A Meta-Analysis of Studies on Genre-Based Approach in Teaching in Chinese Academia

Abstract

Genre theory has been introduced to mainland China since 1990s; since then, there have been many researchers in Chinese academia working on this area. This meta-analysis reviews journal papers published on core journals indexed by CNKI (the biggest China Academic Journals Online Database) from 1998 to 2018, with searching keywords include Genre and English language teaching. Research results show that Chinese scholars have touched upon English skills including writing, reading and listening. This study also finds out that empirical studies on the implementation of genre-based approach to teaching are rare; most of the articles only proposed teaching models or processes, without applying them in the real classroom teaching. Hence, this review calls for more experimental research to be conducted in future to explore an appropriate way to apply genre-based approach in English language teaching in Chinese context.