Developing EFL students' writing skills through a genre-based strategy

Developing EFL students' writing skills through a genre-based strategy

Korean students of English as a foreign language (EFL) may find it particularly difficult to write academic papers due to the country's emphasis on traditional classroom instruction. Proficiency in academic writing requires students to have a deep comprehension of genre variance and to become experts in genre expertise. The purpose of this study was to investigate how genre-based training affected EFL students' academic writing performance. This study specifically aims to ascertain if students who study academic writing using genre-based education increase both their writing performance and their sense of genre. 56 Korean undergraduate students participated in the study. Four research tools were employed in total: semi-structured interviews, student writing, student reflection, and pretest and posttest. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the writing scores of the students. Using an independent-sample design, a t-test was run to analyze the mean differences between the two groups that received various kinds of teaching. Through student comments and interviews, the awareness of genres and attitudes toward the learning process of the target students were investigated. On the basis of the findings of the pretest, this study came to the conclusion that the writing abilities of both the control group and the experimental group were comparable. The experimental group fared much better than the control group in every category of academic writing when compared to the control group. This was the case across the board. In addition, the data demonstrated that the students who were the focus of the study improved their understanding of the genre in four unique areas: textual aspects, audience awareness, purpose awareness, and permissible material. Additionally, they had a positive attitude with regard to instruction that was based on genre. In order to provide educators and practitioners with recommendations for incorporating genre-based training into writing education, the purpose of this study is to provide guidelines.