Abstract:
Lebanon is a multilingual context in which science is taught in a foreign language. Little
attention has been given to how Lebanese students develop subject-specific language
skills. The purpose of this study was to examine whether genre-based instruction and
translanguaging – the use of the full repertoire of students’ linguistic resources - can
improve Lebanese sixth-grade students’ skills in using the features of the explanation
genre in the context of writing. The participants of the study included a total of 70 sixth-
grade students, whose native language is Arabic and who fit the profile of being English
language learners (ELLs) studying science in English in a Lebanese private school. The
study adopted a quasi-experimental design in which a pre-test and post-test were
administered to three grade six sections: a control group, and two intervention
classrooms. The control group covered three instructional units on “Dangers of Tobacco,
Alcoholism, and Drugs” and “Functions of the Nervous System”, and “Functions of the
Urinary System”. The first experimental intervention group received genre-based writing
instruction in the context of instruction of the same topics addressed in the control group.
The second experimental intervention group also received genre-based instruction, but
with the addition of strategic translanguaging. Pre and post-test scores of the students’
writing were compared across all groups through an analysis of covariance ANCOVA as
well as post-hoc pairwise comparisons in order to evaluate the study’s hypotheses. The
study's findings demonstrated that genre-based instruction was able to improve students’
writing skills, the observed difference approached but did not reach statistical
significance in the overall posttest scores, but it did yield significance in one of its
prompts. Results also indicated that the integration of translanguaging into genre-based
instruction further enhances these writing skills yielding statistical significance in the
overall posttest scores and two of the posttest’s writing prompts. The study's findings
illuminate the potential for future research in understanding the synergistic interplay
between genre-based instruction and translanguaging, emphasizing their complementary
nature in enhancing writing skills in science. Moreover, the study underscores the
importance of integrating genre-based instruction and translanguaging into language
instruction, advocating for comprehensive teacher training to effectively implement these
strategies.