Qualitative Investigation of the Effect of Explicit Genre Instruction on EFL Learners’ Written Research Article

Abstract

Since previous research studies revealed that novice writers still have difficulty constructing well-structured research articles (RA), genre instruction has recently focused on making rhetorical choices explicit, and this explicit focus on generic features, in turn, provided tools for the detailed analysis of academic genres of RAs. In line with recent research studies, the present study endeavored to explore the effect of explicit genre instruction on the generic features used by participants in RAs. To this end, out of 24 graduate students, who voluntarily attended a 20-session academic writing course, 17 were selected. After predominantly qualitative analysis of their written RAs, the findings revealed that explicit instruction made them aware of, and sensitive to, the rhetorical features in RAs, that they adopted these rhetorical features in their RAs, and that irrespective of a large number of similarities in their performance there were some differences with regard to their field, topic, and target journal as well as their language knowledge and experience in writing RAs. Not only would the findings of this research be beneficial for curriculum developers, teachers, and learners, but they also can lead researchers to new venues in order to delve deep into the effects of explicit genre instruction.

Keywords: explicit genre instruction, EFL learners, research articles, ESP, academic writing, rhetorical moves and steps