The impact of process-genre oriented instruction on essay writing: a case of third year students of English language at Biskra University

Abstract

Students of English at Biskra University consider essay writing as a heavy burden that they have to cope with. Moreover, essay instruction still relies on product-oriented approach, yet writing practitioners recently highlights its failure to develop writing. This approach fails to develop students’ writing and to raise their awareness of the importance of processing essay writing and the target genre features. To promote their essay writing, an instructional approach is required to be integrated in EFL classes of Biskra University. Instead, process-genre oriented approach offers its practical principles that can develop writing in terms of its process and genre knowledge. The present study is administered to investigate the effects of adopting this synthesized approach into EFL classes of writing in Biskra University. It further investigates its effects on the five aspects of essay writing: content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. It also explores its effects on the students’ knowledge of genre features, purpose and audience. Third year students (N=116) participate in the present study: (N=63) students form the experimental group, and (N=53) students form the control group. The experimental group is exposed to process-genre oriented instruction while the control group receives product oriented instruction. A set of procedures are taken in the light of results obtained from a pilot study that takes place with a group of (N=25) volunteers from third year classes. Three research instruments are used to collect data in the present study. First, t-tests are conducted with the two groups: experimental and control. Second, a post-experiment questionnaire administered with experimental group further supports the t-tests scores, for it evaluates the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards academic writing. Third, classroom observation also reports their writing performance in their classrooms. Based on the analysis of data, process-genre oriented approach proves to be an effective instructional approach to EFL writing classes of Biskra University.