AKIKO NAGAO (RYUKOKU UNIVERSITY )

LONGITUDINAL OUTCOMES OF A GENRE-BASED APPROACH ON EFL WRITING PERFORMANCE : ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC/SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Previous studies have indicated that a Genre-based Approach (GBA) to second language (L2) writing, informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), enhances the writing skills of English as a Second Language (EFL) learners. Yet, follow-up research on learners' writing performance post-instruction is scarce. This study addresses this gap by examining the long-term effects of GBA-SFL on EFL writing. A cohort of 23 university students, previously enrolled in a GBA-SFL L2 writing course in 2020 or 2021, participated in this study, along with five non-GBA participants for comparison. Phase 1 employed a 60-minute timed task, requiring participants to write a discussion genre academic essay, which was assessed using the SFL framework and transitivity analysis via the UAM Corpus tool. Phase 2 involved semi-structured interviews where participants analyzed their pre and post-essays from 2021 or 2022, and delayed post-essays from 2024, using thematic analysis. Results from Phase 1 demonstrated sustained comprehension of essay structure and lexico-grammatical features typical of discussion genre essays, such as contrastive conjunctions. Phase 2 findings indicated that a majority identified their most recent essay was the academic essay. Overall, the GBA-SFL methodology has the potential to cultivate successful academic essay writing skills among EFL learners.

Dr. Akiko Nagao serves as a lecturer at Ryukoku University, Japan. Her research interests encompass L2 academic writing, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the Genre-Based Approach (GBA) in classroom instruction, and strategies for effective writing assessment.