Towards enhancing EFL academic literacy: The effect of genre-based instruction on summary-response writing

Voices and views: English language issues from different perspectives

Colección Lecturas del Mundo

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2019; p. 1 - 357

This study investigates the effect of genre-based instruction onthe process of teaching summary-response writing to English asa Foreign Language (EFL) university students at an advanced levelof language proficiency. A quasi-experimental research designwas followed and quantitative and qualitative methods to collectand analyse the data were employed. The participants were oneinstructor, two raters and a group of 46 EFL students attendingthe fourth year of five-year Teacher Training, Licentiate andTranslation Studies Programmes in an Argentinian university.The subjects were administered a pre-test requesting themto write a summary response before instruction. After a tenweekperiod of instruction, a post-test was administered. Twoindependent raters scored students? summary responses usingan analytic scoring scale. The quantitative data collected from thetests were analysed using two statistical tests, namely, Cohen?sSimple Unweighted Coefficient and Wilcoxon Rank Sums. Results indicated that the difference in means between pre- and posttestscores was statistically significant. The information gatheredwas triangulated with the analysis of summary-responsewriting strategies, the data provided by pre- and post-studyquestionnaires and self-assessment checklists administeredto the students, and interviews with the instructor. The resultssupport the hypothesis that genre-based instruction is aneffective pedagogical tool to teach summary-response writingto EFL university students at an advanced level of languageproficiency.