This study aims to examine qualitatively a new approach to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) writing based on the learner's context model. It investigates the context model-based approach in class and identifies key characteristics of the approach delivered through a four-phase teaching and learning cycle. The model collects research data through recorded classroom teaching, teacher-researcher's memos, learner reflections, and learners' independent EFL writing, and analyses the data using grounded and a priori approaches. The study shows that this teaching approach helps learners develop and apply their context model through proactively configuring its four component elements to plan EFL writing, purposefully organising textual presentation to conform to the intended norm, and appropriately managing discursive practice and cross-cultural norms to maintain a proper relationship with the intended reader.