Promoting Genre Knowledge of Writing M.A. Research Proposal: The Case of EFL Students of Applied Linguistics

There has been ongoing controversy over the effectiveness of explicit genre instruction, and relatively scant attention has been paid to the explicit genre-based instruction of an academic research paper’s whole sections simultaneously, construed as different genres. This study focused on instruction of generic sections of the M.A. research proposal (RP). The participants were 22 graduate students majoring in TEFL at an Iranian state university. Based on the findings of a needs analysis questionnaire administered at the beginning of the semester, students were taught how to write an RP. Employing different models (i.e., Swales, 1990; Pho, 2008; Lore, 2004), the moves and steps of different sections of an RP in conjunction with the related lexico-grammatical features were inductively highlighted. The students’ first proposals submitted at the beginning of the semester and final proposals submitted at the end of the semester were compared. Results revealed the explicit genre-based instruction promoted students’ genre acquisition as well as some aspects of writing competence. While students appeared to have an uncertain view of an RP in their first proposals as they missed some of the moves, especially Establish a Niche, in their final proposals they catered for different moves and the related steps to indicate their relative grasp of an RP pattern for its communicative purpose realization. Correspondingly, in an open-ended questionnaire, students contended their expertise and self-confidence in writing and reading academic texts significantly increased due to the awareness-raising activities. The pedagogical findings of the study are highlighted.