
problems as applying GBA into the teaching of writing skills so that
recommendations are offered to facilitate the writing process. It is also hoped
that English teachers of the school will taken into consideration whether it is
necessary to adjust the writing lesson plans and the writing tests at HNHS. All
attempts aim at improving learners‟ ability to write. The GBA has been a new
trend in the setting of teaching English in high schools. Therefore, the
investigation into the use of the GBA is a great necessity. This study is generally
helpful to teachers and students in any other high schools in Vietnam where the
situation is as the same.
1.4 Delimitations and limitations
Due to the space-time limit, the research is confined to the teachers and students
at HNHS in Long An Province. It places focus mainly on the application of the
GBA in the teaching and learning of the writing skills, not other aspects or every
activity in the classroom. In addition, the number of teacher and student samples

is relatively small and therefore may not be truly representative to all the
population. Therefore, the study may not be generalized in other settings.
1.5 The organization of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters
 Chapter one addresses the background of the study, the problems
associated with teaching writing skills in high school, writing teaching
and learning at HNHS, and the purpose of the study. This chapter also
provides the significance, delimitations and limitations, and the
organization of the study.

11


 Chapter two gives a review of the relevant literature to the issues of the
GBA in the teaching and learning of writing skills in three main sections:
(1) some common approaches to teach writing in which the benefits of the
GBA are also dicussed (2) the GBA in the teaching of writing skills (3)
the GBA as an integrated approach to the language teaching.
 Chapter three, which is organized in two sections, deals with the
methodology of the study. The first section is to identify the research
questions underlying the study. It clarifies more about the objectives that
the research is looking for. The second section is devoted to research
design, including descriptions of participants and the instruments, how to
get enough reliable data to serve the research questions.


Chapter four analyzes the questionnaire responses (students‟ responses,
teachers‟ responses to the questionnaires, teachers‟ interviews). The data
analysis is intended to identify (1) real situation the teaching and learning
of writing skills at HNHS, (2) difficulties that students and teachers at this

school are facing as applying GBA in the teaching and learning of writing
skills, (3) activities that can enhance students‟ learning of writing skills as
adopting the GBA.

 Chapter five will discuss about the recommendations and suggests some
activities and strategies that are helpful for students and teachers in the
teaching and learning of writing skills. The conclusion is also included in
this chapter.

Summary
This chapter aims to provide a general look at the study including the
background, purpose, the significance, limitations, especially the organization of
the thesis. Hopefully, this thesis brings about practical benefits to the teachers
and students at HNHS in terms of teaching and learning writing skills by
pointing out students‟ and teachers‟ problems and giving useful and feasible

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suggestions, thus making the learning of writing skills of the students concerned
more effective.

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