Genre Pedagogy and Linguistic Mediation in Directed Writing Instruction: Rethinking Current Praxis in Cameroonian ESL Classrooms

This study examines prevailing instructional approaches to Directed Writing instruction within Cameroonian English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms, where traditional emphasis on structural correctness and grammatical accuracy seem to undermine communicative competence, thus operating in contradistinction to the requirements of the Competency-Based Language Teaching model being applied in Cameroon. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics and sociocultural theory, this paper analyses classroom practices through mixed-methods data—including observations, teacher interviews, and learner text analysis—to reveal persistent product-oriented pedagogies, inconsistent genre awareness development, underutilized linguistic mediation strategies, and a disconnect from students’ plurilingual realities in Cameroon. The research proposes an integrated framework uniting genre pedagogy, with its focus on textual structure, social purpose, and audience awareness, and linguistic mediation, which leverages cross-linguistic conciliation and interpretation. This approach empowers learners to circumnavigate academic and real-world writing tasks while affirming their multilingual identities. Findings advocate for curriculum and Cameroon GCE O/level assessment reforms aligned with the Competency-Based Language Teaching Model, emphasizing implications for teacher education, resource (re)design, and policy initiatives that reconcile communicative competencies with real-world scenarios and local linguistic ecosystems in Cameroon.