Investigation of Students’ Perceptions on Genre-based Approach with Two Different Instructional Methods

The purpose of this case study is to grasp students’ perceptions when given a genre-based approach and to suggest discerning educational implications. As important variables, a structured instruction, which is characterized as explicit teaching, and unstructured instruction featuring prominently in learner-centered instruction were employed by the researcher. Three high school freshmen participated in this study for about 4 weeks. Students A and B both were taught using the structured method while Student C was given the unstructured instruction in a separate class. Each student underwent recount-genre lessons on writing, but Student C was given narrative lessons in addition. For research methods, surveys and interviews were mainly utilized. The results showed that A did not comprehend the recount-genre’s social purpose, definition, and organization even after the writing lessons. Both A and B perceived the classes negatively in terms of the teacher’s speech and text interpretation. Student C initially displayed similar reactions to the teacher s speech. C’s perceptions, however, grew more positive as time progressed including their interest, organization, and schematic genre knowledge.