Improving the English Writing Ability of Engineering Students By Using GenreInrecentyears,astheEFLeducationinChinaisconcerned,writinginEnglishhasbeenregardedasoneofthemostdifficultareasforbothChineselearners,especiallyforthosenon-EnglishmajorswhohaveconsiderablylesstimeandenergydevotedtotheEnglishstudy(Xiong,2020).WithrespecttotheuniqueeducationalcontextofChina,itseemsthattheGenre-basedApproach(GBA)isasuitableteachingapproachforteachingwritingtomostChineselearners.InoneofthedefinitionsoftheGBA,itreferstoteachingstudentshowtouselanguagepatternstoaccomplishcoherentandpurposefulprose(Hyland,2020a).Thatis,theGBAhelpsstudentsunderstandhowthetargettextsareorganizedandwhytheyarewritteninthewaystheyare.ManyresearchershaveattemptedtodeterminetheeffectivenessoftheGBAinvariouscontexts.Forexample,Bhatia(1993a)analyzedjobapplicationscomposedbySouthAsians.FlowerdewandWan(2020)exploredthespecificdiscoursecommunityoftaxaccountantsinHongKong.ThepresentstudywasconductedtoimprovethewritingabilityofengineeringstudentsatGuanxiTechnicalCollegeusingGenre-basedApproachcombinedwithFeezs(2000)teachingandlearningcyclewhichwasconsistedoffivestages,namelybuildingthecontext,modelinganddeconstruction,jointconstructionofthetext,independentconstructionofthetext,andlinkingrelatedtext.Themovesanalysisoftherequeste-mailswasdonebasedonSwales(1990)andBhatias(1993)genreanalysisconcepts.Itwasfoundoutthatthereweresixmoves,namely,move1(openingsituation),move2(establishingcorrespondencechain),move3(introducingpurposes),move4(attachingdocument),move5(closingcorrespondingchain),andmove6(closingsalutation).Therewere45undergraduateengineeringstudentsparticipatedinthisstudy.Theteachingcontentwastoteachstudentstowriterequeste-mailsintheengineeringcontext.Beforetheclass,studentswereassignedtotakeapre-testaboutwritingrequeste-mails.Inthefirststage,thelanguageformsshowingtherequestfunctionofthesamplewerepointedout.Thentheconceptsof“moveand“stepwereintroducedandexplained.Studentswouldanalyzeasamplerequeste-mailusinggenreanalysisresultstogetherwiththeteacheraftertheteacherhadshownthemhowtodotheanalysis.Languageformsandgrammarpointsineachmoveinthosee-mailssampleswerepointedoutandexplained.Studentsdidmoreexercisestoensurefamiliaritywithsixmovesofrequeste-mails.Afterthat,studentswereassignedtowriterequeste-mailingroups.Attheendofthissession,eachgroupexchangedtheirworkforediting.Studentswouldwriterequestemailsindividuallyastheirhomework.Thefeedbackwasgivenbackduringthenextteachingsession.Attheendofthissession,thestudentscomparedthecharacteristicsofmovesbetweenrequeste-mailsandtheweddinginvitationcardasthelaststageofteaching.Afterthelessonimplementation,studentswereassignedtotakethepost-test.Thecomparisonbetweenthepre-testandpost-testscorewasundertakenbyusingthedependentt-test.Theresultsofthecomparisonbetweenthemeanscoreofpre-testandpost-testarepresentedinTable1below.Table1showsthatthemeanscoreofthepost-testscorewashigherthanthatofthepre-testscore.Itwasalsofoundfromthet-testresultsthatthewritingachievementscoresinthepost-testweresignificantlyhigherthanthoseobtainedinthepre-test(pReferences:【1】Bhatia,V(1993a)DescriptiontoexplanationinEnglishforprofessionalcommunicationapplicationofgenreanalysis.InBoswoor,T.(ed).【2】Feez,S.(2020).Text-basedsyllabusdesign.Sydney:McquarieUniversity/AMES.【3】Flowerdew,JandWan,A.(2020).Genreanalysisoftaxcomputationletters:Howandwhytaxaccountwritethewaytheydo.EnglishforSpecificPurposes25:133-153.【4】Hyland,K.(2020a).Secondlanguagewriting.USA:CambridgeUniversityPress.【作者簡介】龚艳(1987.9-)，女，壮族，安徽合肥人，泰国易三仓大学，博士在读，研究方向：英语教育。