SFL genre-based writing research in the university EAP classroom: a systematic review from 1995 to 2024

The Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) genre-based approach (GBA), or the ‘Sydney school genre pedagogy’ (Green & Lee, 1994), is a theoretically grounded, justice-oriented approach to literacy that aims to make disciplinary ways of knowing, being and doing more explicit and visible to students (Martin & Rose, 2008). This paper presents an in-depth synthesis of research investigating SFL GBA in undergraduate and postgraduate EAP writing published in the 30-year period from 1995 to 2024, with a focus on how this pedagogy has been utilised and recontextualised in different EAP writing contexts to support learners to meet their diverse contextual needs. In total, 70 studies situated in tertiary education across 20 countries met the inclusion criteria and were analysed for their methodological design, disciplinary context and genre focus. This in-depth review identifies specific reasons researchers have studied GBA in EAP contexts, as well as key takeaways and areas for further investigation. The review offers readers insight into the diverse needs, challenges and adaptations addressed and explored in this body of research and aims to inspire and inform other researcher-practitioners working in higher education to integrate the SFL GBA into their EAP writing curriculum and to investigate the impact of such an approach on their students' developing writing proficiency.