A Genre Analysis of Reading Passages in the Vietnamese Upper Secondary School English Textbook Series Global Success
This mixed-methods study analyzes the reading passages in Vietnam's "Global Success" English textbooks (Grades 10–12) using the Sydney School genre framework, finding that while reports and arguments dominate and text complexity increases with grade level, the uneven distribution of genres highlights a need for more balanced representation to better support students' genre awareness and communicative competence.
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In the world of language learning, the way a text is organized matters just as much as the words it contains. Think of a text not just as a collection of sentences, but as a specific type of tool designed to do a particular job. Some tools are meant to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end; others are built to list facts about the natural world, while some are constructed to persuade a reader to see a point of view. In educational circles, these distinct tools are called genres. When students learn to recognize these patterns, they gain a map that helps them navigate complex information, understand the author's intent, and eventually write with confidence themselves. For years, many English curriculums around the world have explicitly taught these patterns, helping students master the specific structures of stories, reports, and arguments. However, in Vietnam, the recent shift toward a more modern, competency-based education system has left the specific role of these text types somewhat in the shadows, with lessons often organized by broad themes like "family" or "environment" rather than by the specific shape of the writing itself.
This gap in focus prompted a team of researchers at Hanoi National University of Education to take a close look at the new English textbooks being rolled out for high school students across the country. They turned their attention to the "Global Success" series, a set of books for grades ten through twelve that is set to become the standard for English education nationwide. The researchers wanted to know exactly what kinds of writing students were encountering. Did the books offer a balanced diet of different text types, or did they lean heavily on just a few? To find out, the team gathered every single reading passage from the dedicated reading sections of all thirty units across the three grade levels. They treated these thirty texts as a complete collection, reading each one carefully to identify its primary purpose and structure. They looked for the hallmarks of different genres: the storytelling elements of a narrative, the factual classification of a report, or the persuasive logic of an argument. When a text blended multiple purposes, such as a story used to support an argument, they categorized it as a complex mix, noting how these different elements worked together.
The results revealed a clear and somewhat predictable pattern. The textbooks are heavily focused on two main types of writing: reports and arguments. Reports, which are texts designed to describe or classify facts about the world, made up the largest group, appearing in nearly a third of all the reading passages. Arguments, which aim to convince a reader of a specific viewpoint or discuss different sides of an issue, followed closely behind, appearing in about a quarter of the texts. Together, these two types dominate the reading experience, suggesting that the primary goal of the curriculum is to build students' ability to understand factual information and to reason through complex topics. While this focus is useful for developing critical thinking and informational literacy, the study found that other important types of writing were largely missing. Stories, which are essential for developing empathy and narrative skills, appeared only rarely, with just one story per grade level. Similarly, texts that ask students to evaluate or respond to a piece of art or literature were completely absent from the collection.
As the students moved from grade ten to grade twelve, the nature of the texts became more sophisticated, but the balance did not necessarily improve. In the tenth grade, the books relied almost entirely on simple reports and one-sided arguments. By the eleventh and twelfth grades, the texts began to mix these forms together, creating complex passages that combined storytelling with argumentation or facts with persuasion. This increase in hybrid texts suggests that the curriculum expects older students to handle more complicated writing that does not fit neatly into a single box. However, the study noted that this progression was selective. While the complexity of reports and arguments grew, the variety of other genres did not. The few stories that appeared remained static in number, and the missing genres, such as historical accounts or personal responses, never made an appearance. The researchers concluded that while the textbooks successfully prepare students for the informational and argumentative demands of academic life, they may be leaving students less prepared for the creative and evaluative tasks that are also part of a complete language education.
The implications of these findings extend beyond the pages of a textbook. Because these books are the primary source of English input for millions of students, the limited variety of genres they contain shapes what students learn to read and, by extension, what they learn to write. The researchers suggest that teachers may need to step in to fill the gaps, bringing in additional stories and evaluative texts to ensure students see the full range of how language can be used. They also recommend that future curriculum designers make the progression of these text types more explicit, ensuring that students are not just exposed to facts and arguments, but are also given the tools to tell stories, analyze history, and express personal responses. By broadening the scope of what students read, educators can help learners become more versatile and confident communicators, ready to navigate the diverse demands of both academic study and real-world interaction.
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