Genre-based Approach
Background
As Swales (1990) defined , “Genre is a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes.” His definition states that there are conventions in a certain style of genre. Every genre has a set of communicative purposes under social situations and each genre has its own structural features. Therefore, the communicative purposes and the structural features should be introduced when genres are used in writing classes. Genre-based approach was developed out of Halliday’s systemic functional theory and Martin’s work on Appraisal. Research in genre studies in Australia has been extensive from middle of 1980s, having considerable impact on language and literacy education. The genre-based approach played a great role in language teaching reforming in Australia and has profound influence in language teaching and researches throughout other countries and regions. This approach aims to help learners understand the lexical and grammatical features of different rhetoric contexts being aware of communicative purposes, social interactions. It is believed that explicit attention to genre in teaching provides learners a concrete opportunity to acquire conceptual and cultural frameworks to undertaking writing tasks. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning has defined the genre approach as “a framework for language instruction” based on examples of a particular genre. The genre framework supports students’ writing with generalized, systematic guiding principles about how to produce meaningful passages. The structural features that genres are made up of include both standards of organization structure and linguistic features.
Approach: Theory of language and learning
Underlying Genre-based approach was the evolving model of language in context known as Systemic functional linguistics (SFL). SFL is developed by Halliday (1978), which is both a theory of language and a methodology for analyzing texts and their contexts of use. Due to its dual nature, SFL aims to explain how individuals use language and how language is structured for its different usages (Eggins, 1994).
According to Lock (1996), in terms of language education, the systemic functional perspective does not focus on the distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical linguistic forms, but rather on the appropriateness of each lexico-gramatical choice for a particular communicative purpose in a particular social context. As the author points out, “the primary concern [of systemic functional linguistics] is with the functions of structures and their constituents and with their meanings in context” (Lock, 1996: 1).
SFL models of language involve a trinocular conception of meaning as comprising ideational resources for naturalizing reality, interpersonal resources for negotiating social relations, and textual resources for managing information flow; these generalized orientations to meaning are referred to as metafunctions. In addition, Halliday’s trinocular perspective on meaning is projected onto social context, giving rise to the register viriables of field, tenor, and mode. (Martin, 2009)
We should understand that these patterns are not closed, they can be adapted by the writer or speaker.
It might sound like an obvious truth to say that it is impossible to write without first knowing the language, but it is also true that we cannot write if we do not control the systems of genre and register. Martin (2001)
According to Halliday (1978), what unites these aspects of language education is that learners are expected, through a contact with language as substance, instrument and object, to create a system, a meaning potential, from the instantiations of language (texts) they are exposed to. And the key to this transformation is the context of situation, that is, “the coherent pattern of activities from which the discourse gains its relevance”
Listeners need to predict the text from the context which raise the difficulty to second language learners who are in the process of learning the construct of the language.
In Halliday’s (1978: 23) words, in language education“The learner has to (1) process and produce text; (2) relate it to, and construe from it, the context of situation; (3) build up the potential that lies behind this text and others like it; and (4) relate it to, and construe from it, the context of culture that lies behind that situation and others like it. These are not different components of the process, with separate activities attached to them; they are different perspectives on a single, unitary process.”
To learn a new language, learners are expected to communicate effectively orally or in writings. In order to achieve this goal, learners need a grammatical description of the language and of how they are used in different social contexts.
The impact of genre in educational contexts is evident primarily in three major areas (Hyon 1996; Johns 2000): English for specific purpose (ESP), New rhetoric studies and systemic functional linguistics. Although the boundaries between these areas are often blurred, distinctions are useful as they serve to highlight similarities and differences of how the notion of genre has been adopted as a theoretical construct and as a basis for practical teaching strategies.
Design: Objectives, syllabus, learning activities, roles of learners, teachers, and materials
Prior to genre-based approach, process writing was mainly conducted in writing pedagogy. However, it is believed that students need direct instruction in order to mastering written genres. Genre forms should therefore be explicitly taught through the study of models, the learning of genre elements and their sequencing, and the production of the genres through joint and then individual construction. It has been argued that the most significant contribution of the genre-based approach to writing is the development of an explicit understanding of the role of language in the educational context and a linguistic description of the major genres that children are expected to learn as they learn write. (Hammond, 1987).
To fulfill those purposes, the textbooks should present and explain the social function, textual features and structural features of a genre. And also, the activities leading up to the writing tasks should provide adequate scaffolding for students in generating a genre.
Genre pedagogy typically include the following kinds of teaching tasks: exploring the cultural context, analyzing the target situation, analyzing models of specific genres and identification of grammatical patterns.(Hammond, 2001)
Here are examples of teaching/learning activities from modality in appraisal in students’ essay- a study of the effect of genre-based instruction:
• Study of sample texts to observe the social context of the writer and reader of a piece of writing, conventional discourse practices in exposition, cognitive strategies for developing stance, and appropriate patterns of language.
• Decision-making activities requiring students to select and justify their selection of stance-developing strategies, ideational meanings, or language in a given writing context (e.g. select or reject ideas as support for a given writer position).
• Interactive activities involving role play to practise specific thinking and
communicative strategies (e.g. to practise anticipation of opposing views, students role-play personalities with an interest in a given issue and likely to object to the writer’s position on it).
• Writing exercises to practice specific cognitive processes and high level goals of information packaging, meaning and language or grammar selection (e.g. Plan support strategy for justifying student’s position statement on a given topic), discourse acts (e.g. writing a position statement for the essay introduction to address the issue in the essay question), and use of language for realizing specific discourse acts (e.g. practice sentence structures for bringing up an anticipated opposing view).
Procedure
In the process of implementing genre approach, teachers should bear in mind that student’s writing is a reproduction of the models offered and elaborated by teacher. One of the key points of genre approach is its intimate relation to a certain social purpose. Readers are the main consideration when drafting the text rather than writers. The writing should abide by the model that is accepted by the social norms. The learning process is an imitation and reproduction of various writing models.
In the begging stages, students need to be widely exposed to many models or examples of a certain genre for them to gaining the knowledge of the specialized configurations of this genre and the sense or memories of this reading and learning experience when they meet the requirement of creating a new text of the same genre. This is the modeling phrase, during which the required gene is introduced to learners. Teaching focuses on the textual structure, language style and social function of the genre.
The next stage is joint negotiation of text by learners and teacher. In this stage, students practice exercises using similar language forms. It is a discussing process of the teacher and the students including such activities like exploring the cultural context, analyzing the target situation and models of specific genres and identification of grammatical patterns.
The final stage is the independent construction of texts by learners when learners create actual texts with all the learning and analyzing from previous two stages.
The whole process generates a great amount of integration of teacher and learners or between learners including understandings of social functions and language, analyzing language, using of language, discussing social contexts, communicational purposes, text structure, rhetoric features.
These undoubtedly will foster much output of the language and effectively motivate the output of ideal language.
Conclusion
Genre approach is a newcomer to the second language teaching. In this chapter, we have discussed the theoretical framework underlying this approach, and the feature of explicitly introduction of demanding genre style in different contexts. Because of its significantly beneficial role in helping second language writers, genre approach is advised to be adopted in the writing classroom to amplify students’ writing potentials. Whereas, genre approach should never be the only dominant approach in the language teaching, to make the most of its advantages, collaboration has to be made between genre approach and other teaching methods. Badger and White (2000: 160) describe a model of process genre approach, which is a synthesis of the two methods. Under this approach, writing is viewed as “a series of stages leading from a particular situation to a text, with the teachers facilitating learner’s progress by enabling appropriate input of knowledge and skills.” It is expected that students will enhance their writing skills by experiencing the whole writing process as well as realizing social functions by means of the process genre approach. Dudley-Evans (1998: 118) proposes a teaching approach that combines the strength of the product approach, the process approach and the genre approach. This approach follows the following stages: “develop rhetorical awareness by looking at model texts; practice specific genre features, especially moves and writer stance; carry out writing tasks showing awareness of the needs of individual readers and the discourse community and the purpose of the writing; evaluate the writing through peer review of reformulation.” Although there are lots of discussions about the pedagogical implications of genre approach, research on what L2 writers need to learn, what they should be able to do and how L2 writing can be effectively taught is still lacking. The complexities of debates amongst genre proponents have only been touched upon, so it is hoped much work on research and practice need to be conducted.
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