Using Grammar- Based Stylistic Imitation as an English Teaching Technique in Writing Skill Pedagogy in EFL Classes

Writing has always been an integral part of learning and language learning in particular. Yet, it has something to be desired when it comes to teaching and learning it. This paper is an inquiry into the role stylistic imitation, i.e., imitating a writer’s style, plays in learning how to write in English classes. To that end, the researcher, taking advantage of action research to collect and analyze the data, has made an attempt to teach paragraph writing to EFL in-service teachers using stylistic imitation. Fourteen nonnative English teachers were asked to do close and free imitation; i.e., they produced a written piece at the beginning, freely following a paragraph prepared by the researcher. Then, they were exposed to the model paragraph and tried to imitate it closely and freely to see how exposure to a well written paragraph can improve writing competence. The researcher, following content analysis procedures, analyzed the data to find answers to the research questions. It was revealed that close imitation can help learner master the target structures. Furthermore, the findings from free imitation phase indicated that stylistic imitation benefits the less proficient more in that it helps them develop a style of their own. The implications in the educational settings are also discussed.