Raising Process-Genre Awareness: A Proposal of ESP Writing Lesson Plan

Abstract

Studies on EFL writing in the literature have shed light on process or genre approach of teaching writing to college or secondary EFL learners (Bhatia, 1999; Cheng, 2006; Chen & Su, 2012; Guo, 2005; Hyland, 2003, 2007; Swales, 1990). To date, scarce related works have centered on improv-ing the EFL writing of the Chinese visiting scholars, who have a strong motivation to publish articles in English. These scholars generally attend an ESP training program before living and conducting research in English-medium countries for one year. This proposed lesson plan is designed as a sample session of one core course, ESP Writing, of the training program, this proposed lesson plan is designed as one component of such training program, synthesizing the process approach and genre approach of teaching writing to a group of non-English majored Chinese visiting scholars. It is primarily aimed to raise these college teachers’ awareness of the significance of purposes, author-reader relationship, expectations, genre features and functions, cultural differences, and the impacts of how the author chooses to consider these factors. This sample lesson plan seeks to exemplify a synthesis of process-genre approach instead of traditional writing instruction in this writing course. This specific EFL writing lesson plan thus describes tasks and activities in great detail following a process-genre approach of teaching and learning. The scholars are assigned to write a request email in stages such as prewriting, co-construction, peer review, and proofreading. It employs innovative teaching methods to help students write purposely, appropriately, and ef-fectively. Various recourses are used as input such as online authentic data and native speakers’ testimonies to create an authentic specific context for students to recognize the significance of purposeful writing. Specific procedures are suggested for instructors to incorporate process-genre approach into their teaching experience.