Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License eISSN 2721-5016 | pISSN 2721-5024 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v3i1.13538 Volume 3 | Number 1 | p. 25-35 Published on February 22th, 2022 25 The effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction Farshid Sarmadi-Kia, Nader Assadi Aydinloo, Masood Zoghi Republic of Iran *) correspondence: itrdadgan@yahoo.com Abstract This study aimed at investigating the effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction. For this purpose, the researcher selected 38 EFL learners through administration of Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and assigned them into experimental and control groups and both groups took an oral reproduction pre-test. Then, in the control group, only common class procedures such as pair work, small-group discussion, and whole class discussion were applied whereas in the experimental group, SFL-based genre analysis of the short stories was conducted by the teacher. At the end of the study, both groups took the post-test. The results of the study revealed a higher amount of increase in the fluency and accuracy scores of the participants in the experimental group in comparison to the control group. The findings of the present study can be advantageous for teachers, syllabus designers, curriculum developers, and Ministry of Education in developing genre-based course for language learners. Keywords: SFL-based Genre Instruction, Story Reproduction, Fluency, Accuracy INTRODUCTION In the recent years, the position of literature in the realm of language teaching has been faced with paramount inattention. Due to the inadequacy of literary-based models of language teaching for developing basic language skills, the tendency toward adopting structural or functional approaches have been increased. This led to the reduction or complete elimination of the role of literature in language instruction. However, language teachers do not refuse the matchless position of literature in language learners’ enhancement, motivation, and gratification. The widespread view, nevertheless, is that a noticeable amount of linguistic competence is a necessary condition to useful literary study that sociocultural variations impose additional impediments to understanding, and that literary study should be postponed for the higher levels of language proficiency. The consequence is that in many EFL contexts, including Iran, literature is accessible as a course of study to only the specific minority who go to the university and who decide to study it as a university major. It is predictable that the literature courses are overlooked and more regrettable that other students have limited access to literature in spite of their lengthy studies of English as well as the linguistic, cultural and philosophical wealth which is the inherent characteristics of literature. Accordingly, the experience of language learners on English is narrowed down to functional models of language use, is a deformed one which is not representative. As one of the outstanding literary media to use language, short stories follow a significant purpose and this is sharing a message. Short story is a type of brief and to the point fictional prose in comparison to novel, and is categorized under narrative genre. Although short stories are analyzed in the scope of literary studies, other methods of analysis can also be applied in their analysis. One of these methods of analysis of short stories is SFL which can pave the way for their understanding and interpretation since the short story is a type of linguistic data and language can be described using linguistic description models (Widdowson, 1975). Traditional approaches to the study of short stories consider text analysis and an interpretive task during which language learners acquire to read a story and attempt to discuss their own understanding of the meanings made by the writer in the story (Eggins, 2004). On the other hand, the researcher in the present study, through implementation of SFL-based analysis of the short stories, http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v3i1.13538 Farshid Sarmadi-Kia, Nader Assadi Aydinloo, Masood Zoghi 26 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License not only attempts to give an insight to the learners regarding the way they can interpret the story but also wants to establish an explanation of both ‘WHAT’ and ‘HOW’ the short stories mean. This can help EFL learners effectively comprehend the stories and observe the constructedness of the short story text and of the reading position blown upon them by the story writer. EFL class syllabi in Iranian schools rarely concentrate on the production of spoken discourse (Tabatabaei & Hadi, 2011). Because of the difficulty of studying speaking, it was easier for teachers, methodologists, applied linguists and linguists to focus on written than spoken language (Zhang, 2013). Iranian EFL learners are not special cases and have difficulty with the English language (Gholami, 2011). This is mirrored in their achievement in the examination; their scores are mostly very low in all English language skills, especially in speaking. Iranian learners often hesitate to speak English because they have problems using fluent and accurate language. It is likely that in Iran, EFL learners are suffering from authentic material shortage and unsystematic teaching methods. Literature includes literary pieces which were written artistically and all of needed factors can be found in it. It seems that, one of the most valuable disciplines of literature, we are also familiar with it in our mother’s lullaby at childhood in our mother tongue, is short story. Short story includes ordinary events, conversations, meetings, episodes, experiences, characters, actions, fantasy and so on. The value of short story as significant source of literature, cultural knowledge, and linguistic elements is expected to improve students’ speaking performance based on our experience in mother tongue. Accordingly, the researcher took an SFL genre-based instruction approach in the present study to examine how much and how EFL learners’ story reproduction ability improves through increasing their awareness of the language choices made by proficient writers to achieve certain goals throughout the story. Based on the goals of the study, the following research questions were posed: 1. Is there any significant difference between the effects of SFL genre-based instruction and traditional method on the fluency of Iranian EFL learners’ story reproduction? 2. Is there any significant difference between the effects of SFL genre-based instruction and traditional method on the accuracy of Iranian EFL learners’ story reproduction? REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE Systemic Functional Linguistics The formal proposal of the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) was made by British Linguist Halliday in 1960s. According to Martin (2016), the article entitled Categories of the Theory of Grammar (Halliday, 1961) was the paper establishing the concept of SFL. Although there is no doubt that Halliday is the father of this theory, the theory has roots in the works of Firth in 1950s. Halliday after studying the works of Firth considered language as a full functional system in context and contrasted it with Chomsky’s Universal Grammar (Choi, 2013; Matthiessen, 2012). Chapman and Rutledge (2009) claim that Firth saw language as a group of events uttered by the speaker, a manner of action, and a way of performing things, and in this way did not accept the concepts of ‘langue’ and ‘parole’ proposed by Saussure and ‘competence’ and ‘performance’ pointed out by Chomsky. Halliday developed the theory of SFL through taking the concept of language as a system from Firth and combining it with Malinowski’s concepts of ‘context of situation’ and ‘context of culture’ (Choi, 2013). In Eggins’ (2004) idea, it was through addition of information about situation and cultural contexts that the linguistic events turned to be explainable. According to her, the only condition for making language comprehensible was placing it within the related context of situation. Eggins adds that Malinowski proposed an explanation of language that considers both function (having concern for reasons for using language) and semantic (taking into account the ways language means). Although the concepts of ‘context of situation’ and ‘context of culture’ were Malinowski’s proposal as essential for the proper understanding of the text, Firth extended the concept of ‘context of situation’ (Halliday & Hasan, 1989). He welcomed the probability of generating a theory of meaning in context and maintained that it could be stretched to the more extensive notion of linguistics of predictability. Eggins (2004) points out that, to Firth, the knowledge of the context could permit to http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction 27 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License anticipate what language will be exploited. Unquestionably, Malinowski’s opinions led to the appearance of a new horizon for reflection about linguistics but they were not adequately convincing to be regarded a theory. Firth’s input resulted in the development of a framework for theory generation. Halliday and Hasan assert that some of his followers, including Mitchell and Hymes worked on the basis of his framework. In other words, through redefining and elevating the concepts proposed by Malinowski and Firth, Halliday constructed a theory which could be applied to both language and society. Manfredi (2014) believes that SFL is as social theory as much as it is a linguistic theory. Prior to elucidating the way language is analyzed by the lens of SFL theory, two further concepts have to be explained. Vital to understand the association between context of situation and context of culture are the concepts of genre and register. Genre is the connecter of text to the context of culture whereas register refers to the way language is realized in the context of situation. Eggins (2004) asserts that the connection of texts to their cultural contexts is through the notion of genre and their link to their context of situation through the notion of register. Morley (2000) elucidating the condition of the relationship between the notion of genre and cultural context asserts that the social and cultural background of the language and the participant’s understanding of the common social meanings and cultural values in SFL is considered under genre, which is related to the categorization of kinds of social behavior within a determined cultural condition and, utilizing that structure, with the assignment of the function of any given interaction. Genre Understanding the concept of genre is central as it informs which method should be taken to the selection of spoken genres for teaching learners. The Sydney school to genre analysis is one of the outstanding theories of the field. The approach of the Sydney school is based on Hallidayan (Halliday, 1973, 1975) systemic functional linguistics which lays emphasis on schematic structures of different genre types. It is focused on textual forms (both written and spoken) and the relationship between form, function and context. Three meta-functions (the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual) are applied to examine linguistic and structural features of texts that “share the same general purpose in the culture” (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, & Yallop, 2000, p. 9). At the same time the Sydney school linguists put stress on the socio-cognitive side of the notion of genre. Martin (1984) considers genre as “a staged, target oriented, determined activity in which speakers involve as members of our culture” (Martin, 1984). He asserts that genres consist of a system for accomplishing social intentions by verbal tools and this awareness leads to an analysis of discourse structures (Martin, 1984). For the classroom teaching of English, a categorization is proposed which includes a differentiation between text types and genres. It should be noted that even if six chief types of texts are identified according to their primary social purpose (narratives, recounts, information reports, instructions, explanations and expository texts), this categorization chiefly refers to written genres and does not include many texts of oral genres (e.g., various kinds of conversations). This school emphasizes that there is a distinction between register and genre and not every text is a genre since it “can only be understood in full texts, for a genre ... defines conditions for beginning, continuing and ending a text” (Couture, 1986, p. 82). The complicated link between genres and texts is pointed out by many linguists of this school. As a rule, they maintain that genre speak of socially constructed discourse, while text types speak of organizational patterns within more complicated discourses (e.g., Jones, 2013). This method has made conversant many investigations of written genres and texts (e.g., Burns & Coffin, 2001; Hyland, 2004). However, spoken genres have received little attention, and the investigations that have been done in this field focus attention on researching oral communication between instructors and learners in mainstream classrooms (Gibbons, 1995). The Use of Stories for Contextualization of Speaking It is commonly claimed that stories provide various advantages to young students’ language development (Blasdell, De-Young, Hutchinson, & Pederson, 1999). These benefits undoubtedly http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Farshid Sarmadi-Kia, Nader Assadi Aydinloo, Masood Zoghi 28 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License include the high growth of speaking skill. Blasdell et al. (1999) explains the effect of stories used in young learner classrooms on fluency and gist development as below: Because stories are designed to entertain, writers and tellers choose and applied words with particular care to keep the audience interested. Stories may thus include uncommon words, or words that possess a strong phonological content, with interesting rhythms or sound that are onomatopoeic. The context created by the story, its predictable pattern of events and language, and pictures, all act to support listeners understanding of unfamiliar words. Children will pick up words that enjoy and, in this way, stories offer space for development in vocabulary (Blasdell et al., 1999). Thus, in order to contextualize the target vocabulary and grammatical items to be taught, teachers can start the lessons with a story that will enable them to highlight the functional aspect of the target vocabulary and grammatical item before its form. Following an interactive presentation, several activities can guide language learners for learning the new items (Needlman, 2004). Repetitions of the vocabulary items guided by the teacher, TPR re- storytelling, word games, doing jigsaw puzzles of target vocabulary, gap filling through listening to the story again etc. can be some of follow-up activities. METHOD Participants The initial participants of this study were 60 intermediate EFL learners at Tabaelm Language Institute in Tabriz. Both male and female learners took part in the study. These participants were selected through convenience (availability) sampling procedure. All learners in the intermediate level took part in Oxford Placement Test (OPT) to guarantee their initial homogeneity. The learners who got scores in the range of one standard deviation below and above the mean were selected to participate in the study. Accordingly, 38 learners – 21 females and 17 males – were selected as the participants of the study. The selected participants were randomly assigned into two groups, each one including 19 learners. The age range of the participants was between 18 and 25. Instruments The following instruments were used to conduct the present study: 1. Oxford Placement Test (OPT): was used as a tool to check the homogeneity of the participants of the study. Each version of this test consists of 60 items (see Appendix A). The OPT evaluates a test taker’s capability to understand grammatical forms and the meanings they convey in various contexts. It also measures the extent to which learners can use these language resources to communicate in English language situations. 2. Pre-test and Post-test: two short stories from the classroom material were selected as the pre- and post-tests. The participants were supposed to have an oral reproduction of the stories they have already read. Since the participants’ performances were supposed to be measured in terms of their fluency and accuracy, various criteria were defined to obtain numerical data. Classroom Material The textbook which was selected as the material to be taught in the control and experimental groups was Oral Reproduction of Stories (Vol. 1) compiled and edited by Abbas Ali Rezaei (2006). According to the information presented in the blurb of the book, this book is intended to provide material for a number of approaches to help the students to find their way into the meaning and pleasure of a story. Each section in this book opens with a short story and also includes a set of strategies for effective reading and oral reproduction; the strategies involve the reader in the text. In order to avoid the distraction of an unfamiliar vocabulary, each new word is written in bold type and is explained where it appears. In the end of each unit some exercises are provided to check the learners’ comprehension of the story. Instruction and Data Collection Procedure The researcher set on a task of testing the hypotheses of the present study by selecting homogeneous participants. Therefore, learners were selected based on their performance on OPT from among EFL learners in Tabaelm English Institute in Tabriz, Iran. Although they were in the same level based on http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction 29 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License the standards checked by the institute itself, OPT was administered ensure the homogeneity of the participants in the study. Based on their performance in OPT, the participants’ whose scores fell in the range of one standard deviation below and above the mean were selected. Then, they were assigned into control and experimental groups. The instruction period in both groups lasted for eight one-hour and half sessions and each week two sessions were hold. The participants in both control and experimental groups were given a short story to read it at home and orally reproduce it next session as the pre-test. From the next session, the participants in both groups read a short story from the book and were required to reproduce it in the subsequent session. Based on the time of the class, two or three students performed the oral reproduction in each session. Depending on the performance of the students, the teacher provided necessary comments and feedback on their misunderstandings and errors. In the control group, only common class procedures such as pair work, small-group discussion, and whole class discussion were applied without instructing SFL-based genre. It means that each session a short story from the textbook was assigned to the learners to read at home and present an oral reproduction of it at the next class session. Each session, the teacher asked two or three learners to reproduce the intended short story. After reproduction of the short story by the students who were selected by the teacher, the participants negotiated their understanding of the elements of the short story and the meaning and conclusion they have taken from the story. In the experimental group, on the other hand, SFL-based genre analysis of the short stories was conducted by the teacher. For this purpose, the methodology proposed by Macken-Horarik (2002) was taken. Four aspects of genre in narratives including social purpose, social location, schematic structure, and schematic stage description were elaborated. In description of schematic stages, the teacher considered orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution, and coda made in the short story (Macken-Horarik, 2002; Eggins, 2004). In order to apply the SFL genre-based instruction in this group, the researcher took the process of shifting EFL learners from joint construction to independent construction. This process, called teaching-learning cycle (Martin, 1999), includes three stages of deconstruction, joint construction, and independent construction. The term ‘cycle’ indirectly suggests that the stages are flexible and recursive and give the learners the opportunity to start form any preferred stage and move back or forth when they need. This model is displayed in Figure 1. Figure 1. The teaching-learning cycle (adopted from Martin, 1999) As shown in the Figure 1, Setting Context and Building Field are common for all stages. The aim of these activities is to raise the awareness of learners regarding the social context and goal of the material. They include some information regarding the goal of the genre, the context of its use, and http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Farshid Sarmadi-Kia, Nader Assadi Aydinloo, Masood Zoghi 30 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License the vocabulary commonly used in the genre as well as the relationships between the participants and the mode of communication. In the deconstruction stage, the learners in this group analyzed a short story in terms of its generic structure. It means that the rhetorical, lexical and grammatical resources used in the story were the topic of discussion. It was in this stage that the teacher directly taught the elements of the short story (e.g., characters, plot, theme, etc.). In the joint construction stage, the teacher helped the learners to develop the story in their own words. As noted by Callaghan, Knapp, and Noble (1993), the teacher through his mediation attempted to approximate the participants toward production of the similar text. This mediation was done based on the shared knowledge acquired in the deconstruction stage. The teacher reworded the learners’ productions in case of the necessity and explained them the reasons for these modifications. In the independent construction stage, the participants reproduced the short story in their own words. The teacher guided the learners to consider the vocabulary, grammar, etc. used in the main story. The focus of this stage was producing fluent, accurate, and complex sentences with correct pronunciation and covering as much content as possible of the main story. Moreover, the flow of the story was paid attention to and the learners were encouraged to cover the maximum amount of the content. In the end of the treatment period, the post-test (i.e., reproduction of a pre-determined short story from the classroom material) was given to the participants in both groups. Their oral reproduction was scored using the same framework which was taken for the scoring of the pre-test. The results of the post-test were compared to the results of the pre-test to investigate and compare the effects of teaching and application of short stories through two modalities of SFL-based genre instruction and traditional method on their oral reproduction. Moreover, five students from the experimental group took part in semi-structured interviews to explore their perceptions regarding SFL genre-based instruction in language classes. Since this interview was of semi structured nature, it began with the question “What is your idea regarding implementation of SFL genre-based instruction in language classes?” and followed by different questions on the basis of the participants’ answers to this question. Scoring Procedure When all participants finished their performance and the required data were collected, their utterances in both pre- and post-test were transcribed in order to be evaluated and scored. The transcriptions were evaluated by two raters and the inter-rater reliability was calculated as 0.82 which fell in the acceptable range. The unit of evaluation for the measurement of fluency and accuracy was t-unit. Richards and Schmidt (2010) define t-unit as “consisting of one independent clause together with whatever dependent clauses are attached to it” (p. 613). The fluency of the performances was measured by counting the number of repetitions, false starts, reformulations, and replacements per t-unit (Foster & Skehan, 1999). Therefore, the lower the score, the more fluent was the participant’s performance. The oral reproduction accuracy was identified by calculation of the number of errors per t-unit (Bygate, 2001). Similar to fluency measurement, the lower score in accuracy measurement was the indicator of a grammatically more accurate performance. The average of the scores given by the two raters to each participant’s fluency and accuracy of oral reproduction was taken as his/her score in these dimensions. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The Results of Oxford Placement Test (OPT) As it was stated in Chapter Three, OPT was used to check the homogeneity the participants of the study. To select the participants, all initial 60 students took the OPT and students whose score were between one standard deviation below and above the mean were selected to participate in the main study. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the participants OPT scores. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction 31 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of the Participants’ OPT N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation OPT 60 7 60 36.28 15.226 Valid N (listwise) 60 As the table shows, overall mean and standard deviation of the initial participants OPT scores were 36.28 and 15.226, respectively. From these initial participants, 38 learners whose scores were between 22 and 51 were chosen. The Results Regarding the First Research Question To find answer for the first research question, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) had to be run on the fluency scores of the participants in the two groups. According to Dornyei (2007), in quasi- experimental studies, the use of ANCOVA contributes to the reduction of the initial group differences. In order to conduct ANCOVA, some underlying assumptions must be met. First, the assumption of the normality of distribution for four sets of scores should be tested. To make sure about the normal distribution of the fluency scores in the groups, the researcher ran a One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test on four sets of scores, the p-value for each set of scores is higher than 0.05; therefore, four sets of scores are normally distributed and the first assumption to run the parametric test of ANCOVA was met. Another assumption of the ANCOVA is the equality of the variances between groups which was checked by Levene’s test and it was found that the underlying assumption of equality of error variances was met. As the relationship between the dependent variable (i.e., post-test fluency) and the covariate (i.e., pre-test fluency) should be similar for the two groups, the homogeneity of regression lines was checked. The researcher found that the interaction between the independent variable – instruction with two levels of SFL genre-based and traditional – and covariate (i.e., pre-test fluency) was not significant and the assumption of the homogeneity of regression was accepted. Therefore, the ANCOVA could be performed. With regard to the first null hypothesis of the study, that is, there is no significant difference between the effects of SFL genre-based instruction and traditional method on the fluency of Iranian EFL learners’ story reproduction, ANCOVA was conducted. The results of this analysis are shown in Table 2. Table 2. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) for Fluency Scores Source Type III Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Partial Eta Squared Corrected Model .001a 2 .000 102.258 .000 .854 Intercept .002 1 .002 842.162 .000 .960 Pre-Test Fluency .000 1 .000 117.420 .000 .770 Groups .000 1 .000 89.142 .000 .718 Error 9.384E-5 35 2.681E-6 Total 11.969 38 Corrected Total .001 37 a. R Squared = .854 (Adjusted R Squared = .846) As it is shown in Table 2, the first line highlighted shows that the pre-test fluency was significantly related to their post-test fluency (p< 0.05) with the magnitude of 0.770. The next line is the indicator of the main effect of the SFL genre-based instruction on the dependent variable –post- test fluency. After adjusting for pretest scores, there was a significant effect of the group, F(1,35)= http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Farshid Sarmadi-Kia, Nader Assadi Aydinloo, Masood Zoghi 32 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License 89.142, p < 0.05, partial η² = 0.718. As level of significance was less than 0.05, the difference between two groups was significant. Therefore, the first null hypothesis was rejected. Having ensured the existence of a significant difference between the two groups, to determine the most effective method of teaching (i.e., SFL genre-based versus traditional) on the participants’ fluency of oral reproduction of short stories, the estimated marginal means of scores in two groups were compared, the results of which are presented in Table 3. Table 3. Estimated Marginal Means of Fluency Scores in the Two Groups Groups Mean Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound Upper Bound CG .564a .000 .563 .564 EG .559a .000 .558 .559 As it can be observed in Table 3, the estimated marginal mean of the EG was lower than that of CG (0.559<0.564) and this indicates that SFL genre-based method was more effective than the traditional method on the participants’ oral reproduction fluency. The Results Regarding the Second Research Question The answer for the second research question was investigated through running ANCOVA. However, prior to running this analysis, its underlying assumptions were checked. First, the assumption of the normality of distribution for four sets of scores was checked using One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test on four sets of scores. The results indicated that the p-value for each set of scores was higher than 0.05. This means that all sets of scores had normal distributions and the first assumption to run the parametric test of ANCOVA was met. To check the equality of the variances between groups, the researcher ran Levene’s test and the results indicates that the underlying assumption of equality of error variances was met. As the relationship between the dependent variable (i.e., post-test accuracy) and the covariate (i.e., pre-test accuracy) should be similar for the two groups, the homogeneity of regression lines was checked and it was found that the interaction between the independent variable – instruction with two levels of SFL genre-based and traditional – and covariate (i.e., pre-test accuracy) was not significant and the assumption of the homogeneity of regression was not rejected. Therefore, the ANCOVA can be performed. The second null hypothesis of the study, i.e., there is no significant difference between the effects of SFL genre-based instruction and traditional method on the accuracy of Iranian EFL learners’ story reproduction, was explored by running ANCOVA after ensuring that the necessary assumptions have been met, the results of which are shown in Table 4. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction 33 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Table 4. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) for Accuracy Scores Source Type III Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Partial Eta Squared Corrected Model .008a 2 .004 26.195 .000 .599 Intercept .001 1 .001 3.170 .084 .083 Pre-Test Fluency .007 1 .007 44.830 .000 .562 Groups .001 1 .001 8.367 .007 .193 Error .006 35 .000 Total 15.269 38 Corrected Total .014 37 a. R Squared = .599 (Adjusted R Squared = .577) Table 4 shows that the pre-test accuracy was significantly related to their post-test accuracy (p< 0.05) with the magnitude of 0.562. The next line reveals the main effect of the SFL genre-based instruction on the dependent variable –post-test accuracy. After adjusting for pretest scores, there was a significant effect of the group, F (1,35)= 8.367, p < 0.05, partial η² = 0.193. As level of significance was less than 0.05, the difference between two groups was significant and the variation in the effects of traditional and SFL genre-based instruction on the post-test accuracy was clear. Therefore, the second null hypothesis was also rejected. As the difference between the two groups was significant, the researcher referred to the estimated marginal means of the scores in those groups to construe which group had a better performance. The estimated marginal means of the groups are displayed in Table 5. Table 5. Estimated Marginal Means of Accuracy Scores in the Two Groups Groups Mean Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound Upper Bound CG .640a .003 .634 .645 EG .628a .003 .622 .634 Table 5 shows that the estimated marginal mean of the EG was lower than that of CG (0.628<0.640) and this indicates that SFL genre-based method was more effective than the traditional method on the participants’ oral reproduction accuracy, too. The analysis of the participants’ oral reproductions indicated that SFL genre-based instruction was effective for providing learners with the opportunities to generate and take control of the generated discourse and hence it could be considered advantageous for teaching oral skills. The findings of the present study are justifiable with Schmidt’s (2001) noticing hypothesis. He argued that consciousness about the form of input is essential for second language acquisition. It means that language learners’ conscious attention of the composing elements of input can facilitate their learning. When learning is facilitated, it can be automatized and learners’ work load decreases while performing the related tasks. In this study, the learners’ familiarity with the elements of short story genre reduced the load on their working memory and accordingly they had the chance to focus on the fluency and accuracy of their speaking. Moreover, the determined structure of the short story genre released the participants in the experimental group from devoting a part of the memory to recalling the order of the content from the original text and they only referred to their logic to transfer the material to their oral medium. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Farshid Sarmadi-Kia, Nader Assadi Aydinloo, Masood Zoghi 34 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Moreover, the learners’ viewpoints acquired in this venture give proof to the two sides of the contention over adaptability and bring up various issues and potential new exploration directions. While some learner viewpoints are concerned fundamentally with surface and generally shallow levels, on the positive side, some of the learners’ opinions show enhancement of their genre awareness. Besides, the learners’ reactions in the interviews conducted at the end of the treatment demonstrated that they all discovered their understanding of the concept of genre and the generic structure of the short stories helpful for moving toward speaking in that genre. CONCLUSION On an individual note, as the teacher and the researcher in this investigation, I can assert that SFL genre-based teaching with its textual view to deal with language instruction and learning furnished me with an efficient route for training how the narratives and especially short stories function. This orderly view was encouraged by the SFL system that outfitted me with the instruments (i.e., lexico-syntactic samples indicating the metafunctions) and the methods (i.e., metalanguage) to cause learners to notice the characteristics of the English short stories. The participants episodically repeated my enthusiasm for this methodology; one participant, for example, stated that “Presently we understand what we are doing”. As an outcome of this research and of the participants’ positive attitudes and accomplishment, the language programs at institute, school, and university levels can have new progresses and refresh their syllabuses and make genre-based instruction an essential dimension of their curriculum. Hence, some of the pedagogical implications of the present study are highlighted in the following section. The findings of present study may be used to decide about future instruction. Actually, the most important contribution of this study is its classroom implementation. Since students appear to have little awareness of genres and their features, specific instruction should be added into the EFL courses to help students become more successful learners. From the textual standpoint, students can be asked to recognize instances of the four aspects of genre in narratives including social purpose, social location, schematic structure, and schematic stage and then anticipate content. Attention to logical connectives will help students analyze the writer’s line of reasoning and rhetorical strategies. The results of this investigation should make a significant commitment to Ministry of Education which has attempted to distinguish a precise and compelling instructing way to deal with fostering English oral performance in high schools of Iran since the oral skills are not paid due attention in high schools. They can use the findings of this investigation to execute practical and dependable educational plans. Along these lines, this investigation can add to both local level educational program designers in language institutes and foreign language syllabus designers in Ministry of Education. REFERENCES Blaisdell, P., De-Young, J., Hutchinson, S., & Pederson, S. (1999). Encouraging recreational reading in the elementary grades. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED435975. Burns, A., & Coffin, J. (2001). Analysing English in a global context: A reader. London: Routledge. Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (2000). Using functional grammar, Sydney: South wood Press. Bygate, M. (2001). Effects of task repetition on the structure and control of oral language. In M. Bygate, P. Skehan, & M. Swain (Eds.), Researching pedagogic tasks: Second language learning, teaching and testing (pp. 23‐48). Essex: Pearson Education. Callaghan, M., Knapp, P., & Noble, G. (1993). Genre in practice. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds.), The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp. 179- 202). London: The Falmer Press. Chapman, S., & Routledge, C. (2009). Key ideas in linguistics and the philosophy of language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Choi, G. (2013). A study on logical meaning using SFL and the implications of this for translation studies (Ph.D. dissertation). The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Couture, B. (1986). Functional approaches to writing: Research perspectives. Norwood: Ablex. Eggins, S. (2004). An introduction to systemic functional linguistics (2nd ed.). New York: Continuum. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The effect of SFL-based genre instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ performance in story reproduction 35 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Foster, P., & Skehan, P. (1999). The influence of planning and focus of planning on task-based performance. Language Teaching Research, 3(3), 215-247. Gholami, R. (2011). Psychological traits and task-based learning of EFL learners: Performances of extroverts and introverts. New York: Lambert Academic Publishing. Gibbons, P. (1995). Discourse contexts for second language development in the mainstream classroom (Doctoral dissertation). University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Halliday, M. A. K. (1973). Exploration in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. (1975). The context of linguistics. In F. P. Dinneen (Ed.), Report of the Twenty-fifth Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Studies, Monograph Series on Language and Linguistics 17. Georgetown University Press. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1989). Language, context and text: Aspects of language in a social semiotic perspective (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Jones, R. (2013). Communication in the real world: An introduction to communication studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Macken-Horarik, M. (2002). “Something to shoot for”: A systemic functional approach to teaching genre in secondary school science. In A. M. Johns (Ed.), Genre in the classroom: Multiple perspectives (pp. 17-42). Mahwah: Erlbaum. Manfredi, M. (2014). Translating text and context: translation studies and systemic functional linguistics. Volume 2: From theory to practice (2nd ed). Bologna: Asterisco. Martin, J. (1999). Mentoring semogenesis: ‘Genre-based’ literacy pedagogy. In F. Christie (Ed.), Pedagogy and the shaping of consciousness (pp. 123-155). London: Continuum. Martin, J. (2016). Meaning matters: A short history of systemic functional linguistics. Word, 62(1), 35- 58. Martin, J. (1984). Language, register, and genre. In Christie, F. (Ed.), Language studies: Children's writing. Greelong: Deakin University Press. Matthiessen, C. (2012). Systemic functional linguistics as appliable linguistics: Social accountability and critical approaches. Delta: Documentação De Estudos Em Lingüística Teórica E Aplicada, 28, 435-471. Morley, G. (2000). Syntax in functional grammar. New York: Continuum. Needlman, R. (2004). Reading aloud with school-age children. Retrieved from http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,5140,00.html. Rezaei, A. A. (2006). Oral reproduction of stories (Vol. 1). Tehran: SAMT. Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. (2010). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (4th ed.). Harlow: Pearson. Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3-32). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tabatabaei, O., & Hadi, A. (2011). Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of task-based language pedagogy. Higher Education of Social Science, 1(2), 1-9. Widdowson, H. G. (1975). Stylistics and the teaching of literature. Longman: Group Ltd. Zhang, B. (2013). An analysis of spoken language and written language and how they affect English language learning and teaching. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 4(4), 834-838. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,5140,00.html