Pergamon English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 2.17 256, 1995 Copyright ,~; 1995 The American University Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 0889.4~/~ S9.N) + O.(X) 0889-4906(95)00009-7 The Effect of Genre Awareness on Linguistic Transfer Zahra Mustafa Abstract Recent research on teaching English for academic purposes (t'AP) has shown that conscious knowledge of genre structure plays an important role in effective use of English in academic ~ttings. This study examines the effect of raising university students' awareness of term paIx~r conwmtions through fl~rmal instruction in L2 on producing this genre in the ~me language or another language (L1). The results show that, although formal instruction plays an impor- tant role in raising students' awarenms of these conventions, and, therefore, in improving their academic writing, wlriations in professors' evaluation of these aspects seem to be the main factor afhx'ting whether this awareness is put into practice. It is suggested tha! the co.o[x_.ration between EAP and subject teachers should include issues like agreement on the features ¢~f the genres required from students and the criteria set for lheir evaluation. Introduction Writing term papers is one of the most challenging tasks assigned to univer- sity students at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels, and it becomes even more challenging if it has to be in a foreign language (Behrens 1978; Rose 1983; Bridgeman & Carlson 1984; llorowitz 1986; Shih 1986). In order to submit a terra paper, undergraduate students are required to collect information relevant to questions indicated by a certain topic, and to organize it in a way to meet the reader's expectations in terms of relevance, coherence and standardized conventions (tlorowitz 1986). This implies that the term paper can be considered a genre, since a genre is defined by Swales (1986: 19) as "a recognized event with a shared public purpose and with communica- tive intentions mutually understo(~l by participants. It is often a highly struc- lured and more or less standardized communicative event with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their intent, positioning, form and functional value on the part of the participants". According to this definition, the language use in a genre institutionalized setting is usually governed by rules and conventions which could be social, linguistic, cultural, academic or professional. It also implies that awareness of these conventions is generally greater in those who professionally operate within specific genres than in those who start to be involved in such events. Therefore, it is neces~ry to raise the latter group's awareness of these conventions to make Address c.rrespondencv m: Zahra Mu,~tafa. Engh.,.h l.anguagc Unit. Faculty of ,":,cience. ['niversiLv of S,.'!cnce and 'rcchn~logy. hb!d. J~,rdan. 247