GENRE PEDAGOGY AND EMPOWERMENT: STUDENTS’ VOICE

Abstract

This paper reports a part of a study on genre pedagogy in learning to write a research proposal. It delineates the students’ responses on the practice of empowerment reflected in the teaching program.  This case study involved fifteen students of an English Department, year three, taking the subject of Research on ELT 1 who voluntarily joined this teaching program. An open-ended questionnaire to gain the students’ responses was used as the research instrument. The questionnaire results showed that the students responded positively to genre pedagogy as well as the classroom practices related to empowerment reflected in the teaching program. They gave positive responses on the activities of genre pedagogy, such as reading multiple texts, using skripsi (final research report for undergraduate students) as a model, teacher’s explanation on the schematic structure and linguistic features of the research proposal, the teaching of grammar, and writing different drafts. They posited that those activities were helpful and meaningful to help them write research proposals. Furthermore, the students’ responses to classroom activities related to empowerment in the teaching program were also positive. They felt happy after conducting the activities in the program and completing the research proposals. Furthermore, they believed that they were able to write good research proposals. Finally, they also showed their willingness to help their friends in writing a research proposal.