<![CDATA[This systematic review examined the empirical evidence on genre-based pedagogy for teaching research proposal writing to tertiary-level EFL learners. Following established systematic review procedures, studies were selected based on inclusion criteria focusing on genre-based instruction, research proposal writing tasks, and EFL/ESL tertiary participants. Findings from the available studies were analyzed thematically across five dimensions: writing performance, genre awareness, cognitive empowerment, self-efficacy, and linguistic accuracy. The review revealed that genre-based instruction is associated with improvements in students’ ability to organize research proposals and understand academic conventions. Cognitive and psychological empowerment were reported in some studies, while direct evidence of self-efficacy improvement remains limited. A particularly important finding was the persistence of grammatical problems despite improvement in rhetorical organization, suggesting that genre awareness alone does not guarantee grammatical accuracy. The review also identified considerable variation in instructional models, including the Teaching-Learning Cycle, Cognitive Genre-Based Approach, and integrated genre/process models. However, the evidence base is small and heterogeneous, with some findings based on overlapping publications and graduate-level participants. The review concludes that genre-based pedagogy provides a promising framework for research proposal writing instruction, but its effectiveness is likely strongest when combined with explicit linguistic support. Implications for pedagogy and future research are discussed.]]>
