The Effect of a Genre-Based Approach and Translanguaging on Lebanese Upper Elementary Students’ Skills in Writing Explanations

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.