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THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GENRE-BASED APPROACH IN 

TEACHING WRITING  
 

Achmad Fanani 
Universitas Pesantren Tinggi Darul Ulum 

Email: achmadfanani@fbs.unipdu.ac.id 

 
Abstract 

 

This current research describes the application of GBA in teaching writing to 

university students. It was conducted by observing an English teacher in 

implementing GBA in his class. The result showed that he had fully implemented 

GBA which worked very well with the students in the beginner level. The roles of the 

teacher found were as an expert (BKOF, MOT), a resource person (BKOF), a 

director (BKOF), a facilitator (BKOF, JCOT), an observer (JCOT), feedback giver 

(JCOT, ICOT). The result implies that GBA is effective to improve the students’ 

writing skill and should be considered to implement in writing classes.   

Keyword: Genre-Based Approach, Writing, Teacher Role 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

This article describes the 

application of Genre-Based Approach 

by an English teacher at Unipdu in 

general and the teacher’s role in the 

implementation of GBA in teaching 

writing, as one of the important 

elements of teaching English as second 

language. Genre-Based Approach 

(GBA) was developed by Sydney 

School where the students are mostly 

the immigrants from Africa and English 

was not their first language. In GBA, 

writing is taught as a process and is a 

complex combination of skills. 

Therefore the teaching of writing should 

break down the process. There are some 

steps to follow in producing a complete 

writing. By focusing on the writing 

process, students can learn to write 

successfully. 

For many times, the Indonesian 

policy of education has continuously 

changed, from the curriculum starting in 

1946 until the current curriculum 2013. 

The implementation of each curriculum 

influences as well the English language 

teaching practice in Indonesia(Fanani, 

 

 Creation is distributed under the Creative Commons License Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 
International 

   Published in: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart  
JurnalSMART : Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. 

 
 

Jurnal  SMART , Volume  4, No 2  (2018), Page. 132- 141 

ISSN Cetak   : 2356-2048 

ISSN Online : 2356-203X 

DOI: 10.26638/js.700.203X 
 



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2015). The main purpose of the changes 

was to improve the quality of ELT 

outcomes. One of the curriculums was 

Competence Based Curriculum which 

brought about a big change to the 

English language teaching In Indonesia 

that is Text Based Curriculum 

(commonly called Genre Based 

Approach).  

In this curriculum the students’ 

learning success is seen through the 

level of students’ competency. In other 

words, the language teaching must also 

consider the importance of competency 

as the result indicator of the 

teaching(Maisarah, 2018). 

Communicative competence is likely to 

be the closest tangible competence 

which can be measured to determine the 

success of the language teaching. 

Therefore Genre Based Approach is 

seen as the best method for applying the 

text-based curriculum in order to attain 

the communicative competence. 

This current article would like to 

describe how a teacher at Unipdu 

implemented GBA in teaching writing 

and his roles in the implementation. The 

teacher had implemented GBA for 

several years and proved to succeed in 

his teaching. Therefore revealing how 

he implemented GBA is worth 

analyzing. 

GBA was based on the theory of 

Systemic Functional Linguistics 

developed by Michael Halliday. The 

students should be taught various types 

of texts that may encourage them to 

succeed in school and even in college. 

GBA stresses on apprenticeship, 

scaffolding, and the zone of proximal 

development. GBA has already been 

implemented worldwide not only in 

Australia, but also in various countries 

in Europe, Latin America, the United 

States, Canada, Asia, such as Malaysia, 

Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Nepal, 

Japan, and China. 

Text-Based Learning is a 

learning orienting to the students’ 

ability in arrangging texts. This method 

of learning is based on text modeling 

and analysis of text’s features and 

focuses on the relationship between the 

text and the context of its use. The 

design of learning units directs students 

to be able to understand and produce 

both oral and written texts in various 

contexts. Therefore students need to 

understand the social function, 

structure, and linguistic features of a 

text. 

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The term text comes from the 

Latin meaning weaving. The text, 

according to (Halliday & Hasan, 1976), 

is a unity of meaning. Furthermore, the 

text is described as a language that is 

receptively produced and understood by 

people, that is what is said and written, 

and read and heard in everyday life. The 

term text includes both spoken and 

written texts. Strengthening the 

definition, Eggin (1994) uggests that the 

text is a socially and contextually 

complete language that may be in the 

form of spoken and written language. 

Text is always created in 

context. The word context refers to the 

elements that accompany the text 

(Christie and Mason in Emilia, 2011). 

Context has a very important role in the 

use of language because what is written 

or said depends on the topic, when and 

in what occasion.  Halliday & Hasan 

(1976) distinguish two contexts, namely 

the context of the situation and the 

cultural context. Both have an impact 

on language usage. 

 Emilia (2011: 21:22) mentioned 

some key principles in text-based 

instruction/Genre-based instruction. The 

principles are as follows. 

a. Emphasizing the importance of 

developing students' awareness that 

each text is a unique creation of a 

unique author as well as relative to a 

particular group of people and 

particular context (Hyland, 2002). 

b. Considering learning language as a 

social activity. This requires 

dependence between students and 

society, which in this case can be 

friends, teachers or other adults, 

including parents, who can help 

students achieve better learning 

outcomes. Through this principle it is 

expected that students learn 

languages, students learn through 

language, and students learn about 

languages  (Feez & Joyce, 1998 ). 

c. Emphasizing that learning will work 

more effectively if the teacher 

explicitly explains the competencies 

expected to be mastered by the 

students after the learning process 

(Feez and Joyce, 1998). Explicit 

teaching does not mean a return to 

traditional grammar teaching that 

separates grammatical instruction 

from the use of authentic language. 

Explicit teaching aims to encourage 

learners' involvement in learning, 

self-reliance in writing, and the 

ability to discuss how language is 

used in authentic contexts, such as 



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the way in which language is used to 

persuade or convince. 

d. Affirming that students are studying 

under the guidance of teachers within 

the framework of apprenticeship. 

Students act as those who are trained 

and teachers act as experts in 

language systems and functions. 

Therefore, in the learning process the 

teacher should act as an expert who 

can help students to learn the 

language. 

e. Believing that grammar 

instruction is an important part of 

guiding students to the knowledge of 

how a language works. However, it 

should be born in mind that 

grammatical teaching in text-based 

learning is not a teaching of traditional 

language but a grammatical teaching at 

the text level when personal intent is 

filtered through the commonly available 

forms of rhetoric to fulfill the social 

purpose of language use (Hicks cited by 

Kim & Kim, 2005). In other words, 

text-based learning believes that we do 

not just write, we write something to 

achieve some purpose (Hyland, 2002). 

Grammar teaching allows students and 

teachers to be able to write, read, listen, 

and speak, and judge a text written by a 

person in the types of texts to be taught. 

Hayland(2002) proposes the 

advantages of the implementation of 

GBA in writing instruction which can 

be summarized as follows: 

Explicitwhichmeans GBA makes clear 

what is to be learned to facilitate the 

acquisition of writing skills. 

Systematicwhichmeans GBA provides a 

coherent framework for focusing on 

both language and contexts. Needs-

basedwhichmeans GBA ensures that 

course objectives and content are 

derived from 

studentsneeds.Supportivewhichmeans 

GBA gives teacher a central role in 

scaffolding student learning and 

creativity. Empoweringwhichmeans 

GBA provides access to the patterns 

and possibilities of variation in valued 

texts. GBA provides the resources for 

students to understand and challenge 

valued discourses and Consciousness 

raising. GBA increases teachers’ 

awareness of texts and teachers’ 

confidence in advising students on their 

writing. 

Hammond, Joyce, Brosnan, & 

Gerot (1992) explain that there are four 

stages and two cycles (Oral and 

Written) in the application of GBA. 

Each cycle may involve four stages 

called Building Knowledge of the Field 

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(BKOF), Modeling of Text (MOT), 

Joint Construction of Text (JCOT), and 

Independent Construction of Text 

(ICOT). This article would like to 

describe how the English teachers at 

Unipdu apply GBA in teaching writing, 

more specifically about the techniques 

they apply. 

 

2. RESEARCH METHODS 

The descriptive approach was 

used in this study to know how a 

university teacher in Jombang 

implemented GBA to teach English 

writing. This current study was done at 

the English Department, Faculty of 

languages and Literature, in a university 

in Jombang in 2017. The teacher being 

observed is Mr. Adi (a pseudonym 

name). The data were collecting by 

observing the classroom being taught by 

the teacher as well as interviewing him. 

The collected data were then analyzed 

and presented by describing how the 

teacher implemented GBA in teaching 

English writing.  

The English Department, 

Faculty of languages and Literature, 

university of 

PesantrenTinggiDarulUlumJombang is 

a department that stresses on the 

teaching of writing to their students. 

Since 2013 it has advised all lecturers to 

implement various methods in teaching 

writing including GBA. The 

implementation of GBA has proven to 

significantly help the process of 

teaching writing. 

 

3. FINDING AND DISCUSSION 

1) Building Knowledge of the Field 

(BKOF) stage 

Based on the observation, the 

teacher did this stage (Building 

Knowledge of the Field). In general, in 

this stage the teachers asked the 

students together with him to do some 

activities such as building cultural 

context, sharing experiences, discussing 

vocabulary, grammatical patterns, etc. 

In this stage, the teacher gave the 

students direct instruction because they 

were still progressively assimilating the 

task demands with the procedures for 

constructing the texts effectively. The 

teacher tried to link the students’ own 

experiences with the text type they were 

studying. In other words, the students 

were expected to bring their own 

experiences to the learning process. In 

the classroom practice, students seemed 

to have different experiences of a 

certain text type that can be shared each 

other. The teacher used this stage as the 



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starting point for sharing information 

with his students. In this stage “shared 

knowledge” took place and was needed 

before going on to the next stage.  

In building knowledge of the 

field, the teacher did some activities as 

follows: (1) introducing the social 

context of a particular authentic text 

type being studied, (2) exploring the 

features of the general cultural contexts 

of a certain type of text and the social 

objectives to be achieved, (3) discussing 

with students the context and situations 

used in the text. For example in 

exposition text, the teacher discussed 

with the students the role and 

relationship between people who were 

involved in a dialogue whether among 

friends, an employer and an employee, a 

teacher with students, and so forth. 

In introducing both social and 

cultural contexts, the teacher used the 

following ways: (1) presenting the 

contexts through pictures and audivisual 

materials, (2) determining the social 

objectives through discussion with 

students, (3) comparing the model text 

with other texts with the same or 

different text types, for example 

comparing a text of job interview with 

that of conversation between friends. 

2) Modelling of Text (MOT) stage 

After completing the BKOF 

stage, the teacher did Modelling of Text 

(MOT) which was the second stage in 

GBA. In this stage, the teacher and 

students discussed and explored a text 

and its key grammatical features. The 

main purpose was to make the students 

focused on the features of the target 

genre. Some examples of texts of a 

certain genre were analyzed, compared, 

and manipulated to make the students 

understand the generic structure needed 

to produce good pieces of writing. For 

example, if the main purpose was to 

make students able to produce 

procedural texts, then, the short 

functional texts, conversations, and the 

monologues were developed with one 

main communicative purpose, that is, 

giving instruction or direction.  

At this stage an analysis and 

discussion of how and why a certain 

type of text was organized to express 

meaning. Through text deconstruction, 

it was possible for students to analyze 

the text components. To do so, the 

teacher commonly delivered the 

following questions: 

• What is the social function of the text? 

• Who uses it? 

• Why does he/she use it? 

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• What is the topic of the text? 

• Who are the participants? 

• How are they related to each other in 

the situation? 

• Is the language spoken or written? 

• What is the function of each section of 

the text? 

• What are the linguistic features of the 

text? 

• How can we know what the text is 

about? 

• What is the relationship between the 

author and the reader? 

 

3) Joint Construction of Text (JCOT) 

stage 

After completing the second 

stage, the teacher went to the third one, 

Joint Construction of Text (JCOT). In 

this stage, he implemented scaffolding 

technique. By scaffolding, he gave the 

students initial explicit knowledge and 

guided practices. In this stage, he and 

the students worked together, with the 

teacher as a guide, to develop targeted 

texts until the students could do it by 

themselves. The students attempted to 

develop texts of the target genre with 

the help from teachers, with the teacher 

reduced his or her contribution 

gradually as learners gained greater 

control over their writing. In other 

words, the teacher acted only as a 

facilitator for the shared writing 

activities and as a responder to student 

writing. The main purpose was to make 

the students show their writing ability 

and show confidence to write.  

The activities done by the 

teacher during this stage were:(1) 

asking a complex question or problem 

that has several possible answers to 

stimulate students' curiosity about the 

material being taught. The questions 

delivered were about daily activities, 

ways of doing things, definitions, 

procedures, etc., (2) encouraging the 

students to think, make diagrams, and 

make common guesses, (3) sharing the 

text model to the students, along with 

several questions/problems sorted from 

simple to complex, (4) providing 

opportunities for the students to learn 

the text model independently, (5) 

providing an opportunity for the 

students to choose a partner, (6) 

providing different problems for each 

pair to complete, (7) asking each partner 

to exchange answers to each problem, 

and correcting each pair's answers, (8) 

providing opportunities for couples to 

compare answers from each pair with 

answers from other couples in the class, 

(9) asking all learners to choose the 



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right answer for each question and 

present their best answer, (10) giving 

reward to learners with best answer. 

In stimulating the students to learn 

together in groups, the teacher did some 

activities as follows:(1) providing 

opportunities for learners to study text 

models in small groups or large groups, 

(2) providing group discussion 

opportunities to discuss some questions, 

(3) providing problem-solving tasks to 

each group, with clear instructions. For 

example, identifying the generic 

structure or linguistic features presented 

in the text, (4) specifying roles to group 

members to work in groups, e.g., as a 

facilitator, a writer, or a spokesperson, 

(5) providing an opportunity for each 

group to solve problems and present the 

results of the discussion in front of the 

class. 

4) Independent Construction of Text 

(ICT) stage 

After the third stage, the teacher 

went on the fourth stage that is 

Independent Construction of Text 

(ICT). In this stage, after collaborating 

with peers and the teacher, the students 

were expected to be able to produce 

their own texts independently and 

smoothly. In this final stage, the teacher 

gave the students great opportunity to 

show what they had learnt and to write 

a text independently while the teacher 

observed and gave advice from the 

sidelines. 

The following were the 

activities done by the teacher in this 

stage: (1) Establishing groups with with 

suitable number of students to have a 

discussion. (2) Giving each group a 

chance to develop ways of presenting or 

teaching their texts to other learners. (3) 

Providing an opportunity for the 

students to summarize or make an 

overview of the lessons of the day, (4) 

Motivating the students to re-learn the 

teaching materials and / or complete 

home tasks independently or in groups, 

(5) Giving each group a chance to 

present their lessons and giving 

appreciation for their efforts. 

In closing the activity of 

learning, the teacher did the following: 

(1) asking the students to summarize 

what they had learned either 

individually or in group, (2) asking the 

students’ opinions or feelings of what 

they had just learned, (3) informing 

teaching materials and or tasks for the 

next meeting, (4) giving a closing 

remark. 

 

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Discussion 

Based on the explanation above, 

it can be inferred that GBA is very 

useful for teaching writing. The four 

stages that exist in the implementation 

of GBA may indicate that this approach 

may work very well with the students in 

the beginner level (Emilia, 

2011)because the process starts from 

the very basic with the help from 

teacher and friends until the last stage in 

which students are expected to be able 

to work independently. 

Based on the activities of the 

teacher described previously, it can be 

seen that there were some roles of 

teachers in Genre-Based Instruction 

appllied. In the Building Knowledge of 

the Field stage, the teacher acted as an 

expert (Jarrett & Light, 2008)when 

describing expressions used in a 

particular type of text. The teacher also 

acted as a resource person on topics 

raised in ongoing learning. The teacher 

also acted as a director (Jarrett & Light, 

2008)in a discussion that could 

encourage students to think critically 

and read the text critically. The teacher 

also acted as a facilitator when the 

students read the given text.  

In the Modeling of Text stage 

the role of the teacher was similar to the 

previous stage, the teacher acted as an 

expert in explicit teaching. The 

students, at this stage, actively analyzed 

the text structure and linguistic elements 

of the text being studied. 

In the Joint Construction of the 

Text the teacher acted as a facilitator or 

mentor(Jarrett & Light, 2008)by 

providing assistance to the students 

when they needed it. The teacher also 

acted as an observer. The teacher 

observed the development of the 

students' ability in formulating the text 

that became the focus of learning. The 

other teacher's role was giving feedback 

to the texts compiled by the students to 

make the text better. 

In the last stage, Independent 

Construction of the Text, the role of the 

teacher was the same as that in the 

previous stage (JCOT), which was to 

give feedback on the text compiled by 

the students to make the text better.  

 

4. CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, the teacher at 

Unipdu had fully implemented GBA in 

teaching writing as indicated by the 

activities done by him. The four stages 

that exist in the implementation of GBA 

may indicate that this approach may 

work very well with the students in the 



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beginner level because the process starts 

from the very basic with the help from 

teacher and friends until the last stage in 

which students are expected to be able 

to work independently. 

Based on the teacher’s activities, 

it can be concluded that the roles of the 

teacher in implementing this approach 

were as an expert (BKOF, MOT), a 

resource person (BKOF), a director 

(BKOF), a facilitator (BKOF, JCOT), 

an observer (JCOT),and feedback giver 

(JCOT, ICOT). 

 

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Fanani, A. (2015). Using English to 

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304. 

 

 

Achmad Fanani..................................