Exploring Undergraduate English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) Students' Knowledge about the Elements in Argumentation and Their EFL Writing Performance

Abstract

For English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students writing in English is a complex process as successful writing performance depends on many factors, such as writing topic, genre, task, linguistic knowledge, motivation, and cognition. Knowledge is believed to be an important ingredient in students’ writing development as it plays a key role in every writing model in first language (L1) and second language (L2) contexts (Graham, 2012). English writing has long been a skill area that has not been given enough time in the EFL curriculum at the tertiary level in China. Because L2 English writing is taught only as a supplement to the university College English courses (Zhang, 2008, 2013, 2016), most EFL teachers complain that there is insufficient time to teach writing; undergraduate students also feel that they do not learn how to write well in EFL. There has been little research, however, into Chinese EFL undergraduate students’ writing development as a result of teachers’ instructional practices in the classroom. Research into students’ prior knowledge and writing performance, as well as any changes that occur through writing instruction and practice, is needed (Wette, 2017). The purpose of this study, therefore, was to address this gap in the research. Adopting a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design this intervention research, over an eight-week writing course from September 2016 to November 2016, included an experimental group (N = 59) and a comparison group (N = 59), with 118 undergraduate students. The study focused on changes of Chinese undergraduates’ knowledge and writing performance in argumentation in an English writing course after engaging in genre-based writing practices to enhance students’ genre knowledge and writing performance. The experimental group was taught with a genre-based writing approach and the comparison group experienced their conventional writing instruction. Data were collected through pre-and post- classroom writing tests, L2 genre knowledge questionnaires, and interviews. To establish the changes in EFL students’ knowledge of argumentation, 118 participants completed pre- and post-test stimulated recall questionnaires and 8 of these participants had stimulated recall interviews. To assess L2 students’ writing development, 236 argumentative written texts were collected, which included 118 pre-test writing texts and 118 post-test writing texts. To analyse the data, Tardy’s (2009) Genre Knowledge Model was used to examine Chinese EFL students’ knowledge about argumentative writing from three dimensions: Formal knowledge, process knowledge, and rhetorical knowledge. Analysis of the data revealed a positive change in the experimental group students’ knowledge about argumentation following the genre-based writing treatment. The change was more evident in the way they displayed their knowledge of the structure of discourse moves and language features specific to the argumentative genre than their expressed knowledge about the content, process, and the argumentative “genre’s intended purposes” and audience awareness. Genre-based writing instruction was more effective overall than the conventional writing approach and enhanced students’ self-reflection on their knowledge of argumentation. There was also a positive effect of the genre-based approach on students’ argumentative writing development, including discourse move structure, writing substance, and overall writing quality than the conventional writing approach in helping students to write an argumentation. Viewed holistically, the nature of students’ positive changes in genre knowledge indicated that two patterns of knowledge development helped to raise students’ writing performance after both the genre-based and conventional writing instruction. That is, students’ more essential knowledge of argumentation about every component, and their development of aggregated knowledge elements about argumentation, appeared to have mediated their performance in argumentative writing. The findings have implications for understanding students’ writing development and provide empirical evidence of the benefits of the genre-based approach used in this study in enhancing Chinese EFL students’ genre knowledge and writing performance. The limitations of this research and recommendations for future studies are also discussed.