Moving Against the Grain: Exploring Genre-Based Pedagogy in a New Context

Considerable literature explores the contribution of genre teaching in English academic writing. The role of this approach in developing academic writing of Iranian EFL students, however, has been underresearched. This study investigated the implications of using this approach with a class of undergraduate students in Iran. The current study reports on the findings of a project which employed a text-based cyclical teaching and learning method to teach argumentative genres, that is, exposition and discussion. Findings suggest rapid changes in appropriate mode of meaning making for developing macrostructures of such genres and a sharp decline in deploying unknown rhetorical strategies. Quantitative analysis of micronominalized features also shows some developments after the application of the genre teaching pedagogy.