Genre

The following will also be provided in a handout for class on Tuesday:

Hyland and Johns both outline the three primary genre studies approaches, which are summarized as follows:

1. Sydney School - focuses on the systematic organization of language in its contextualized use (Johns 201). This pedagogy purports a scaffolding pedagogy in which the teacher supports the student in learning and composes with the student before the student writes independently (Johns 203).

2. English for specific purposes - concentrates upon textual analysis, such as move analysis (Johns 206). This approach also considers genre with specific discourse communities, such as academic or workplace communities.

3. New Rhetorical - analyzes genre from “rhetorical, social, and ideological stances” instead of investigating “language and text organization” (Johns 209). This approach devalues explicit genre teaching in favor of situated genre learning (Johns 210).

Q: Which approach do you find most helpful for L2 learners in particular? Which do you find most problematic? Why?

Hyland and Johns both describe an approach to teaching genre that is based on Vygotsky’s work. This approach describes scaffolding, where the teacher supports the student in learning and composes with the student before the student writes independently (Johns 203). (Graphic mirrored from Johns 203.)

Q: Although discussed in L2 scholarship, this approach was not created specifically for L2 writers; do you recommend any adjustments specifically for this student demographic?

Hyland encourages a critical approach to teaching genres because solely teaching genre conventions reinforces existing power relations (25). Hyland is careful to explain, though, that students must learn the genres in order to be able to critique them. The teaching model outlined above is supposed to help limit the prescriptive teaching of genres.

Q: How do we teach genres critically (in a way that that questions hegemonic power relations) rather than prescriptively (in a way that only teaches forms and conventions)?

Sources:

Hyland, Ken. "Genre-Based Pedagogies: A Social Response to Progress." Journal of Second Language Writing 12.1 (2003): 17-29. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 11 Feb. 2011.

Johns, Ann M. "Genre and ESL/EFL Composition Instruction." Exploring the Dynamics of Second Language Writing. 195-217. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.