Abstract

Thai university students have difficulties in English writing. Applying a new approach may help resolve the problems. However, the process of teaching in the actual context needs to be examined carefully. This paper aims to shed light on what writing teachers perceive in their teaching practices in nine Rajamangala Universities of Technology (RMUTs) in Thailand. In particular, it also evaluates the notion of genre pedagogy drawn from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) where it is applicable to the context. Data were generated from the questionnaire administered to 63 writing teachers from 21 campuses, and semi-structured interviews with ten teachers were conducted. In addition, action research was employed in an eight-week genre-based writing course. A co-teacher and the researcher collaboratively taught the class of 40 students. All research participants were involved in focus group discussions and some were interviewed. The data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings show commonalities in the teachers’ perceptions and practices in all RMUTs, e.g. they use a combination of teaching approaches and model texts in their teaching. In addition, a genre-based writing classroom reveals satisfactory results in student writing and attitudes. The present study concludes that the genre-based approach has the potential to solve problems of teaching and learning English writing at Thai universities.