Abstract
The main thrust of this study was to determine whether a genre-based instruction improve the writing proficiency of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 30 homogenous Iranian BA learners studying English at Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas Branch were selected as the participants of the study through a version of TOEFL test as the proficiency test. The selected participants were 15 females and 15 males who were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. The both experimental and control groups were asked to write on a topic determined by the researcher which were considered as the pre-test. The writing of the students were scored using holistic scoring procedure. The subjects received sixteen hours instruction—the experimental group using a genre-based pedagogy and the control group through the traditional methodology which was followed by a post-test—the subjects were, this time, asked to write on the same topic which they were asked to write before instruction. Their post-writings were also scored through the holistic scoring procedures. In analyzing the data, t-test statistic was utilized for comparing the performances of the two groups. It was found that there is statistically significant difference between the writing ability of the participants who go under a genre-based instruction and who don’t. The study, however, didn’t find any significant role for gender. Keywords: genre analysis, writing skill, holistic scoring procedure, pre-test, post-test, t-test
Highlights
Writing skill as a sub-skill of literacy skills, according to Wall (1981), “range from mechanical control to creativity, with good grammar, knowledge of subject matter, awareness of stylistic conventions and various mysterious factors in between”
Hyland (2007) regards genre-based approaches as a major response to the needs of learners who are learning writing as a second or foreign language ability since, according to Hyland (2007, p. 163) “a well-formulated theory of how language works in human interaction has become an urgent necessity in the field of teaching second language writing”
Two experimental and control groups were designed as the baseline of the study
Summary
Writing skill as a sub-skill of literacy skills, according to Wall (1981), “range from mechanical control to creativity, with good grammar, knowledge of subject matter, awareness of stylistic conventions and various mysterious factors in between” (cited in Gholaminejad, Moinzadeh, Youhanaee, & Ghobadirad, 2013, p. 53). One of the issues emphasized by gener analysis is the notion of schemata. To this end, O’Malley and Chamot (1990) point out that schemata, prior knowledge, and information processing influence the declarative knowledge and the rate and extent of the information processed by a reader or a writer. Culture, similar schemata and prior knowledge, according to O’Malley and Chamot (1990), need to be considered in the recent models to literacy skills including writing skill. Bartlett (1932) argues that schema are fundamental in constructing the meaning (cited in Wagoner, 2013). He adds that schema underpins the "active organizations of past reactions and experiences which are always operating in any welldeveloped organism" (Bartlett, 1932, P.201). Bartlett (1932) underscores the fact that world knowledge, language knowledge, and the insights regarding the texts and forms, i.e. genre are among the information clarified by schema which in its turn influence the process of literacy skills
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