Teaching Argumentative Writing Using the Genre-Based Approach in the Malaysian ESL Classroom: An Experimental Study

Brandah, Saet (2004) Teaching Argumentative Writing Using the Genre-Based Approach in the Malaysian ESL Classroom: An Experimental Study. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This study sought to find out the effects of teaching using the Genre-Based Approach on the argumentative writing of Form 4 students of a tuition centre. The students received hours of instruction from the researcher which completed a teaching and learning cycle of the approach. The study explored the effect of the approach on the overall performance of students writing argument texts, features of writing that improved as a result of the treatment and students' attitude towards writing and language learning using the approach. The findings in this study were based on data collected from the pre- and post�tests which were marked by two independent assessors, one with the knowledge of genre�based approach and using the marking grid prepared by the researcher and one without the knowledge of the approach but with years of experience teaching upper secondary classes and who marked the papers holistically. The means scores of the two tests were compared using the t-test of significance. In addition, the comments given by the assessors on each student' essays were analyzed to find out the features of writing improved. An additional instrument used in this study was a survey and students' journal entries. Both the survey questions and journal entries scripts were analysed to find students' attitudes towards writing and language learning in using the approach. The findings shows that students were able to write more effectively after the treatment. The t-tests of significance showed that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of the two tests. The features of writing that improved greatly were: the generic structure, modality, connectives, passives and nominalisation. However, areas of subject�verb agreement and spelling did not show much improvement. Another interesting income of this study was that students found that teaching and learning in using the approach is more interesting and useful in that they are more confident about writing texts than before.

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