Structure of IELTS Academic Writing - Term Paper Example

Employ process-genre approach to improve writing capability of IELTS Contents Introduction 3 Literature Review 5 A systematic evaluation of your chosen documents-extract 8 The Steps of the Learning Cycle 9 Analysis of the context 12 Process Oriented Approach 12 Features of the Process based Approach 13 Genre Based Approach 13 Combination of process and genre based approaches 14 Conclusion 15 References 17 Appendices 20 Appendix 1 20 Appendix 2 21 Appendix 3 22 Introduction IELTS academic writing is an international standardised exam procedure used for the assessment of English language and academic writing skills of non-native speakers of English language. IELTS and TOEFL are the two major academic tests that are used to assess the proficiency level of students whose native language is not English. The test method uses academic essay writing as the proper assignment as it is necessary for the students to have much command over the language and other academic abilities to write a proper high standard academic essay. The academic essay has a structure which starts with introduction, has a main discussion body and is ended with suitable conclusion and recommendations if applicable. The IELTS is conducted in two versions including the Academic version applicable for enrolment in universities and professional courses and the General training version applicable for non-academic training, immigration and work-experience gaining purposes. IELTS academic writing is used to measure the skill and ability of the students to write essays in the academic context using understandable, correct and formal English language. The process based approach and the genre based approach are the two most critical approaches that are used by the foreign language teachers to teach the non-English speaking students. The students are assessed on the basis of their abilities in the following areas: Cohesion and Coherence to assess the organization of the writing, grammatical accuracy to assess the grammatical skills of the student, lexical resources to assess the vocabulary range and skills of the student and the content and task response to assess the accuracy level of the candidate in addressing the essay writing. The process-genre approach is used to improve on the academic writing skills related to IELTS. The genre based approach has been incorporated in different contexts of writing in English language, especially for the academic writing purposes. The adoption of a genre based process proves to be extremely beneficial for the candidates to prepare for the academic writing test sections in the IELTS. The writing test sections have posed to be most difficult and problematic sections for the candidates to score in. The process-genre based approach not only helps the candidates to be prepared in an easy and understandable way but it also helps them to achieve better scores in the academic writing sections and also helps them in the future to achieve various goals. The process-genre based approach has long term benefits because the candidates become skilled in the language and can communicate and write standard formal English which proves beneficial in different aspects of their lives. The candidates with weak linguistic abilities can learn faster and more effectively through the genre based approach. This helps to prevent underperformance in the tests of IELTS. There are two basic differences between process and genre based approaches with respect to the teaching process and the education related materials used. The genre approach provides models that the students can analyse. This is in keeping with the fact that the conventions in genre differ based on factors like language and culture of the candidates. Therefore, in the genre based approach, it is important that the students have sufficient information about the conventions within the relevant genre. An explicit range of instructions is critical in driving the success of the process and genre based approach. This study is prepared to understand the various implications of the process based approach and the genre based approach as well as a balanced combination of both these approaches for improving the writing skills of the students. The different theoretical works are discussed followed by a systematic evaluation and analysis of the approaches. The study is concluded with identifying the implications and providing suitable recommendations for the implementation of the approaches. Literature Review A substantial number of literature work are done by the different researchers and academicians on the different approaches to the learning and writing skills improvement for the candidates of academic test like IELTS. Different research works have been published to evaluate the effectiveness of the different process and genre based techniques that can be applied to improve the writing skills of the candidates preparing for the academic essay writing exams. According to Kroll (1990), there are a number of basic differences in the levels and context of academic writing as compared to university level writings (Kroll, 1990, pp.35-37). Flower and Hayes (1997) evaluated the various areas of concern in the writing section of the IELTS which are most difficult for the students to solve (Flower and Hayes, 1997, pp.66-70). An approach to understand the various techniques by which the students can effectively improve their writing skills in the context of academic writing have been studied by Dorothy and Rumisek (2003) in their work presented in 2003 (Dorothy and Rumisek. 2003, p.89). The wash back effects of the educational approaches taken up in the context of the academic writing tests like IELTS have been proposed by Green (2007) indicating the need for efficient and innovative approaches needed to ensure high performance level of the candidates in these tests (Green, 2007). Gabrielatos (2002) argues that the provision of analytical vocabulary can ideally reflect the role of genres in the background of the dynamic situations and this forms the basis for the genre based approach to learning and improving the writing skills of students (Gabrielatos, 2002, p.176). The process-genre based approach to improve the writing skills also helps the students to observe and analyse particular situations with the incorporation of strategic awareness and correct grammatical representation. Though many research works have been presented on the topic of the suitability of a process and genre based approach to improve the lingual capabilities of the learners, yet the implementation of the usefulness of a genre based approach of learning for the students of IELTS have still not been extensively addressed. Many candidates, especially the non-native English students’ face problems in the writing sections of the test and research works by academicians like Halliday & Martin (2012) have indicated that the genre based approaches to teaching are the most successful techniques for improving the writing abilities of the students and prepare them better for international exams like the IELTS. According to the theory proposed by Oath (2011), the most established rationale towards the adoption of a genre based a approach in teaching the students is that the process facilitates proper links between the learning and the purpose of the students to write and understand contexts beyond the classroom as well (Oanh, 2011, pp.4-8). Some researchers like Bazerman (1990) have proposed that the incorporation of a prescriptive process is more suitable in the genre based approach (Bazerman, 1990, p.98). On the other hand, other scholars like Halliday (1985) have indicated that an excessive prescriptive system may be detrimental to the learning capabilities of the students (Halliday, 1985, p.71). The regularities of the genre based approach remain constant but the dynamics of the society and the community change and develop over time impacting major changes in the approach. An over stringent prescriptive approach may fail to demonstrate suitable flexibility to adapt to the changing social and communal environments and may result in stifling the knowledge and creativity of the learner in the long term. So, a highly stringent approach comes with the risk of the knowledge being imparted become out-dated with the changes in the particular genre. But, the prescriptive approaches seem to be much beneficial in the short term. Therefore, a careful degree of flexibility needs to be integrated into the process and genre based learning systems. These aspects are much relevant in countries like China, Korea and Japan, where the emphasis of lingual capabilities is on the grammatical and vocabulary formats. As Freadman and Medway (2004) points out, in countries like Korea and Japan, the students are taught grammatical and vocabulary contexts separately with more focus given on theses aspects (Freadman and Medway, 2004, p.112). But this process has been less beneficial for the students because it has been seen that the students have not been able to link the grammatical features with the academic contexts when writing and forming ideas. Therefore in a strict process based approach, though the learners may gain extensive knowledge related to vocabulary and grammar but this may not necessarily increase the writing capabilities of the students. The writing capabilities depend majorly on the ability to relate textual awareness to cognitive approach so as to understand the role of the language structures and grammar in creating meaning while preparing the academic writings in various genres and situations. The genre based approaches have developed increased popularity and a worldwide implementation of this approach is being made by the teachers and learners as a part of the preparation of international exams like the IELTS and TOEFL. The work of Hedge (2000) has clearly demonstrated and explained the influential role that the genre based approaches of learning in the context of academic writing and this work has proven to be immensely helpful for both academics and students all across the world (Hedge, 2000, p.16). Harmer (2004) noted that the cognitive constructs which are critical in the genre based approach are likely to differ according to the level of the candidate (Harmer, 2004, p.89-91). In the early stage, the learner might try to analyse the task staring with planning the writings and then considering the applicable grammar and vocabulary. But at an advanced level of learning, the learner would aim to apply specialized processes and approaches to the writing context. According to the work of Badger & White (2000), the learning approach for improving the writing capabilities have evolved from being traditionally product based approach to process based approach and then to a process-genre based approach (Badger and White, 2000, p.69). The process-genre model as designed by Badger and White (2000) is given in Appendix 1. The product based approach was the traditional approach in learning for academic writing which involved focusing extensively on the end product. The process approach evolved as a replacement of the product approach to meet the needs of the learners to become skilled in writing. But the process base approach has a major drawback of considering the linguistic element which was taken up by the genre based approach. The genre based approach follows a process of preparing the students in different genres of writing skills including narratives, essays, biographies, descriptive writings, messages, letter writing, postcard, poems, magazine articles, anecdotes, newsletters, reports, instructions etc. which help to improve the writing abilities of the student through an enrichment of their vocabulary, knowledge as well as conceptualizing skills. A systematic evaluation of your chosen documents-extract It has been argued by most of the theorists that the Genre based approach is one of the most widely accepted form of approaches in the way of teaching how to write English to non native people. The main reason behind this is that there is a scope for the students to clearly understand the purposes that is required for writing which would move beyond the borders of the classroom. Some of the practitioners have acknowledged the prescriptive approach of writing English. However, this may not be recommended for this approach is more restrictive. The genre based approach would change with the changes that take place in the language and it would evolve dynamically with time (Johns, 2002, pp. 129-137). The prescriptive approach thus ignores the individuality in the style and restricts the way a person would write. This would restrict the creativity of the individuals involved. In case of the genre based approach the style does not become outdated and hence there is a lot of autonomy and scope for the implementation of the analytical approaches so that the dynamics and the flow of the process and the situations can be understood well. The countries like Korea or Japan put more emphasis on the grammar and the rules that bind the writing styles. Thus there is a gap in what they are taught in the grammar lessons and what is being applied by them in the daily practical usage of the language. However it is imperative on part of the teacher to understand the learning cycle for a student in case of a genre based approach. This would help the student to understand the process and help the student in the development of the capabilities of learning in the classroom teaching methods. The Steps of the Learning Cycle The first step involves the building up of the context of the writing. This is the phase where the teacher needs to provide the instructions for the learning to the students in such a way that they are able to go deep into the context and have a necessary depth in the level of understanding (So, 2005, pp. 67-82). This is a support that is necessary for the students in case they want to learn and without which the primary step of learning cannot be undertaken. Thus the role of the teacher is strongest in this phase of the learning process. The second step of the learning process is the modelling as well as deconstruction of the text. It is important for the teacher to set up the social framework of the writing, the framing as well as the series of conducts that would e required so that the learners spend considerable amount of time with that of the subject. This would include phases of going through relevant materials the comparisons of the different cultures in relation to those subjects as well as the process of brainstorming with would ensure that the students exercise their intellectual capacity to understand the context in a thorough manner (Schmitt, 2010, pp. 69-94). The teachers would try to incorporate in the entire schedule of teaching those essays which have turned out to be successful in the prior TOEFL or IELTS exams. In the phase in which the text is jointly constructed, the best way to impart the learning is by making the student work in small groups with a view of constructing an essay in the genre that is being learnt with under the guidance of the teacher. This could be done with the help of the role playing exercises of the student that the teachers can initiate. This would help the students to understand the concept in a better manner. In the phase that follows the students would be asked to conduct construction of text by individually (Swales, 1990, pp. 46-71). In this case there would be absolutely no support from the part of the teacher. This is the phase when the students are allowed to work independently in the construction of the texts. This might be followed by phases of questions and answers which would be administered by the teachers. The effectiveness of following these processes and the patterns of learning can be analysed only from the feedback that the authorities of IELTS get from the learners of the languages. Along with this in most of the cases the toughest part had been the written skill which is indicated by the score of the students in that particular section over the years. This is true for the candidates of both the genders. Therefore the genre based approach was one of the most suitable ways in which the non native speakers of English can be taught the write flawless English. The process approach on the other hand is a more contemporary in its nature as understood from the literature review. This method helps the students in nurturing their skills of writing English as a foreign language. Since in the process based approach the people acquire better control over their intellect, it is easier to comprehend the various theories which are based on the learning process. Thus the students would be less reliant on the teachers and would have an individual ability to learn the process. Exercises like group discussions or the activities for meaning construction help the learners to have a better strategy for idea creation (Hyland, 2009, pp. 198-223). Popular forms of the processes are the brain storming, the revision exercises by the students themselves and the questions that come with the respective tasks that are assigned to the students. In case of the process based approach it is mostly found that the students are encouraged in the process of writing and hence there is greater involvement of the students. With time as the students become adept in their writing capabilities they start doing getting involved in more complicated processes. This helps the learners to understand in a step by step manner as per their capabilities and the time that each of the students would take to learn would also be less (Martin, 2001, pp.149-166). The process oriented classes were also more acceptable for the student because there is a lot of involvement of the teachers as well as the co-learners in the process. The otherwise lengthy and complex process underwent transformation into an easy and free flowing process and hence there was lesser psychological stress on part of the students from learning through this process. This would have a positive effect on the motivation and the confidence levels of the students. Hence at the time of the performance at the final writing of the IELTS essay the students would be able to produce at the best of their capabilities. However there are a number of flaws that are associated with this kind of approach. A teacher has to spend a considerable amount of time on this particular method of teaching in order to be successful. Along with this the students also confronted with different types of problems with their use of the language and the resources that are based on the dictionaries. The testimony to this fact is the various tests that the students undergo while taking the tests at the different stages of their learning process. The benefits of this approach are limited to the supplementary skills of the learners that are essential for writing a text successfully. This means that the students would become efficient in the way in which ideas should be generated or how to plan an approach a task along with finding the loopholes of the writings (Moore and Morton, 2005, pp. 43-66). These approaches would also have variations in their success depending on the student strengths of the class taught. In case of larger number of students the processes would be less effective chiefly because there is a need for a direct communication and contact between the teacher and the learners. Also the group tasks would be more effective in case of the smaller student strengths. Finally in this regard it may be said that there should be a mixed method which would act as the midway between all the methods. The approaches should also incorporate experimental methods which can be altered from time to time as per the needs of the students. Analysis of the context Process Oriented Approach A process oriented approach of learning is majorly used in the teaching system as a part of the preparation programme for giving international academic writing tests like the IELTS. The process approach and the genre approach and a combination of both these approaches for suitable learning are used by the academics and students of IELTS. The process based approach focuses on the whole process of writing an academic essay starting from the analysis of the task to the conception of the ideas and then the incorporation of suitable vocabulary and the use of grammar to produce an ultimate high standard academic writing content. The process also involves the comparison of different ideas and the selection of the most suitable ideas relevant to the topic for the academic writing (Bizzell, 2002, p.76). Features of the Process based Approach The skills of the students in communicating and expressing their ideas through the proper use of grammar and other linguistic elements are also built through this process based approach to learning. The process based approach follows four stages starting with prewriting and then going on to drafting or composing, revising and lastly editing. These follow a non-linear pattern and sometimes one stage tends to overlap another. The genre approach is more oriented towards making the students comfortable in dealing with the various genres of writing in English language. This approach combines some elements of the process based approach with innovative features exclusive of the genre based system of learning. Genre Based Approach For the genre based approach, the major focus of the situation is on the purpose of the writing. The different genres of writing like letters, reports, essays, articles etc. have different purposes. A genre based teaching and learning cycle typically follows different processes as given in Appendix 2. Therefore Genre is considered as a type of communicative events that are based on social and community related factors. The genre based learning approach is also dependant on other dynamics of the situation including the subject matter, the required pattern of the writing and the pattern of the exam like the IELTS. Martin (1993) has proposed a diagrammatic representation of the genre which is given in Appendix 3 (Martin, 1993, p.14). A wheel model of process-genre based approaches is much useful in the preparation for international exams like IELTS. This model described three phases of the approach including modelling the structure of the target genre, construction of the concept and writing by the learners and teachers and finally the independent writing of the learners by integrating proper linguistic capabilities within their concepts. Combination of process and genre based approaches The main insight into the process-genre approach can be considered as the fact that writing is closely related to the social situation and so the writing on a topic is aimed at achieving suitable purpose that has evolved from the situation (Grossman, 2009, pp.19-24). The effective combination of processes and genres in the learning approach is implemented in the process-genre approach which makes it perfectly suitable as a method of performing well in the international academic exams like IELTS and TOEFL. The process genre methodology would cover the aspects of the contextual ideas as well as the knowledge of appropriate words and grammar to be used for improving the writing abilities. This proves to be highly beneficial for the students in the exams involving academic writing as a complete approach comprising of both process and genre base methodologies help the students to perform better and achieve higher scores in the essay writing section of IELTS which has been a tough area in the exam syllabus for the students. The process genre based approach is effective for the IELTS takers as it helps to develop their writing skills from different perspectives. The introduction of the social context to the topics and the designing of activities related to help the students link the materials with the topic and social contexts. The modelling and construction of the academic essays help the students to become familiar with the pattern of the IELTS essays along with gaining knowledge on the linguistic aspects related to the writing (Brown, 1999, p.201). The ability of the student to identify and evaluate the grammatical and contextual features related to academic writing helps the students to perform better in the academic essay writing part of the IELTS exam. But a complete methodology for improving the writing capabilities of the students should ideally incorporate the different dynamics of product based approach as well as process and genre based approach (White and Arndt, 1991, p.71). The teachers who teach English as a foreign language to non-natives aim to integrate a proper balance of these three approaches to make the students more prepared to perform better in the writing sections of the IELTS and other international academic language related exams. Conclusion It can be concluded that the genre based approach to improve upon the writing skills of the candidates has been accepted as the most useful approach designed till now in the context of the international academic writing exams like IELTS. The approach to genre is ideal for reflecting the role of the English language as the most used and preferred language for international communication. Academic essay writing is an important part of the syllabus for IELT which requires an extensive knowledge of vocabulary and grammar as well as a high level of cognitive understanding of the context of the writing. The genre based approach helps to build the skills of the students in these aspects as well as enables them to integrate proper linguistic patterns like grammar, vocabulary, choice of words into the context when writing the academic content. The international language based test like the IELTS act as the gatekeepers for the entry of non-native speakers into English language based foreign locations for higher studying or immigration purposes. The genre base approach of learning meets these basic needs of the non-native English speaking people by providing them suitable methods and guidelines to learn the language and improve their competency in writing and communicating across different genres. Therefore, an increased use of the process based approach and a genre based approach would be useful in improving the writing skills. A combination of the process and genre based approaches would prove to be more suitable in helping the students adopt new and diverse techniques for improving their writing skills. References Badger, R. G. & White, G. 2000. A process genre approach to teaching writing. London: Routledge. Bazerman, C. 1990. A relationship between reading and writing: The conversational model. Edward Arnold: London. Bizzell, P. 2002. Cognition, convention and certainty: What we need to know about writing. English for Specific Purposes. Vol. 3, p. 213-143. Brown, H. D. 1999. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Dorothy, E. Z. & and Rumisek, L. A. 2003. Academic writing from paragraph to essay. London: The British Council. Flower, L. and Hayes, J. 1997. A cognitive process theory of writing. Journal of composition and Communication. Vol.4 (1), p.66-70. Freadman, A. & Medway, P. 2004. Learning and teaching genre. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Gabrielatos, C. 2002. EFL writing: product and process. Birmingham: Aston University. Green, A. 2007. Wash back in Context: Preparation for Academic Writing in Higher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Grossman, P. D. 2009. Foreword with a challenge: Leading our campuses away from the perfect storm. Journal of Postsecondary Education. Vol. 14(1), p.19-24. Halliday, M. A. K. 1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Edward Arnold, London. Harmer, J. 2004. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. Hedge, T. 2000. Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hodge, R. & Kress, G. 1993. Language as Ideology: 2nd Edition. London: Routledge. Hyland, K., 2009. Teaching and Researching Writing. Harlow: Longman Johns, A.M., 2002. Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kroll, B. 1990. Second language writing: research insights for the classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Martin, J. R. 1993. Literacy in science: Learning to handle text as technology. Writing science: Literacy and discursive power. London: Falmer. Martin, J.R., 2001. Analysing English in a Global Context. London: Routledge. Moore, T. and Morton, J., 2005. “Dimensions of difference: a comparison of university writing and IELTS writing.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 4, pp. 43-66. Oanh, L. H. 2011. Study on the effectiveness of process – oriented writing for IELTS. [PDF]. Available at http://dl.vnu.edu.vn/bitstream/11126/503/1/04051000639.pdf. [Accessed on 16 January 2014]. Schmitt, N., 2010. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold. So, B.P.C., 2005. “From analysis to pedagogic applications: Using newspaper genres to write school genres.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 4, pp. 67-82. Swales, J.M., 1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. White, R. & Arndt, V. 1991. Process writing: Longman handbooks for language teachers. UK: Longman. Appendices Appendix 1 A process-genre model by Badger and White (2000) Appendix 2 A Genre Teaching Learning Cycle Appendix 3 Martin’s Model of Genre Read More