Resumen de Analyzing Genre Exemplars in Preparation for Writing: The Case of an L2 Graduate Student in the ESP Genre-based Instructional Framework of Academic Literacy
Some researchers believe that the ESP genre-based framework of writing instruction is effective in teaching discipline-specific English EAP writing to L2 learners, especially to advanced L2 graduate students. However, studies examining students’ genre-based learning in such a framework are still underrepresented in current ESP genre-based literature. This study focused on a Chinese-speaking graduate student in electrical engineering who analyzed genre exemplars in preparation for writing. My analysis of the data reveals this student's two prominent and interrelated ways of analyzing the discourse-level generic features in discipline-specific genre exemplars. They are (a) rhetorical, as evidenced in his consistent attention not only to the generic features, but also to the underlying rhetorical parameters, such as reader, writer, and purpose and (b) evaluative, as shown in his increasingly sophisticated evaluation of the discourse-level generic features in the genre exemplars. The student's rhetorical and evaluative reading of the genre exemplars highlights the potential power of genre as an explicit, supportive tool for building academic literacy.
