| Writing, as one of the primary skills of communication, has always held an important place in the teaching of foreign languages. However, less attention has been given to writing in Japan, an EFL situation, where the emphasis has traditionally been on form-focused grammar teaching, and intensive textbook reading by the grammar-translation method.; Despite the global need for effective communication not only in spoken but also in written English, argumentative writing skills remain underdeveloped among Japanese students in comparison to their counterparts in other countries. This constitutes a serious handicap for many Japanese students, as interest in studying abroad increases and as they face an ever more globalized world after graduation. Although this in part may be attributable to the prevailing difficulties in the Japanese university teaching situation including low student motivation, large class sizes, and limited amounts of instruction time, it is the author's belief that the fault is mainly due to the focus in most classrooms on the limited goals of grammatical accuracy and competence in sentence-level translation.; The present study investigates whether a different approach to teaching writing might be more effective and efficient in improving the learners' argumentative writing skills in English, even given the limitations of the average Japanese university language classroom. The author used formal instruction in the L1 to raise the learners' awareness not only of English paragraph organization, but also of more discourse-level factors such as rhetorical differences and reader expectations.; The research was conducted in a private Japanese university; with non-English majors. Three groups were involved: (1) a control group; (2) a group that composed in the Japanese language, then translated into English; and (3) a group that wrote directly in English. The experimental groups were given formal instruction in the L1 about differences in Japanese and English rhetorical patterns and audience expectations. The results for the three groups were compared and analyzed at the end of one semester. It was found that fluency, as measured by total word production, increased significantly in both experimental groups, with the largest gains being seen in the group that wrote directly in English. Gains were also found in the experimental groups in discourse-level accuracy and rhetorical proficiency as measured by three judges.; It is hoped that the results of the present study will help EFL instructors to teach English argumentative writing more effectively and efficiently. If this occurs, then this study will have made a contribution to developing EFL students' ability to communicate with other writers in the English language. |
