Conclusiones del tercer capítulo

Which written genres (in English) have ten Higher Education Vietnamese students produced for university (or other) purposes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City? Missing data

In total, participants provided 97 examples of writing for university or other purposes. There were occasions where participants reported they had completed a type of written genre but did not provide copies of assignments to support their reports. Where this has occurred (Table 7) participants had generally not kept copies of their writing or they were confidential case studies (of individuals or companies). Another reason may have been that some participants chose not to share their writing because they may have been concerned how their writing might be read or judged perhaps.

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The genre family ‘Exercises’ has not been included as a discrepancy of this kind because copies of the national textbooks indicate that each participant would have done some exercises in class-time. In addition, it is well established that all English language exams were (and still are) either multiple choice, fill the gap or short answers, including the High School graduation exam. From 2015, this also became the University entrance exam rather than having two separate (graduation and entrance) exams. Figures 25 and 26 show this test in 2013 and 2015.

Figure 25. Copy of University entrance exam in Vietnam.

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Figure 26. Copy of National High School exams (University entrance exam included)

Students have their own perceptions of specific genres

For consistency and reliability purposes, the genre family of each assignment provided was categorised according to the descriptions within the BAWE genre families. There were occasions where participants did not think they had completed genres but, when they provided copies of assignments, the writing activities were of a different genre to the one they felt they had written.

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Two examples have been selected to show this. Linh stated she had not completed a narrative recount yet other participants had been asked to write reflective accounts at secondary and high school level. These are also evidenced in the national textbooks Linh would have used. Linh attended state secondary and high school so it would be logical to suggest that she also wrote reflective accounts but did not associate them with this type of genre. Linh also claimed she had not written a case study but then showed an example of a case study during an internship at a hotel. This was part of her undergraduate program, and she wrote a report about the company with a description, one or more problems the company was having and solutions to the problems. Linh did not identify her writing as a case study because she thought that a case study ‘must be carried out over quite a long time, at least 6 months or several months’. Additionally, Chau felt she had written a case study describing the morphology of Streptomyces natalensis, but this would be regarded as an explanation (the genre family), as an ‘organism account’ (the genre). The aim was to describe it and say why it important, rather than making suggestions for future action. However, when she completes her research she would then make suggestions about the best ways to extract this strain of bacteria.

There are challenges in classifying genres: stages, social purpose and key words.

Six assignments were not easy to classify. Three examples have been selected to show some of the difficulties classifying the genres using the BAWE classification system. Those assignments that were difficult to classify were discussed in person with Hilary Nesi in 2016. Nesi agreed with the classification made of all assignments based on a discussion of my interpretation of the social function and stages of the assignments. One of Ton’s assignments was described as a critical response. When analysing the language and moves (shown in Figure 27), there were some areas of overlap and inconsistency between Nesi and Gardner’s classification system and the assignment. The text had an introduction and a clear aim, ‘to provide a critical response’. It identified two journal articles and then compared 2 or 3 key points within each article. It used evaluative language such as ‘more or less convincing’, ‘fails to consider’, and ended with a

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conclusion. When focusing on the stages of genre families within the existing

classification system, the assignment includes features of a ‘critique’ because there is a ‘descriptive account and evaluation’; however it also has an introduction, series of

arguments and conclusion’, so it could also be classified as an essay (based on the stages within the assignment).

Figure 27. Example of classifying a genre (Ton’s critical response) within

NVivo.

Additionally, when matching words from the assignment against keywords reported to be found in undergraduate critiques and essays (Nesi and Gardner 2012: 121), the only word to match was the verb ‘claim(ed)’. For the purpose of classifying this assignment as either a critique or an essay, the keyword frequencies were less helpful. This may be because Ton wrote the assignment as pre- undergraduate and the

standard of it may not have been of the level to be included in the examples of ‘good’ student assignments collected within the BAWE corpus.

The crucial determinant in classifying Ton’s assignment was the ‘social purpose’. Nesi and Gardner described the social purpose of a critique to ‘develop understanding of the object of study and the ability to evaluate and/ or assess the significance of the object of study’. For this assignment however, the purpose of the assignment was to ‘develop ability to construct a coherent argument and employ critical thinking skills’. Based on the social purpose then, the assignment would be classified as an essay, and not a critique.

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A second example of this classifying issue is shown in a ‘Bill of Exchange’ (Figure 28). It has been classed as ‘Exercise’ because it is a fill the gap activity requiring short answers, however it might also be regarded as having the social function of ‘preparing for professional practice’ where the student is engaged in a ‘simulation’ in which they pretend to be undertaking the (Business) activity (Nesi and Gardner, 2012: 172). It is related to writing in the workplace rather than writing for academic purposes but it does not fit into the genre families of ‘Problem Question’, Proposal/ Design Specifications’ or ‘Case Studies’.

Figure 28. Example of an Exercise: a ‘Bill of Exchange’.

Standardised genres pre- MA

The genres reported and evidenced within the study are represented in Table 8. The types of genres written at primary, secondary and High School were standardised. Each participant generally reported to have written the same types of genres as each other until they reached university level. These included Exercises, Empathy writing and Reflective recounts (within Narrative Recounts).

The Exercise genre family was the most predominant genre type at all lower levels of education. The exercises were almost always taken from the national English language textbook. At these levels teachers were reported to have rarely introduced writing tasks from other sources outside of the prescribed textbook. The written exercises were mainly written in the classroom although this did not apply as much when students wrote longer pieces at High School. Two participants said they tended to write longer pieces at home. Referring to high school English classes, Tin explained,

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‘Writing takes too long, so my teacher usually missed that out’. Exercises are made up of a group of activities that involve a series of responses to questions. They aim to provide ‘practice in key skills’. Some examples of the exercises completed by participants are provided in Figure 29.

Figure 29. Examples of grammar gap fill and sentence re-write exercises in a Vietnamese textbook.

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Grammar gap-fill exercises were the most common type of exercise completed at secondary and high school. They were also used to test grammar and vocabulary within the national English language exams each year (Figures 26 and 26) Many participants enjoyed these types of exercises because they were very familiar with them. Duc, Ton and Trang particularly enjoyed the multiple-choice questions because it was easier to get the correct answer by elimination. When asked about why they enjoyed particular assignments or types of writing, participants often mentioned scoring high marks. When they were able to score high marks on multiple choice and grammar gap fill exercises, they felt as though they enjoyed that writing activity more. At lower levels, these types of exercises were the least challenging types of writing although, according to Kim-Ly, Linh and Tin, they became more difficult within English major university entrance exams and specialist high school entrance exams. Tin felt this should be the case because they were going to be English major students, so their level of English should be better than non-English majors, even at the start of university.

The second most predominant genre family at lower levels of schooling was empathy writing, specifically letter-writing. This genre family includes letter writing or writing a newspaper article. It can also include writing an information leaflet, a job application or offering expert advice to a member of the public. No participants reported to have written a (‘pretend’) newspaper or magazine article and there is no evidence of newspaper writing in the national textbooks. According to (Nesi and Gardner 2012: 42), the purpose of these activities is to show an understanding of ‘academic ideas by translating them into a non-academic writing’. As exemplified earlier by Duc, letter writing was a common task in the national textbook. Most participants had written letters to friends or family but this was not to show their understanding of academic ideas. Instead, the letter-writing was treated as a type of exercise to practice sentence

structuring and appropriate use of vocabulary. Indeed, Duc found this was one of the most helpful functions of letter- writing. An example of a letter- writing task can be found in Figure 30.

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Figure 30. Example of a letter-writing activity from a Vietnamese textbook.

Five participants reported having written pieces of reflective writing at secondary and high school level, although only two of these shared copies of assignments. There is evidence of reflective recounts within the national textbooks where students are asked to write about how they felt during an event or how it affected them in some way. As part of a writing portfolio at undergraduate level, Tin had to write a reflective account of a reading and listening exercise and Ton had written a character outline for his gaming hobby. Other MA ELT students had also written reflection pieces about reading and writing tasks.

Design specifications and problem questions were the least reported and evidenced genres by English and non-English majors. Linh and Ton had experience of Businessrelated courses and had evidence of writing case studies with recommendations for businesses.

The influence of subject major at higher level

Overall, English majors reported to have had more experience of writing critiques, essays and literature surveys. Ton and the English-majors provided copies of

assignments to evidence critiques, Essays, Explanations, and Literature Surveys. The English majors also provided examples of research reports. English majors provided evidence of two written proposals.

Some non-English majors had been writing research reports in Vietnamese (Table 8). For example, Duc had been writing his microbiology laboratory reports in

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Vietnamese but he was due to write a research report in English, with the support of his university teacher. English majors reported to have written fewer problem questions and case studies compared to those studying other subjects. Case studies had tended to be written in business- related degree courses.

Table 8. Genres reported by participants and evidenced in assignments.

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Writing for research and understanding the research process is a feature of writing for MA-level university purposes.

Research reports, proposals and literature surveys were reported by almost all participants. Two examples of research proposals and research reports from the English majors were not included, because they were still being written. Both Tin and Linh were in the process of writing a research proposal for their graduation thesis, and their graduation paper would take the form of a research report. Other

participants were also working towards writing a final research report for university and/ or for publication. Many participants had first experienced these research-related genres at MA level, although some had limited research-related writing experiences towards the end of undergraduate level. For example, Chau, who was studying on the International Standard Programme, had written a research proposal and mini research reports in English from her third undergraduate year. Writing for research purposes in the form of a proposal or research report was required for all, except one

participant. For those non-English majors, who had no experience of writing these types of genres as undergraduate level, this was particularly challenging.

Research question 2

How do the ten students perceive (their) writing in English for university purposes in relation to a) challenges, b) enjoyability and c) usefulness for university d) usefulness for other purposes.

a) Writing challenges

Participants were asked what they found most challenging about writing assignments in English. Their responses were coded, synthesised and themed. Information from the think aloud protocols were also included in this analysis. This included occasions where participants verbalised if they were finding something difficult (or enjoyable) during the writing tasks.