A Conceptual Paper on Exploring Genre-Based Approach in Indonesian EFL Education

Abstract

Genre-Based Approach (GBA) has been proven effective in developing students' comprehensive and flexible language skills, so it has become a popular and hot issue. However, many teachers do not understand it. This conceptual paper is a literature review exploring GBA in English language teaching. The paper aims to provide collected studies and theories on the implementation of GBA in Indonesia, along with its advantages and disadvantages. It draws the data from some resources in journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and a government document. The GBA stages involve Building Knowledge of the Field (BKOF), Modeling of the Text (MOT), Joint Construction of Text (JCOT), and Independent Construction of the Text (ICOT). GBA is found to be able to build students' character, such as developing students' creativity and critical thinking skills. Nonetheless, GBA can also be time-consuming as it needs thorough preparation, and it's challenging, as well, if it is applied to teach low-achiever students. There are some teacher misunderstandings about GBA, so it is necessary to provide teachers with comprehensive training and simulations of the GBA stages to implement this method optimally.