Impact of Process and Genre-Based Approaches to Writing on Iranian EFL Learners Writing Performance across Creativity Levels

This study aimed at investigating the effect of process-based and genre- basedapproaches to writing instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performanceacross high and low creativity levels. The study followed a quasi-experimentaldesign and it was conducted with a homogenous sample of 72 learners who wereselected from an initial group of 90 participants from a private language institute inUrmia, Iran. Based on the results of an English proficiency test known as OxfordPlacement Test and a test of creativity known as Abedi-Schumacher CreativityTest, the participants were assigned into four groups of 18. The treatment periodlasted for 10 sessions including pretest and posttest sessions. The results ofANCOVA statistics showed that the type of instruction had statistically significanteffect on the learners’ writing performance, with the higher performance of genrebasedover the process-based writing instruction, while the level of creativity hadno significant effect on the participants’ writing scores. Furthermore, a significantinteraction was observed between instruction type and the learners’ creativity level.The findings of this study have pedagogical implications for teachers, syllabusdesigners, and practitioners to use appropriate instructional methods in ELT withspecial attention on learners’ creativity levels.