The Effect of Genre and Thematic Progression Instruction on EFL Senior High School Students in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Huang, Hsiao-Wen, 黃筱文
• Other Authors: Chang, Peichin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/46531306532736296362

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 104 === The aim of this study is to help English as Foreign Language (EFL) senior high school students in Taiwan write better in terms of coherence and cohesion and to make recommendations for writing instructors to assist EFL learners in writing. Generic structure and TP are two vital elements in the texture of a text. They represent generic coherence and structural cohesion respectively in a text. They are also highly related because they are two Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) concepts that deal with textual structure and the metafunction of a text. Previous studies have shown that genre and TP instruction especially have a positive effect on EFL college students, but how the combination of genre and TP instruction affect senior high school EFL students’ writing has rarely been discussed. The current study empirically examined how EFL senior high school students’ expository writing and their TP patterns evolve after genre and TP instruction in order to reveal the relationship between students’ writing and TP performances. The present study was conducted at a public senior high school in central Taiwan. Six 11th graders were randomly chosen as the participants in the present study. Participants’ texts before and after the 12-week genre and TP instruction were collected and analyzed to understand how their writing performances were influenced by genre and TP-based writing instruction. After the intervention, interviews were also conducted to investigate participants’ perceptions after intervention. Several findings were found (1) participants, especially those with low language proficiency, made progress in terms of generic structure, coherence and cohesion after the instruction. (2) The frequency of using TP patterns in their texts was higher after instruction. (3) Constant TP predominated in participants’ texts. (4) The more well-organized their expositions are, the more they applied TP in their texts. (5) Participants perceived genre and TP instruction positively, but they still asked for more grammar instruction. In conclusion, it was generally found that genre and TP instruction have a positive effect on senior high school EFL students in Taiwan, but students’ attention on grammar in writing should be gradually redirected to writing coherence and cohesion. Furthermore, because genre and TP writing instruction is still a new teaching approach in Taiwan, it should be included in language teachers’ in-service training. It is hoped that the present study offers educational implications for enhancing senior high school EFL students’ writing abilities Keywords: genre pedagogy, thematic progression, expository writing, senior high school, coherence, cohesion