Investigating EFL students’ attitudes about the use of languaging in theirgenre-based proposal writing course

The article examines the attitudes of EFL students of M.A. TEFL about the use of students’ writtenresponses to teacher’s feedback called metanote or languaging as a mediator of EAP writingimprovement. The treatment sessions of the study were conducted on TEFL students at YazdUniversity. The ultimate goal of this article was to expand the current knowledge about languagingtechnique and its role in students’ perceptions about improving the quality of their researchproposal writings prior to their academic defense of their proposals in the Faculty Departmentsession. To fulfill this, students’ views about the effectiveness of their using of languaging ormetanotes in a genre-based academic writing course were examined. The research samplecomprised ۱۱ graduate students in the field of TEFL at Yazd University. The instrument utilizedwas a questionnaire. The genre-based treatment, using this new educational technique, wasadministered within six sessions which included weekly writing assignments. After theresearcher’s feedback, the students were required to use the technique of languaging in responseto the researcher’s feedback. Following the course, the questionnaire consisting of ۲۴ questions analyzed the students’ attitudes regarding the technique used, their ideas about their improvement after acquiring the new technique of languaging and metanote, as well as their attitudes regarding research proposal writing in general. The data revealed that raising students’ awareness of the genre-based features of the EAP writing contributed to their positive attitudes of the technique of languaging and proposal writing as well as their production of high-quality proposals. Although further examinations are needed, the current study contributed to a better characterization of languaging influence in writing research proposals, articles, theses, and projects in higher education.

Keywords:

Attitudes , EAP Writing , Feedback , Languaging , Metanotes , Proposal Writing