The Development of Explanation Writing Ability by Using Genre-based Activities

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to improve the students’ explanation writing ability, and
2) to study the satisfaction of the students toward explanation writing instruction based on genre-based
activities. Being selected through purposive sampling, 15 second-year undergraduate students majoring
in English at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Surindra Rajabhat University were the subjects
of the study. Instruments for collecting data included 1) the genre-based activities lesson plans, 2) the writing
test, 3) the satisfaction questionnaire, and 4) the explanation writing ability rubric. Statistics for data analysis
included mean, percentage, and standard deviation. The findings indicated that 1) the score of the subjects’
explanation writing ability before using genre-based activities was 66.20% and after was 87.87%, and
2) the subjects’ satisfaction with the use of genre-based activities in developing explanation writing ability
was at high level.
To conclude, the genre-based activities enhanced the students’ explanation writing ability.
Moreover, the subjects were satisfied with the genre-based activities at high level. The genre-basedactivities are considered as an appropriate teaching approach which should be used to develop students’
English explanation writing ability.