The Problem-solution Pattern: a Tool for the Teaching of Writing ?

Over the past two decades researchers have increasingly become aware of the fact that language teaching can benefit from the field of discourse analysis and pragmatics. This paper analyzes the applicability of the so called problem-solution pattern to the teaching of writing. An experiment was conducted in order to test M. Hoey’s (2001) belief that the pattern can serve as a ready-made template to help the learner-writer in their task The results point at the fact that providing students with vocabulary related to the topic triggers the problem-solution pattern, which reveals itself as culturally known for our student s, without the need of explaining it explicitly.