Teaching Academic Writing To Science And Engineering Students: A Genre-based Approach

The last decade has seen increasing attention given to notion of genre and itsapplication in language teaching and leaning, and the genre approach has thereforehad considerable impact on the ways we see language use and on teaching around theworld. Conscious of the need for the science and engineering students to overcomelinguistic and schematic difficulties in English writing for academic purposes, theauthor of this thesis discusses the teaching of EFL writing with a strong desire to findeffective approaches to it. The author first presents the gap found in the science andengineering students between their fundamental English and subject-based English,the current unoptimistic teaching situation, and then advocates genre-based approachby reviewing the main writing teaching approaches in history. So far the teachingmethodology of EFL writing in China, specifically in University of Electronic Scienceand Technology of China(UESTC), still remains product and process approach,although the outcomes of these two approaches are not as effective as expected,especially for the learners in the professional settings. The purpose of this thesis is toconsider the application of the genre-based approach to EFL writing in China, inparticular for those who use English for academic purposes. Developed on the basis ofproduct approach, the genre-based approach takes advantage of the discourseapproach and genre approach with the aim of solving the problem of academic writingboth linguistically and generically. Following this approach, the teacher can providegenre-based models for writing indirectly by encouraging good reading habits,thinking patterns and directly, when appropriate, by analyzing textual characteristics.Having access to authentic text models, students also acquire the ability to selectappropriate content and language to fulfill the communicative task on hand andbecome aware of text genres: not simply of generic conventions, but of genre in thewider sense of communicative events or acts.