Developing and validating a genre awareness questionnaire for writing scientific reports

Area of Science:

• Applied Linguistics
• Educational Measurement
• Scientific Communication

Background:

• Language awareness is crucial for academic writing, particularly in scientific reports.
• Learners require specific awareness of the Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion (IMRD) genres.
• Existing research lacks a quantitative instrument to measure genre awareness in scientific writing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factor structure of a Language Awareness of Genres in Scientific Writing Questionnaire.
• To provide a reliable quantitative instrument for measuring students' awareness of IMRD genres.
• To support L2 bilingual secondary school students in Hong Kong.

Main Methods:

• Content validity and construct validity were employed.
• A questionnaire was developed to assess awareness of IMRD genres.
• Data were collected from 234 L2 bilingual secondary school students in Hong Kong.

Main Results:

• The study validated the Language Awareness of Genres in a Scientific Writing Questionnaire.
• The instrument demonstrated reliability for measuring genre awareness.
• Factor structure analysis confirmed the questionnaire's validity.

Conclusions:

• The developed questionnaire is a reliable tool for researchers and educators.
• It can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of genre-based writing interventions.
• Enhancing genre awareness is key to improving scientific writing skills.