ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the writing instruction intended to teach narrative-related linguistic resources would contribute to expanding English as a second language (ESL) students’ genre conventions and improving their general second language (L2) writing proficiency. In the context of writing assessment, genre has been considered one of the major facets that elicits potentially different linguistic expressions and writing performance. With regard to the effect of genre manipulation on writing performance, earlier studies have suggested mixed findings. One of the potential reasons that ESL students have difficulty producing L2 narrative writing is the need to use many particle verbs in expressing the path and manner of motion in the narrative of English. Of several task variables that have been examined in task-based writing research, idea support has received increasing attention, due to findings that showed the validity of idea support as a task variable imposing differing levels of cognitive demands on writers.
