756 | Studies in English Language and Education, 10(2), 756-776, 2023 P-ISSN 2355-2794 E-ISSN 2461-0275 Building Knowledge about Language for Teaching IELTS Writing Tasks: A Genre- based Approach Ika Lestari Damayanti *1 Fuad Abdul Hamied 1 Harni Kartika-Ningsih 2 Nindya Soraya Dharma 3 1 Department of English Education, Faculty of Language and Literature Education, Indonesia University of Education, Bandung 40154, INDONESIA 2 Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, Depok 16424, INDONESIA 3 School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Design, and Architecture, University of New South Wales, Kensington 2052, AUSTRALIA Abstract As a widely used English proficiency test that includes a writing test component, IELTS raises pedagogical challenges that require high-stake literacy skills to meet the demands of the assessment criteria. Many studies on various teaching strategies for writing tasks in IELTS preparation courses have been conducted. However, more information about explicit instructions is needed to help test-taker candidates respond to the IELTS writing tasks effectively. This paper reports on a small-scale pilot project implementing a new generation of genre pedagogy, the Reading to Learn (R2L), for teaching IELTS writing to 14 government-sponsored student candidates at a public university language center in Indonesia. The project aimed first to identify the linguistic demands of IELTS writing, particularly Task 2. The identification of linguistic patterns was then used to design and implement the intervention. Second, it mapped the participants’ writing skills before and after the intervention. The data were drawn from IELTS teaching materials and the participants’ writing tasks before and after the intervention. Based on the genre analysis, the IELTS Writing Task 2 requires the test takers to respond to the tasks by taking one side or * Corresponding author, email: ikalestaridamayanti@upi.edu Citation in APA style: Damayanti, I. L., Hamied, F. A., Kartika-Ningsih, H., & Dharma, N. S. (2023). Building knowledge about language for teaching IELTS writing tasks: A genre-based approach. Studies in English Language and Education, 10(2), 756-776. Received July 17, 2022; Revised December 10, 2022; Accepted April 26, 2023; Published Online May 31, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v10i2.26957