Investigating the integration of genre analysis and grammar as skill in the teaching-learning of EFL academic writing

• Grant number: 12/03944-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: July 17, 2012
• End date: January 18, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Eliane Hercules Augusto-Navarro
• Grantee: Eliane Hercules Augusto-Navarro
• Host Investigator: Diane Larsen-Freeman
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Michigan, United States

Abstract

In this project we propose to analyze the integration of two theories that have been (individually) widely discussed in the area of second and foreign language (EFL) teaching: genre analysis (Swales, 1990) and grammar (ing) as skill (Larsen-Freeman, 2003). Our purpose is to investigate the combination of these theories in the teaching (and learning) of EFL academic writing to (by) Brazilian university students. Both theories aim at developing learner's autonomy and we believe that specific genres may be effective in contributing to the creation of meaningful contexts to the teaching and learning of a language. Analyzing linguistic features of a given genre might be especially likely to favor a more comprehensive understanding of appropriate lexicogrammatical string choices. We plan to observe how the participants interact with the proposed practice and evaluate their comprehension of linguistic choices and meanings conveyed in academic texts. (AU)