Using an SFL Genre-based Approach to Raise Undergraduate Students' Critical Awareness of Context and Register Features of Nursing Texts

ABSTRACT:Worldwide and Colombian university students must develop and demonstrate English writing proficiency for social, academic, and professional purposes across educational contexts and situations. Pre-process, process, and post-process approaches have fostered university students’ academic writing proficiency (AWP). The effectiveness of post-process approaches, such as genre-based, to develop AWP has been well documented among L1 English learners. In Colombia, process and product-based approaches have predominated to foster AWP, especially in teacher education programs. However, experts have claimed that more knowledge is needed on the effects of SFL genre-based approaches (GBA) among EFL/ESL learners. Although research interest has emerged in the field, little is known on their effects among students in the disciplines, or its potential limitations. This exploratory case study aimed to evaluate the usefulness, effectiveness, and limitations of genre-based instruction and the Curriculum Cycle (CC) to develop AWP of nine EFL students at an English Composition course of one professional development program at a Colombian public university. Using video recordings of lessons, artifacts, and group interviews, data helped identify, describe, map, and explain the effects of GBI over students’ AWP and the approach’s limitations. Data analysis, supported on NVivo10 and Microsoft Excel, included codification and categorization using functional grammar theories. Results showed that the effectiveness of the approach outweighed its limitations, as reflected in learners’ systematic development of AWP to write expository essays with textual features of argumentative essays and functional language of English academic writing. Main limitations resided in learning some functional grammar concepts in modeling, task choice in joint construction, negative effects of new topic exploration in independent writing, and higher writing expectations over social interaction. Here, I discuss that genre-based writing instruction is a powerful methodological approach to teach academic genres. In spite of its potential for this purpose, more access to pedagogical innovations as GBA should be given to students in teacher education programs and the disciplines for academic and professional mobility. I offer some methodological proposals toward more effective GB instruction and CC implementation. Finally, RESUMEN: La instrucción lectora en Colombia se ha centrado principalmente en la enseñanza de las habilidades de lectura y gramática general. A pesar de algunos intentos que se han hecho para ir más allá de este modelo, familiarizar a los estudiantes con el contexto universitario y registrar las características de los textos privilegiados en sus disciplinas y comprometerlos en la lectura crítica de estos textos ha sido ampliamente ignorado. En respuesta a este vacío, este estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar en qué medida los enfoques SFL (Lingüística sistémico funcional) basados en género podría ayudar a un grupo de estudiantes de enfermería de una universidad pública en Medellín, Colombia, al aumento de la conciencia crítica del contexto y registrar las características de los textos de enfermería en Inglés. Los datos recogidos incluyen grabaciones de vídeo de las lecciones, audio-grabaciones de interacciones en el aula entre profesores y estudiantes, entrevistas de audio grabadas con los estudiantes. Los resultados de este estudio sugieren que un enfoque SFL basado en el género de hecho puede ayudar a los estudiantes a familiarizarse con el contexto y registrar las características de los textos académicos, y a ser más críticos con estos textos. Sin embargo, para implementar este enfoque se requiere del compromiso y preparación de los instructores para análizar y enseñar el contexto relevante y registrar las características de los textos disciplinares más importantes para los estudiantes en el área específica de estudio