The Role of Genre-Based Activities in the Writing of Argumentative
Essays in EFL
El papel
de actividades basadas en géneros en la escritura de ensayos
argumentativos en inglés como lengua extranjera
Pedro
Antonio Chala Bejarano*
Pontificia
Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
Claudia
Marcela Chapetón**
Universidad
Pedagógica Nacional, Colombia
This article was received on February 1, 2013, and
accepted on July 27, 2013.
This article presents the findings of an action
research project conducted with a group of pre-service teachers of a program in
modern languages at a Colombian university. The study intended to go beyond an
emphasis on linguistic and textual features in English as a
foreign language argumentative essays by using a set of genre-based
activities and the understanding of writing as a situated social practice. Data
were gathered through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, class
recordings, and students’ artifacts. The results showed that genre-based
activities supported the participants throughout the experience and boosted
their confidence, resulting in a positive attitude towards essay writing. The
study highlights the importance of dialogic interaction to provide scaffolding
opportunities, of understanding writing as a process, and of the use of samples
and explicit instruction to facilitate writing.
Key words: Argumentative
essay writing, genre-based teaching, scaffolding, situated social practice.
Este
artículo presenta los hallazgos de una
investigación-acción realizada con un grupo de estudiantes de la licenciatura
en Lenguas Modernas de una universidad colombiana. El estudio buscaba ir
más allá del énfasis en las características
lingüísticas y textuales en la escritura de ensayos argumentativos
en inglés como lengua extranjera, mediante un conjunto de actividades
basadas en géneros y comprendiendo la escritura como una práctica
social situada. Los datos se obtuvieron a través de cuestionarios,
entrevistas semiestructuradas, grabaciones de clase y
artefactos de los estudiantes. Los resultados muestran que las actividades
basadas en la enseñanza de géneros proporcionan apoyo a los
participantes durante la experiencia investigativa y aumentan su confianza y
actitud positiva hacia la escritura de ensayos. El estudio resalta la
importancia de la interacción dialógica para ofrecer
oportunidades de andamiaje, la escritura como proceso y el uso de muestras e
instrucción explícita para facilitar la escritura.
Palabras clave: andamiaje,
enseñanza basada en géneros, escritura de ensayos argumentativos,
práctica social situada.
Introduction
Today, due to its importance as an international
language, the presence of English in educational settings is paramount.
Institutions, then, encourage the development of students’ abilities to
communicate in the foreign language and writing is, of course, a skill to be
included. However, writing is not always approached from a communicative
perspective, and linguistic and textual emphases are fostered instead. On the
other hand, essay production is widely used (Lillis, 2001) but not very often
seen from a social and situated perspective that makes writing a meaningful and
purposeful activity.
This research project emerged from a necessity to
foster transformation in writing practices, which privileged a product over a
process view of writing and allowed little opportunity for students to express
their voices in a meaningful way. The study attempted to approach EFL
argumentative essay writing from a perspective that influenced literacy
practices worldwide: writing as a situated social practice. To complement this
understanding of writing, a genre-based perspective was adopted as the
pedagogical approach to frame the experience. Although these two perspectives
have been central in research, they have not been openly used together to
approach student writing of argumentative essays. The main objective of this
study was to explore and describe the role that a set of genre-based activities
may have on argumentative essay writing with a group of high intermediate
students of English in the Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages program at a
private university in Bogotá.
The research question guiding this study was: What is
the role of a set of genre-based activities in the creation of argumentative
essays by high intermediate students of English in the BEd
in Modern Languages program when writing is understood as a situated social
practice?
Literature
Review
Keeping in mind the importance of dialogic interaction and scaffolding
(Bruner & Sherwood, 1975; Vygotsky, 1978), we
feel this study conceives students as subjects of their learning and fosters
their individualities and deliberation
processes (Grundy, 1987). Language is understood here as a situated action that
embeds and manifests different forms of knowledge, beliefs, and ways to refer
to the world. The three main constructs that support this study are Genre-Based
Writing, Argumentative Essay Writing, and Writing as a Situated Social
Practice. These are explained in the following sections.1
Genre-Based Writing
This study considers Hyland’s (2004) view that
“genre-based teaching is concerned with what learners do when they
write” (p. 5), which emphasises the importance
of the situated context where writing occurs and further considers this
practice as communication. Two characteristics of genre-based writing activities
are considered: First is Hyland’s (2004) concept of modelling, which aids students to
explore the genre and understand features such as rhetorical structures or
frames (Hyland, 2004) and formulaic
sequences (Morrison, 2010). Second is Bastian’s (2010) explicit teaching of genre, which
promotes awareness of genre conventions as well as reflection on its purposes
and uses. Genre is considered as situated
social action; this perspective accounts for a social dimension of
communication and acknowledges the relationship between the genres and their
social context, students’ voice-as-experience
(Lillis, 2001), and the collaboration and scaffolding (Bruner & Sherwood,
1975) provided by skilled writers to struggling peers (Lin, Monroe, & Troia, 2007).
Two research studies on genre-based teaching can be
mentioned. Morrison (2010) designed and implemented a short distance writing
course at an organisation in Tokyo. It was an effort
to improve the students’ writing skills by preparing them for the
International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam through the use of a
genre-based pedagogy to second language writing. The study provides interesting
information regarding multiple drafting and feedback to provide scaffolding and
to foster a transformative writing process. Finally, Chaisiri
(2010) conducted a study in different universities in Thailand. It consisted of
two phases: The first one investigated how teachers perceived their approaches
to teaching writing and the second phase was an action research study,
intending to find the role of genre-based activities in a writing classroom.
This study provides significant theoretical and practical insights on how to
use a genre-based perspective in an action research study.
Argumentative Essay
Writing
Argumentative essay writing is understood here as a
dynamic literacy practice where the author establishes a dialogic relationship
with an audience defending a point of view and looking to convince, get an
adhesion, or persuade (Álvarez, 2001). As
dialogue between interlocutors (Ramírez, 2007)
emerges through argumentative essay writing, this practice goes beyond a
linguistic perspective to become social action. In this dialogue, the writer
communicates with a reader and shapes his/her discourse according to the
relationship that is established between them: power, contact, and emotion (Goatly, 2000).
Three articles illustrate previous research connected
to argumentative essay writing. Nanwani (2009) analysed the linguistic challenges lived by a group of
students at a private university in Bogotá in the development of
academic literacy. In his study, the author provides insights to reflect on the
challenges of writing academic texts. He also hints at a transformative view of
this practice and suggests that students’ backgrounds should be
considered. Zúñiga and Macías (2006) conducted a study to help advanced
English students of the undergraduate Foreign Language Teaching Program at
Universidad Surcolombiana to refine their academic
writing skills. This study draws attention to the importance of instruction,
peer feedback, inclusion of sample papers, and the possibility to publish
students’ texts to foster their motivation. Finally, Street (2003)
explored where writing attitudes originate and how they influence practice.
Participants of this study were undergraduate students in a teacher education programme in Texas. The study sheds light on the positive
and negative experiences in the process of writing, and it highlights the
importance of the writing process and the product in the development of
students’ attitudes, as well as the consideration of their identity.
Writing as a
Situated Social Practice
Writing practices are situated and social as they
occur within specific contexts, at specific moments, and ser
ve the specific needs of communication, learning, and
expression (Ramírez, 2007). In this sense,
writing and the writer participate in discourses (Gee, 2008), ideologies, and
institutional practices, as well as establish a dialogic connection with the
world and the powers that surround them. At the same time, writers not only
imbue their texts with their inherent characteristics such as gender or race,
but also include their voice as
experience: their beliefs, experiences, and feelings that have been built
and moulded through social contact (Lillis, 2001). It
is then understood that writing implies more than the development of a
technical skill. According to Baynham (1995), writing
can be approached via considering the subjectivity of the writer, the writing
process, the purpose and audience, the text as a product, the power of the
genre, and the source or legitimacy of that power.
Although little research has been conducted which
considers writing as a situated social practice, two research studies related
to this construct are worth mentioning here. One was conducted by Correa (2010)
in a general studies programme in a public school in
Massachusetts. It examined the challenges that a mature ESL student and her
teachers faced with regard to the construction of literacy and voice in
writing. This study is important as Correa seems to call for a need to go
beyond a technical view of writing and to stop considering that writing is
“applicable across context, purpose, and audience” (p. 92). On the
other hand, Ariza (2005) conducted action research
with a group of ninth-graders in a public school in Bogotá. She
investigated how teachers of English can guide their students to develop their
written communicative competence based on White and Arndt’s (1991)
process-oriented approach to writing. Even though Ariza’s
study does not explicitly take writing as a situated social practice, it does
show the implementation of a project where writing was approached as a process,
not as a product.
Research Design
This qualitative action research study looked to
gather holistic insights by analysing what happened
in the classroom setting (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). Action research was
valuable to reflect on the pedagogical practice and find insights that contributed
to its improvement (Sagor, 2000; Sandin,
2003). The action-research process followed in the study was composed of four
stages, as proposed by Sagor (2005). However, keeping
in mind Burns’ (2003) claim for flexibility in action research, the stages
were dynamic, allowing for changes within our own interpretation of the
research process.
The stages were developed in each cycle of the
pedagogical intervention that was designed. The first stage was clarifying vision and targets. Careful
thinking about the classes, the activities, and the outcomes of teaching and
learning were important to come up with insights to approach writing in a
different way. Research questions associated with the main goal of the study
were raised here. In the second stage, articulating
theory, an informed rationale was built to back up pedagogical
intervention. Important outcomes of this phase were an instructional design to
be implemented and a data collection plan in order to gather insights related
to the research question. The third stage was implementing action and collecting data. Following Sagor (2005), this was the moment in which the
instructional design was put into practice and data were collected to get
insights about the pedagogical intervention. The final stage was reflecting and planning informed action.
Data collected in each cycle of the instructional design were used in order to
reflect upon the implementation of the activities and to plan further action
for the subsequent cycle.
Context and
Participants of the Study
This study was conducted at Pontificia
Universidad Javeriana, in Bogotá, specifically
in the BEd in the Teaching of Modern Languages programme. The participants (aged 17 to 23) included two
male and thirteen female students. They were enrolled in the high intermediate
level, a course taken in sixth semester. At the time this study was conducted,
the course was divided into two modules: International
Relations and Current Issues.
This study was conducted in the latter, dealing with topics like technology,
global and local culture, education, and work. Both the institution and the
students were informed about the study and signed consent forms accepting
participation in it.
Data
Collection Instruments
Four data collection instruments were used. First, the
classes were recorded for sixteen weeks; recordings were important to collect
the teacher’s and students’ actual words in their interactions
throughout the development of the activities. Second, there were two
questionnaires. One was applied at the beginning of the semester to build a
profile of the participants and collect their beliefs and ideas about writing
(see Appendix A); the other was used at the end of the
process to gather the students’ opinions about the experience of essay
writing throughout the study (see Appendix B). Third, there
were artifacts that included the evaluation of each cycle and the argumentative
essays written by the participants. This represented important evidence of the
role that genre-based activities played when students approached writing from a
situated social perspective. Finally, three semi-structured interviews were
conducted, one at the end of each cycle (see one sample in Appendix C). They were useful in order to gather students’
reactions, thoughts, and ways they approached writing in the study.
Pedagogical
Procedure
A central element of the action research process was
the creation and implementation of an instructional design which integrated the
three constructs of the study. It emerged after a process of deliberation
(Grundy, 1987) upon the way in which writing was being approached in the
classes.
During the implementation of the instructional design,2 a number of activities
were developed using a genre-based perspective to teaching writing (Bastian, 2010;
Hyland, 2004) and considering writing as a situated social practice (Baynham, 1995; Gee, 2008; Lillis, 2001).
The instructional design was planned following the
sequence of writing topics in the course programme
and consisted of three cycles. Each cycle corresponded to a term during the
semester and dealt with a specific type of essay: Opinion, For
and Against, and Problem-Solutions. In order to account for a genre-based
perspective to teaching writing, a six-step writing cycle was used based on Widodo’s (2006) proposal of a genre-based lesson
plan.
The first step of the writing cycle was exploring the genre. Students analysed sample essays in small groups and as a whole class
with the guidance of the teacher. It was done in the light of theory and
students’ previous knowledge. In the second step, building knowledge of the field, students chose a topic and an audience
and investigated to gather insights that they could draw upon when writing.
Then, groups of peers shared their ideas to get preliminary feedback. In the
third step, text construction or drafting, students actually engaged in
the act of writing in and outside the class. The fourth step was revising and submitting a final draft;
students self-evaluated their first draft, trying to go beyond the linguistic
and textual features. Peer and teacher feedback was also provided through
comments and prompting questions not only about formal aspects but also about
the ideas themselves. Based on feedback and personal reflection, students
constructed a new draft. Assessment and
evaluation by the teacher in the fifth step provided qualitative feedback
about students’ writing performance. The final step was editing and publishing. Students made
final adjustments to their texts and published them on a blog or on Facebook
thus transcending academic purposes to achieve a more realistic and social
purpose as well as a wider audience. Once the whole cycle finished, the
students evaluated the activities developed, the materials, and the
teacher’s guidance. They did this by writing their impressions about
these three aspects on a piece of paper, which they submitted.
In the following section, the findings of this study
are presented. The data gathered through and transcribed from the different
instruments will show the participants’ original voices as they were
actually produced during the EFL class sessions, thus, errors were not
marked/coded nor corrected.
Findings
After a process of systematic analysis of the collected
data and having used the grounded approach (Corbin & Strauss, 1990), two
categories emerged: (1) Supportive Role Along the
Writing Path and (2) Encouraging Role Enhanced Through the Situated Social Experience.
These categories describe the main roles that the genre-based activities had in
the students’ construction of argumentative essays during the study.
The data showed that genre-based activities not only
supported the participants throughout the construction of essays but also
boosted their confidence resulting in a positive attitude towards writing
argumentative essays. Support was provided through social interaction among the
participants and between them and the teacher; drafting and redrafting, which
raised awareness of writing as a process; and the sample essays analysed, which helped participants to shape their essays.
Encouragement to write was enhanced through the discovery of generic features
and the possibility to choose the topic of the essays. Figure 1
is a visual representation of the categories and subcategories resulting from
the analysis.
Category 1:
Supportive Role Along the Writing Path
This category refers to the guiding role that the
genre-based activities had in the participants’ essay writing process.
The orientation that was identified in the data relates to the concept of
scaffolding (Bruner & Sherwood, 1975; Vygotsky,
1978) provided through supportive social interaction among participants and by
the samples that were analysed in class; this support
was also enhanced through a process of drafting and redrafting. The data showed
that the activities developed in the study had an important role in guiding
students to diminish the occurrence of linguistic errors in their texts and
acquire the ability to write essays that met the requirements of the genre.
The analysis of the data showed that the support
provided by the genre-based activities came from three sources: (1) Social
interaction with peers and teacher, which helped participants to generate ideas
and improve their texts; (2) drafting and redrafting, regarded by the students
as a new way to improve their essays and their writing skills; and (3) the
essay samples, which were considered by the participants as points of reference
that they could use to shape their own texts. A common pattern that the data
showed in the three sub-categories is related to students’ concern for
mistake identification and correction. Although insights show concern for
aspects that went beyond linguistic and textual aspects, there was still
concern for formal issues.
After presenting a general definition of the category,
we now provide a description of the three sub-categories.
Supportive Social
Interaction to Generate Ideas and Improve
Supportive social interaction refers to the various
ways in which students established dialogic communication with their peers and
teacher and which mediated to enhance text correction and skill improvement.
This activity hints at the supportive nature of genre-based teaching (Hyland,
2004), and the importance of socialisation in the
learning process, as stated by Vygotsky (1978). Data
from the final questionnaire and second interview showed that group work before
writing, during the step of building knowledge
of the field, was an opportunity to get reactions, points of view, and
advice from classmates with regard to the authors’ ideas:
S314: My classmates helped me with some ideas and
sometimes I help them too. (2nd questionnaire)
34. S13: I think it [doing the activities] was useful.
For example, in my particular
35. case, you said: Guys you have to write
another essays, so, I start writing about
36. child labor and then was what you said it was
about cons and
pros, so I told S3
37. …and I said: “Oh my God, what can I do right now?” “Because
I have, so I
38. start.” So, she helped me to think in
the new way that I had to do with my
39. essay, so, I think is useful because you can
compare your ideas with others and do a better essay. (2nd interview)
Sharing thoughts with classmates through dialogic
interaction was shown to be relevant for most of the participants in this
preliminary stage of the writing cycle in order to get ideas and to focus more
on the content that they were going to discuss in their essays. At the same
time, this activity offered participants the possibility to contribute to
aiding their peers in the construction or refinement of their arguments.
On the other hand, peer and teacher interaction and
scaffolding provided in the step of revising
and submitting a final draft were useful for the majority of the students
to identify and correct “mistakes”4
that had been overlooked by themselves and by the teacher. In this respect, one
student states:
S11: Classmates were
a big help because sometimes they show me what the teacher didn’t
realize. (2nd questionnaire)
Interaction was also important for text correction and
improvement, as described by this student:
37. S7: I think it was really important because
sometimes our friends or our
38. classmates realize of some mistakes that the
teacher didn’t realized
39. or sometimes, we express our idea, but it was
wrong and they help
40. us to explain it or sometimes, for example, I
wrote when S1’s
41. essay, she wanted to tell a story and I told her
that it was in that way and
42. she said, Oh, yes, and she explained to you, and
you said, ah, that’s what you wanted to say!
43. That kind of things, I think are important. (2nd
interview)
The above student regards peer work as useful not only
for improving his essays through the correction of mistakes, but also because
it provides the opportunity to become an active agent in assisting others in
their writing process. Also, although there is a concern for mistake
correction, there is an interest for content improvement enhanced through social
interaction. Looking at other students’ essays and having theirs checked
by peers were both useful strategies to get or refine ideas and listen to
points of view that were different from that of the teacher. The social
dimension of writing, evidenced in the interaction that emerged through peer
and teacher supportive action, came also to enhance the development of writing
skills. In other words, social interaction provided scaffolding opportunities:
S3: The most useful
activities were reading other essays and correcting ours. . . . The guidance working
with partners and having the teacher feedback really helped to write better
essay. (Student’s artifact)
In her evaluation of the first cycle, this student
also highlights the relevance of socialisation with
classmates and of the support provided by the teacher in order to render good
results in writing. Writing was assumed as a social action in which guidance
from others was important. The teacher’s support was perceived as useful
to guide the students in writing their essays:
S8: I like the
feedback the teacher gave us for every essay because it makes us to realized
things we should change or take into account for writing an essay. (2nd
questionnaire)
Support provided by the teacher on a dialogic basis was
considered by the participants as relevant and effective for them to correct
their texts and improve their writing skills. Although identifying and
correcting formal mistakes were found to be important contributions of
supportive social interaction, there was also an opportunity for participants
to improve the content of the essays and identify their strengths and
weaknesses in writing, as expressed by this student:
S12: In my case I
agree with [S15], about feedback because in my case I found some problems with grammar,
because I tried to use just let’s say simple grammar structures, so I
realized that I have to use more well structured grammar. (2nd interview)
It is also necessary to mention that not all the
students agreed with the importance of having their essays checked by peers.
Some students did not consider this relevant due to their peers’ lack of
knowledge or inaccuracy to give feedback. This is expressed in the following
piece of data:
S14: I think that
teacher’s feedback is more relevant than peer feedback because, in my
case, I only take into account the teacher’s corrections because the
teacher knows more than a student. (2nd questionnaire)
Drafting and
Redrafting: A New Chance to Improve
The writing and re-writing of essays based on personal
reflection and supportive guidance provided by teacher and peers were found to
be two innovative activities in the writing process; additionally, as the data
from the interviews showed, they were strategies that had not been implemented
in prior courses. The following is an example of this:
22. S11: I think for me the most useful activity was
drafting and re-drafting and
23. also the feedback because what happened normally
is that you just
24. write an essay and you have the feedback at the
end with all
25. the mistakes, so you don’t have actually the
chance to improve
26. and the teacher cannot see the process, the way
you have been
27. improving, they’re just like, Ok, it is
wrong and sorry, 2.0 or
28. 3.0, I don’t know, any grade, but actually when you
start writing
29. and reading again and writing again,
sometimes actually when you
30. receive the feedback, you say, ah! Yes, I have already realized THIS
mistake, because you have the opportunity to read and… proof read, so, I
think that that is what for me, was more useful. (3rd interview)
As this piece of data shows, mistakes were an
important concern for students, and writing used to be viewed mainly as a
product (Grundy, 1987) represented by a grade; however, there is a new interest
in viewing writing as a process, and in this sense, drafting and redrafting
become important because they allow writers to improve during the process.
In the participants’ written production it was
possible to find that drafting and redrafting were valuable activities as the
texts showed higher levels of elaboration and correction after scaffolding
activities were done and adjustments were made. Figure 2
and 3 show this of one student.
Certain aspects improved in the second draft with
respect to the first one: To begin with, the topic is narrowed down from
“Colombia” to “Overpopulation in Colombia.” Moreover,
unlike the first draft, the second one presents general information on
overpopulation before focusing on the specific topic.
Furthermore, the ideas in the second version are
supported by the student’s own experience (Lillis, 2001), which is used
to situate the text (Baynham, 1995) in her reality
and gives her the opportunity to write from her own perspective. Changes in
text formality and appropriateness of vocabulary are also more evident.
Drafting and re-drafting were shown; then, as a way to meet generic features
and by elaborating different drafts, the students became aware of how the texts
should be organised, and what other conventions, such
as formulaic expressions, could be used so that their texts came closer to the
genre. The following piece of data, taken from an interview, illustrates this
point:
89. T: And how can you evaluate the final version of
your essay?
90. S10: I think, it’s, you know because of the draft,
you could identify what, I
91. mean, your problems, what were you doing
bad, so, I think at the end
92. when I wrote the final version, I could do it
better and it was, I think it was good. (2nd interview)
Through drafting and redrafting, most of the
participants had the opportunity to identify mistakes and correct them, but
this process in which they engaged also allowed them to reflect on the content
of their essays thus raising their awareness with regard to their writing
skills, enabling them to identify drawbacks and use this information to
improve. This is a remarkable insight as students seemed to go beyond linguistic and textual issues to engage in other dimensions
of writing that were more related to their subjectivity as writers and the
process that they followed when engaged in this literacy practice.
Samples as Guides
for Text Shaping
The essay samples presented and analysed
in class during the step exploring the
genre were considered by the participants as guides or models to shape
their own texts. These samples were important to get students aware of key
genre features and facilitate their personal writing process. Samples were
shown to have a fundamental supporting role as reliable material to consult and
get ideas from in order to adjust their texts in terms of rhetorical structure
and formulaic sequences (Morrison, 2010). This aided students to gain control
of the genre (Chaisiri, 2010), and thus engage in the
act of writing in a more confident way:
S4: When I started
to write my pros and cons essay I didn’t find it difficult because with
the examples of that kind of essays presented in class was very useful to write
it. (Student’s artifact)
This student highlights the role of samples as facilitators in writing. The data also
showed that having a sample guided students in different degrees depending on
their needs as writers. The following interview excerpt shows how samples were
useful in this respect:
39. S2: I think all of them were pretty useful. For example when we looked at the
40. model text, it
41. was really helpful because it’s like a guide for us, and we can
follow that example, not copy it, but just follow that structure. (2nd
Interview)
It was interesting to find that modelling
did not generate blind text imitation. On the contrary, it enhanced the
writers’ ability to discern and make decisions (Grundy, 1987) about what
elements they could integrate in their own texts to meet the genre conventions.
Although students acknowledged the importance of essay samples as reliable
material to guide their writing, they also showed discernment in deciding how
the samples could help them to improve their texts and learn:
S11: I learnt from
the samples, I could take some elements from them for me to use on my essays. (2nd
questionnaire)
31. T: And another thing about the sample essays that
I presented and that you
32. said that they were useful to you. Did you copy
the same
33. structure? What aspects
did you consider from that? From the
34. texts?
35. S5: The organization of the text? [T: Uh-hum.] For example,
if the text
36. presents an organization from the most
important points to the
37. less important, and also some linking words that I
brought, and also I
38. considered the way to introduce the topic sentence
because the
39. way those developed the idea, to parts of this
points to start writing.
40. T: And why did you take those aspects, those little pieces?
41. S5: Because I think that if I do it, I can develop better my essay or I can
make
42. it more organised and
understandable, because I have to respect
43. sometimes the structure and that’s why I
used it.
44. T: Did you adjust, or did you use some of your own ideas to the structure?
45. S5: Yes, sometimes. For example, I have other problems with the conclusion
and I never take some aspects of the models because I think it doesn’t
adjust to my topic but what I do is to write my own ideas and to develop my own
way. (2nd interview)
Samples helped learners to develop awareness of
argumentative essay writing by allowing them to focus on generic features such
as structure and formulaic sequences. On the other hand, samples were also
useful to acknowledge the subjectivity involved in writing (Baynham,
1995), thus helping the students to make decisions about generic features they
could use. Given the dynamic perspective that was embraced in the study,
participants decided which elements to focus on and use in order to consider
the features of the genre and at the same time make the text theirs. It was
also possible for them to draw upon elements from their sociocultural context
to build their texts and support their ideas.
Category 2:
Encouraging Role Enhanced Through the Situated Social Experience
This category refers to the positive role that the
activities developed had on the students throughout the study to build their
confidence in writing. The analysis of data showed that self-reliance and
positive attitudes towards writing were enhanced due to the implementation of
the genre-based activities when writing was considered as a situated social
practice. Confidence was built through explicit analysis of the genre and
understanding the purpose for writing, among other aspects. On the other hand,
the data revealed that the students showed an improvement in attitude towards
the act of writing itself due to two main aspects: (1) The encouraging
discovery of the particular features of the argumentative genre and (2) the
possibility to choose the topics of the essays.
Positive Discovery
of the Genre through Explicit Analysis
Engaged in genre-based activities when writing, the
students were able to build awareness as to how to write opinions, pros and
cons, and problem-solution, essays, paying close attention to genre conventions
and features. This ability relates to the explicit nature of instruction in a
genre-based pedagogy (Hyland, 2004). Explicit analysis of genre features
allowed students to better understand how texts were structured, how the
audience could be approached, and what language could be used to achieve their
purpose. In connection with this, a student expresses:
S7: I can say it
was an excellent experience. At the beginning it was a little bit difficult
because the structure was not clear but thank to the
explanations and power point presentation I really improved in my essays; now I
try to organize it to make it coherent. Now I feel better writing essays. (2nd
questionnaire)
As a personal endeavour,
writing generated different reactions among the students, including fear.
However, due to the use of samples and their analysis, this feeling changed;
participants thus approached writing in a more confident way, even changing the
perspective they used to have about this practice, as shown below:
109. T: S15, has your conception
of writing academic essays changed in certain
110. way?
111. S15: well, I think it has changed a little bit because before I
thought that
112. writing an essay or writing something for English
class was boring
113. and I didn’t feel excited about writing
only for the teacher, but in this
114. course, I realized that writing is a good thing
to do, and I realized
115. that I could express myself by a piece of paper
and I’m excited when I
116. write, next semester I will be excited because I will show the previous
class, so it’s nice for me to show my improvement to the other teacher.
(3rd interview)
Students got engaged in discovering the particularities
of the genre, and this seems to have encouraged them to change their negative
views of writing. Just as they focused on formal features of texts, they also
acknowledged other important aspects like the social dimension and subjectivity
involved in writing. Being able to discover these aspects and the reasons for
writing made the experience more meaningful to the participants and therefore
encouraged them to become more engaged in writing.
A genre-based perspective to writing was important to
explore what students did when they
wrote, and understanding writing as a situated social practice helped to
discover how they felt.
Students’ attitude was an important factor that influenced the way they
undertook writing. Analysis of the genre features allowed the students to
become aware of textual features, which in turn helped them to become more
self-reliant and develop a more positive attitude to undertake writing. Prior
knowledge was elicited and used in order to support the analysis of
genre features, as can be seen in the following exchange that was transcribed
from a class session:
77. T: There are some pros, and there are some cons.
Good. NOW, do you know
78. any other ways to begin
an introduction? Here we began with a general
79. idea.
80. S3: The other way is we begin with the thesis statement and then we develop
81. the essay.
82. T: Ok. What do you think?...We begin with the thesis
statement and then
83. we go to the general point?
84. Class: No.
85. T: It would depend on your eh, style, but usually
we don’t do that. [S15:
86. Yeah]...Good. Another way.
87. S12: Another is called “dramatic entrance,” but I don’t
know.
88. S7: You tell a story about or an experience that you had… [T: Yes.] Related
89. with the topic
90. T: Yeah. Why (bis) would you bring up an
experience that you had (-) and
91. put it there?
92. S3: Because by giving this makes it more real for the reader…it is
not like
93. an idea, but a real situation.
94. T: Excellent, and so it what?
95. T, Class: It catches the attention of the reader. T: Very good. Another possibility.
S12: Define the topic.
T: Define the topic, yes. Good. You can also use an explanatory question at
the beginning
S4: Or we can use a quote from someone else. (Recorded class transcription)
As seen in these data, dialogic interaction with peers
and teacher allowed the students not only to analyse
generic features, but also to establish dialogic communication; in this
dialogue, the students’ subjectivity (Baynham,
1995) and personal background (Lillis, 2001) were very important because they
were able to resort to their knowledge and become active participants in the
social construction of knowledge (Vygotsky, 1978).
Analysis of the texts contributed to building students’ confidence to
write as it was an opportunity to solve doubts and answer questions.
Essay Topic
Selection: A Factor That Boosts Writing
Another important factor that boosted participants’
engagement and positive attitude towards essay writing was the opportunity to
choose the topics. This allowed participants to express their ideas more fully
and relate to the text in a closer way. The students viewed this opportunity as
innovative in their writing experience because, as found in the questionnaires
and interviews, in previous courses it was the teacher who chose for them, and
as a result they felt restricted as to expressing their feelings and
unenthusiastic to write. A comparative quantitative analysis of students’
responses in the first and final questionnaire showed that students felt they
could express their ideas, feelings, and points of view more during this study
than before (see Table 1).
Table 1 shows an important shift
in the participants’ degree of agreement with the question. Although in
the two questionnaires the general opinion remained between “Agree”
and “Completely agree,” there was a higher degree of agreement when
referring to the writing experience they had in the study. The qualitative data
collected through the questionnaires and the interviews showed that the change
in students’ opinion was due to the possibility to choosing the topics of
the essays. Participants felt confident to express their ideas more freely
about topics that they liked, that were interesting to them, and most of all,
which they could choose themselves:
S5: I agree with
the fact that this course let me express my ideas, feelings and points of view
because it was a space where we had this possibility thanks to the chance to
choose our own topics. (2nd questionnaire)
Choosing the topic was revealed to be an opportunity
for self-expression and an encouraging factor for writing. As participants were
able to choose what they would write about, their confidence to write their
essays was improved:
140. T: S12, you said that you felt confident and
comfortable when you
141. wrote. Why was that?
142. S12: Mainly, because of the topic. I think that when we know about
143. something, we can develop it in a well manner, a
well way.
144. T: What do you mean “in a good manner”?
145. S12: That for example we can use some strong arguments or to bring several
146. examples about something that we know well. We
have more elements to enrich the essay. (3rd interview)
Being able to choose the topic helped the students to
gain control of what they said and how they said it. Knowing about the topic
was an important factor that contributed to building up students’ confidence
when writing because it helped them to draw upon ideas and present arguments
that came from their voice-as-experience (Lillis, 2001).
Conclusions
and Pedagogical Implications
The data showed that the genre-based activities had
two main roles in the students’ construction of argumentative essays when
writing was understood as a situated social practice. On the one hand, they
provided support to the participants and on the other,
they fostered encouragement to approach the act of writing.
As to the first role, the data showed that there were
three ways in which the genre-based activities supported the
participants’ undertaking of writing. First, the dialogic interaction
that emerged during the different stages of the writing cycles, among the
students and between them and the teacher, provided scaffolding opportunities
for the students to construct or refine their arguments; given this type of
interaction, the activities allowed the participants to become active subjects
in supporting their peers and enriching their essays at the same time. Second,
the possibility of drafting and redrafting was shown to be an innovative
activity in the study which aided the students to start looking at writing as a
process, not as a product. At the same time, this activity provided them with
the opportunity to meet the generic features of essays and improve their
writing skills. Third, the essay samples analysed in
class were revealed by the data to be facilitators in writing; they were
reliable sources for students to consult and shape their texts with regard to
generic features such as formulaic sequences and text structure. The use of
samples also fostered students’ decision-making in writing by choosing
the elements that helped them meet the genre features and at the same time keep
their texts original and personal; hence, blind imitation of templates was
avoided.
As to the second role, the genre-based activities
generated confidence and positive attitudes towards writing because of two main
factors. First, the discovery of the generic features through explicit analysis
and exploration of the essay samples helped students to become aware of how to
take on the act of writing argumentative essays; this explicit discovery helped
them to improve their perception of writing and undertake this literacy
practice in a more confident way. Second, the possibility of choosing a topic
to write about was a boosting factor for students to engage in writing; the
opportunity to express their points of view with regard to a topic that the
participants themselves chose was an encouraging factor which helped them to
improve their confidence to write as they gained control of what they said and
how they said it.
Carrying out a project in which argumentative writing
is approached as a situated social practice and framed within a genre-based
perspective implies promoting teaching and learning processes that respond to
local needs. Writing essays becomes more meaningful when it is approached from
a situated perspective, and when students can identify with their texts either
because the issues affect them directly as people of the world or because they
feel interested in the topics. By experiencing this, students may be able to
focus on their sociocultural and personal context in a more direct way; they
may be able to name, create and re-create personal experiences which allow
them, as Chapetón (2007) states, to understand
the social nature of the realities that surround them, approach issues from a
critical perspective, and start a meaningful process of transformation of their
reality.
This situated perspective of education calls for a
change in the current paradigms of teacher training and practice within the ELT
community in our country. In the first place, professional development programmes that promote teachers’ reflections on
their own sociocultural contexts should be promoted. As Cárdenas,
González, and Álvarez (2010) claim,
these programmes should encompass and value the
particularities of the communities where teachers come from and must be
coherent with their needs and expectations (own translation, p. 62). By
acknowledging this gap, teachers can start to base their practices on their own
realities and needs instead of importing external knowledge from training programmes that may turn out to be meaningless to their
professional and pedagogical situation.
1 For a comprehensive account of the constructs and
literature review, see Chala and Chapetón
(2012) and Chala (2011).
2 See Chala (2011) for a
detailed description of the instructional design.
3 Codes used: S=Student, T=Teacher.
4 “Mistakes” in this study refer to what
the participants understood as flaws in grammar and vocabulary.
References
Álvarez, T. (2001). Textos expositivo-explicativos y argumentativos
[Argumentative and expository-explanatory
texts]. Barcelona,
ES: Octaedro.
Ariza, A. V.
(2005). The process-writing approach: An alternative to guide the
students’ compositions. PROFILE
Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 6(1), 37-46.
Bastian, H. (2010). The genre effect: Exploring the unfamiliar. Composition Studies, 38(1), 29-51.
Baynham, M. (1995). Literacy practices: Investigating
literacy in social contexts. New York, NY: Longman.
Bruner, J., & Sherwood, V. (1975). Peek-a-boo and the learning of rule
structures. In J. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play: Its role in development and evolution
(pp. 277-285). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books.
Burns, A. (2003). Collaborative
action research for English language teachers (3rd ed.).
Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cárdenas, M. L., González,
A., & Álvarez, J. A. (2010). El desarrollo profesional de los
docentes de inglés en ejercicio: algunas consideraciones conceptuales
para Colombia [In Service English Teachers’
Professional Development: Some
conceptual considerations for
Colombia]. Folios, 31, 49-68.
Chaisiri, T. (2010). Implementing a genre pedagogy to the teaching
of writing in a university context in Thailand. Language Education in Asia, 1, 181-199.
Chala, P. A.
(2011). Going beyond
the linguistic and the textual in argumentative essay writing: A critical
approach (Unpublished master’s thesis). Universidad
Pedagógica Nacional, Bogotá.
Chala, P. A., & Chapetón, C. M.
(2012). EFL argumentative essay writing as a situated-social
practice: A review of concepts. Folios,
36, 23-36.
Chapetón, C. M. (2007). Literacy as a
resource to build resiliency. Bogotá, CO: Editorial Universidad Pedagógica
Nacional.
Corbin, J., &
Strauss, A. (1990). Basics of qualitative research. Grounded
theory procedures and techniques. London, UK: Sage.
Correa, D. (2010). Developing academic literacy and
voice: Challenges faced by a mature ESL student and her instructors. PROFILE Issues in Teachers’ Professional
Development, 12(1), 79-94.
Gee, J. (2008). Social
linguistics and literacies. Ideology in discourses.
(3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Goatly, A. (2000). Critical
reading and writing. An introductory coursebook. London, UK: Routledge.
Grundy, S. (1987). Curriculum: Product or praxis?
London, UK: Falmer Press.
Hyland, K. (2004). Genre
and second language writing. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
Press.
Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2004). Educational
research. Quantitative,
qualitative, and mixed approaches.
Boston, MA: Pearson.
Lillis, T. M. (2001). Student writing:
Access, regulation, desire. New York, NY: Routledge.
Lin, S., Monroe, B., & Troia,
G. (2007). Development of writing
knowledge in grades 2-8: A comparison of typically developing writers and their
struggling peers. Reading and Writing
Quarterly, 23(3), 207-230.
Morrison, B. (2010). Developing a culturally-relevant
genre-based writing course for distance learning. Language Education in Asia, 1, 171-180.
Nanwani, S. (2009). Linguistic challenges lived by university students in Bogotá in
the development of academic literacy. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 11, 136-148.
Ramírez, L. A. (2007). Comunicación y discurso. La perspectiva
polifónica de los discursos literarios, cotidianos y científicos
[Communication and discourse.
The polyphonic perspective of
literary, scientific, and daily discourses]. Bogotá, CO: Editorial Magisterio.
Sagor, R. (2000).
Guiding school
improvement with action research. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Sagor, R. (2005).
The action research guidebook: A
four-step process for educators and school teams. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Sandin, M. P. (2003). Investigación cualitativa en educación: fundamentos y tradiciones [Qualitative research in education:
foundations and traditions]. Madrid, ES: McGraw Hill.
Street, C. (2003). Pre-service teachers’ attitudes about writing
and learning to teach writing: Implications for teacher educators. Teacher Education Quarterly, 30(3), 33-50.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind
in society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
White, R., & Arndt, V. (1991). Process
Writing. London, UK: Longman.
Widodo, H. P.
(2006). Designing a genre-based lesson plan for an academic
writing course. English Teaching:
Practice & Critique, 5(3), 173-199.
Zúñiga, G., & Macías,
D. (2006). Refining
students’ academic writing skills in an undergraduate foreign language
teaching. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje
y Cultura, 11(17), 311-336.
About the
Authors
Pedro Antonio Chala Bejarano is a teacher of English at Pontificia
Universidad Javeriana (Colombia). He holds a BA in
Philology and Languages (Universidad Nacional de
Colombia) and an MA in Foreign Language Teaching (Universidad Pedagógica Nacional,
Colombia). His professional interests include EFL writing and materials design.
He has authored school and university EFL teaching materials.
Claudia Marcela Chapetón is an associate professor at Universidad Pedagógica
Nacional (Colombia). She holds a BA in English and
Spanish, an MA in Applied Linguistics (Universidad Distrital
Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia), and a PhD in Applied Linguistics
(University of Barcelona, Spain). Her research interests include literacy,
metaphor, and corpus linguistics. She has authored EFL teaching materials and
textbooks.
Appendix A: First Questionnaire Sample
Appendix B: Second Questionnaire Sample
Appendix C: Sample Interview Protocol
First
Semi-Structured Interview
Research Question:
What is the role of a set of writing tasks in the
creation of argumentative texts by high intermediate students in the Bachelor
Degree in Modern Languages programme at Universidad Javeriana when writing is understood as a situated social
practice?
Interview Schedule
