Developing EFL students’ academic literacies in writing through genre-based Pedagogie

Abstract EN

The area of academic literacy/ies has become a major concern in higher education.

There is a call for serious engagements in order to develop students’ academic literacies’ knowledge, awareness and practice.

University teachers face ongoing educational concerns and challenges related to academic literacies in writing; these concerns are usually overlooked and university students find themselves exposed to limited discipline-related, discourse-related or genrerelated literacies.

The study of genre in academic contexts has contributed to gain a better understanding of the role that different writing genres play in students’ literacy enculturation process and academic success.

These genres reflect certain specific practices in different disciplines, and different ways of knowing and doing things.

Students are usually felt to be unprepared for academic tasks, and this lack of readiness is related to their inadequate levels in academic literacies.

In response to this, teachers usually feel urged to find better ways of teaching writing and to offer support for under-prepared students to reduce the risk in being academically less, or even not, appropriate or successful.

In other words, there are many academic literacy challenges for both teachers and students; these challenges reflect serious concerns related to the students’ academic success, and they mainly involve students’ lack of mastery of academic discourse norms and conventions, reading and analysis of writing genres (constant exposure), knowledge related to text writing in order to construct social identities within given discourse communities and so forth.

The first aim of the present research paper is to review the literature in order to explore the definition of academic literacy, its theories and the nature of its acquisition.

The second aim of the research involves a discussion of the main approach adopted to teach academic writing in tertiary education.

It places focus on discussing, analyzing and reflecting upon the most appropriate approach that writing teachers should adopt to help promote EFL students’ academic literacy (ies) and writing proficiency in their disciplines.

Last, but not least, the present research draws upon advancing the adoption of the genre pedagogy in approaching the teaching of academic writing to EFL students for purposes of improving and boosting their academic literacies in writing