Explicit Writing Instruction : A Genre-based Analysis for Developing Scaffolding for Diploma Project Writing

Abstract: With an increase of Swedish upper-secondary students’ motivation to enrol in university studies (Statistics Sweden, 2020a, 2020b), teachers must ensure that learners are adequately equipped to meet the expectations of higher education. However, in a national report, Skolinspektionen (2015) states many students fail to meet the standards of academic writing when undertaking the diploma project. To ensure learners become eligible for graduation and prepared for university studies, teachers need to be able to instruct pupils and to design effective scaffolding for diploma project writing. Therefore, the following study investigates the applicability of a genre-based model as atool for analysing relevant student-produced researchers papers written by EFL students, and to what extent the same genre-pedagogical analytical framework may be suitable as a tool for helping teachers to develop scaffolding for diploma projects written in English (and other languages). To address questions, a direct content analysis employing John Swales’ CARS model (1990) of rhetorical moves as a conceptual framework as a point of departure was performed on six EFL teacher-student research papers from the English and Education program for upper-secondary teachers of English at Malmö university. The analysis demonstrated that while several moves were executed in the pre-service teachers’ papers, some moves were absent. Additionally, several unconventional moves were identified, which can be attributed to the specific genres of the independent and degree projects. Hence, Swales’ CARS model is applicable for analysing student-produced research papers following the IMRAD structure. However, further investigation is encouraged into the genre-specific features of the student papers and the subsequent adaptation of the model to reflect the student-paper genre more closely. Consequently, to employ the model for designing scaffolding for diploma projects, teachers need to develop a critical understanding of moves employed within and across disciplines and teach them explicitly as part of pupils’ training and assessment in the writing process. Finally, further research targeting how teachers design and implement explicit genre-based writing scaffolding is called for.