Pre-university academic literacy: promoting 12th graders’ mastery of academic argumentative essays

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of and students’ attitude towards Genre-Based pedagogy as an approach for developing 12th graders’ control of argumentative essays of the analytical exposition type. The study was carried out with a class of 12th grade students at Colegio Hebreo Unión, a private school located in Barranquilla, Colombia. The study follows an action research methodology oriented towards the improvement of 12th graders' academic writing skills, a goal set after diagnosing their difficulties through prior class work and writing tests. Data were collected through observations, interviews, surveys, diaries, class recording, worksheet and text output. Results pointed to students’ positive perception of Genre-Based pedagogy as an approach to the development of argumentative writing skills, since students perceived it to meet their expectations and needs as learners. A positive effect was found for implementing Genre-Based pedagogy since students demonstrated an enhanced ability to improve their language, structure their arguments and to integrate academic voices into the discourse at the end of the implementation period.