Author(s): Tayyibah Khan, Dr Shakira Khatoon

Abstract: Academic writing has emerged as a cornerstone of higher education, yet it remains one of the most challenging skills for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners to acquire. Undergraduate students, particularly those in non-English-dominant contexts, often struggle with accuracy, organization, and the formal register expected in academic discourse. This study investigates pedagogical approaches to teaching academic writing to undergraduate ESL learners, focusing on the integration of product, process, genre, and process-genre within an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) framework. Drawing on classroom-based interventions at Aligarh Muslim University, the present study examines how structured tasks—ranging from paraphrasing and summarizing to cohesion-building and hedging—enhance learners’ ability to produce coherent and accurate academic texts. Findings indicate that scaffolding writing through recursive processes and genre awareness improves both linguistic accuracy and rhetorical effectiveness. The study concludes by highlighting pedagogical implications for ESL writing instruction, stressing the need for integrative approaches that address linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural dimensions of writing.

Keywords: academic writing, ESL learners, undergraduate education, English for Academic Purposes, genre pedagogy, process approach

Article Info: Received: 27 Mar 2026; Received in revised form: 25 Apr 2026; Accepted: 28 Apr 2026; Available online: 30 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.102