A Progressive Genre-Based Approach to Enhance Descriptive Writing Quality and Learning Enthusiasm in Senior High School Level
Abstract
This study investigates the effectiveness of a progressively implemented Genre-Based Approach (GBA) in enhancing descriptive writing quality and learning enthusiasm among eleventh-grade Indonesian EFL students. Grounded in systemic functional linguistics and sociocultural theory, the intervention emphasized explicit modelling, staged scaffolding, and gradual release of responsibility across two instructional cycles. A Classroom Action Research design was employed in a senior high school in West Java, Indonesia. Data were collected through writing assessments, classroom observations, student reflections, and participation records to capture both cognitive and affective outcomes. The findings indicate substantial improvements in students’ control of generic structure, lexical specificity, and syntactic elaboration in descriptive texts. In addition, indicators of learning enthusiasm, including active participation, sustained attention, willingness to revise, and increased confidence, improved markedly throughout the intervention. These results suggest that explicit genre instruction combined with sustained scaffolding supports not only writing development but also positive learner engagement. The study highlights the importance of process-oriented writing pedagogy that integrates linguistic support with motivational factors. By providing classroom-based evidence from an Indonesian EFL context, this research contributes to the growing body of literature demonstrating that systematically scaffolded genre pedagogy can foster both textual competence and learning enthusiasm in secondary education.