Impact of Genre-Based Instruction on Development of Students’ Letter Writing Skills: The Case of Students of Textile Engineering

Abstract

The current study investigated the effectiveness of genre-based instruction on the development of EFL learners’ writing skills. Participants were 34 undergraduate students majoring in textile engineering at an Iranian state university, and they had enrolled in the English for specific academic purposes course. Participants were taught how to write 4 types of business letters, highlighting the presentation of appropriate moves and lexicogrammatical features. Furthermore, a letter writing attitude questionnaire was administered to the participants at the end of the semester. Participants’ abilities in writing letters were measured across the 4 letter writing tasks. Results revealed that those who had been exposed to the genre-based instruction made great improvement in different aspects of writing letters such as content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Correspondingly, raising the participants’ awareness of the genre-based features of the letters contributed to their positive attitudes and production of high-quality texts.