LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:8 August 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Exploring the Teaching Effects of Curriculum Cycle on
Students’ Mastery of Generic Structure of Persuasion

Feng Chen, Ph.D. ELT

Abstract

This study takes one of most common genres in school settings — Persuasion as the target of study to explore Chinese university students’ individual genre writing ability development from the perspectives of following the generic structure, with the purpose of providing hints for Chinese university students’ genre writing ability development and enriching the studies of genre-based pedagogy. 34 English majors took part in the study and the linguistic analysis based on the designed persuasion generic structure analysis template was used to analyze the writings.

By comparing students’ pre- and post-test writings, the study found that the participants made great changes in the post-test, and they had a good mastery of the generic structure of persuasion. Nearly all the writings in the post-test realized the social purpose of persuasion, more writings learned to use effective points and elaborations to illustrate their arguments, more writings added the optional and minor elements of generic structure such as providing background information, stating the problem, previewing, and reviewing the arguments. Besides, there are some creations for the generic structure: some writings had creation in the title; some writings used such questions as the background information or stating the problem in the introduction part to arouse the readers’ interests or curiosity; some writings added appeal of actions in the conclusion part except for the important elements listed in the reiteration part.

Keywords: Chinese universities, curriculum cycle, generic structure, persuasion

Introduction

In the English teaching context of Chinese universities, language input skills of listening and reading are emphasized and practiced more than the output skills of writing and speaking owing to the standards of traditional testing systems. Hence, writing becomes the most difficult skill for students to master and it’s usually the lowest score-getting skill in some national university English language tests, such as the College English Test Band 4 and 6 (CET 4 and CET 6) in China. In these decades, researchers and teachers are always finding the most suitable approach to writing and the writing instruction theories have experienced several stages of development.

The first is the product approach to writing, frequently used since the 1960s, emphasizing accuracy of language forms based on the idea that learning is the product of forming habits (Silva, 1990). In this approach, writing is largely about linguistic knowledge with focused attention on correct use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices (Pincas, 1982a). Imitation is the typical feature for students to learn in this approach. But it also has obvious weaknesses, among which, the most obvious one is that students’ process skills play a small role, thus making learners’ knowledge poorly understood by. In general, under the guidance of the product approach, the teachers usually present language structures in a text and then students imitate. After various experiments and teaching practices, this teacher-focused approach was quickly obsolete.

Then, in the 1970s, people found that the product approach had more and more disadvantages and began to shift to a new writing teaching approach. In the1980s, English as a second language (ESL) writing gradually moved from a language-based approach to the process approach. Process approach focuses on the writer, specifically on the creative thinking that demonstrates the non-linear process a writer uses in writing. It provides much interaction among students, peers, and the teacher. Compared with emphasis on the form of language in product approach, the process approach focuses on the writer’s thoughts and the importance of repeated thinking, and pays less attention to readers (Silvia, 1990). For quite a long period, even to now, product approach has been accepted and applied to English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) writing classes because of its effectiveness. However, one drawback of process approach is that all text types (e.g., informal letter, research report) follow the same steps and procedures (i.e. prewriting, composing/drafting, revising, editing etc.). But this approach does not reflect the social context and social purpose of particular text types.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Feng Chen, Ph.D. ELT
Department of English, Graduate School of Human Sciences
Assumption University, Thailand
406956449@qq.com
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