Improving Writing Skills with Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach: The Case of Vietnamese EFL Students

Abstract

This study was conducted with the purpose to identify the effectiveness of Systemic Functional Linguistic approach to improve writing skills for the EFL students at a university in Hanoi, Viet Nam. The preliminary investigation showed that most students at this university experienced many difficulties in English writing skills and they were not motivated in writing lessons. To make situation better, an action research plan was conducted with the use of quantitative and qualitative methods, focusing on applying Systemic Functional Linguistic approach, typically Theme-Rheme patterns to raise the students’ awareness of Theme-Rheme benefits in creating logical text organization and then improve their writing skills. The subjects of the study were 30 students of English major at a university of foreign languages in Vietnam. The data were collected through the pre- and post-tests, questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study suggested that the use of this approach could improve the students’ writing skills and most of research students liked this technique because it made them motivated during English writing lessons.