ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education Volume 8, Issue 1, December 2019 p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 11 INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF GENRE-BASED TEACHING (GBT) ON EFL LEARNERS’ LISTENING IMPROVEMENT Ehsan Namaziandost Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran E-mail: e.namazi75@yahoo.com Sajad Shafiee Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran E-mail: s.shafiee@iaushk.ac.ir Mehdi Nasri Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran E-mail: me_nasri@yahoo.com APA Citation: Namaziandost, E., Shafiee, S., & Nasri, M. (2019). Investigating the impact of genre-based teaching (GBT) on EFL learners’ listening improvement . English Review: Journal of English Education, 8(1), 11-18. doi: 10.25134/erjee.v8i1.1818. Received: 27-10-2019 Accepted: 14-11-2019 Published: 01-12-2019 Abstract: This study tries to investigate the impact(s) of genre-based teaching (GBT) on Iranian EFL learners’ listening proficiency as well as to discover if GBT equally affects the listening proficiency of EFL learners at different proficiency levels. To fulfill this objective, 84 EFL learners were chosen. They were divided into Group A and Group B. Groups A and B consisted of 40 and 44 participants, respectively. Group A was divided into experimental and control groups and performed two listening proficiency tests for pre and posttest. Findings of one-way ANCOVA revealed that experimental group performed better than the control group due to using GBI. As indicated by the proficiency test, Group B was also divided into proficient and less-proficient groups; each one performed two listening tests for pre and posttest. Consequences of one-way ANCOVA showed both groups enhanced from pretest to posttest, however; the proficient group performed outstandingly better than the less-proficient group. The results of this study generally demonstrated that GBT is a pivotal and fundamental factor for improving listening comprehension. Keywords: genre-based teaching; listening proficiency; Iranian EFL learners. INTRODUCTION Genre-based teaching (GBT) is dominatingly identified with second language writing teaching method and originates from genre researches. It is established on the thought that every writer generates their texts in an inimitable and peerless way, but in relevance to social base and to other textualities (Knapp & Watkins, 2005). Looking from a similar point of view, Hyland (2004, p. 5) portrays GBT as “being worried about what students do when they write,” not a mechanical procedure of fastening words together. Thus, GBT presumes writing as a social relevance which is described by its attention on language structures, subject content, writing forms, and textual shapes. It focuses on teaching students how to utilize language to create a coherent discourse. As Cope and Kalantzis (1993, p. 8) elucidated students in GBT are instructed in “the manner by which the ‘hows’ of text structure procreate the whys of social impact.” It has been an axiom among second and foreign language researchers to confine genre researches principally to written discourse. Because of such a restricted view, research on genre-based teaching method is still inadequately represented (Cheng, 2006, 2008). However, there is no motivation to restrict GBT to writing teaching method and place it into the straitjacket of written discourse. Swales (1990, p. 33) characterizes genre as alluding to “a discernable class of discourse of any kind, spoken or written, with or without inconcrete appetence.” A few researches proclaimed positive connection among GBT and enhancement in students’ propensities towards language learning (Henry & Roseberry, 1998). In addition, these researches have assessed the efficacy of the genre-based teaching in enhancing students’ genre-based (Cheung & Lai, 1997; Flowerdew, 2000). As a striking linguistic skill, listening is commonly viewed as a region in language acquisition in which language student picks up dominance sooner and with more