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Genre

Handout from 2003 JALT Pan-SIG Conference, May 11th, 2003

    Definitions:
      Genre:
      "A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognised by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale for the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style. Communicative purpose is both a privileged criterion and one that operates to keep the scope of a genre as here conceived narrowly focused on comparable rhetorical action. In addition to purpose, exemplars of a genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content and intended audience. If all high probability expectations are realised, the exemplar will be viewed as prototypical by the parent discourse community." (Swales, 1990, p. 58)

      'a term I use to name configurations of meaning that are recurrently phased together to enact social practices" (Martin, 2002, in Johns (Ed.), p. 269)
      Field: social activity
      Tenor:interpersonal relationships among people using language
      Mode: the part played by language in building communication

    "These four variables - categorised as genre, field, tenor and mode - can be used to contextualize the interpretive and the productive demands of any situation" (Macken-Horarik, 2002, in Johns (Ed.), p. 25).
    Background

    Flowerdew (2002, in Johns (Ed.)) identifies 2 streams of research and application:

      Linguistic: systemic functional linguistics, most often associated with "the Sydney School" and TESPNon-linguistic: evolved from research questions involving "the purposes and functions of genres and the attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours of members of the discourse communities within which genres are situated" (Flowerdew, 2002, in Johns (Ed.), p. 91). Most often associated with "the New Rhetoric".
    Bhatia (2002 in Johns (Ed.)) contends that there are several levels of generic description:
      generic values: "independent of any grounded realities of social context" (Bhatia, 2002, in Johns (Ed.), p. 282)
      genre colony: "rather loosely grounded in broad theoretical contexts and are identified on the basis of flexible and fluid overlapping of generic boundaries" ... Bhatia (2002, in Johns (Ed.), p. 282).
      Macro-genres, as discussed by Grabe, and Martin (both in Johns (Ed.), 2002), are situated at this level
      individual genres: more typically and narrowly grounded in socio-rhetorical contexts (Bhatia, 2002, in Johns (Ed.), p.282)
    Teaching in the "Sydney School" proceeds top-down , and in ESP, bottom-up.
    Why teach genre?

    "... progressive ESL pedagogy has failed to make explicit to learners the knowledge they need to gain access to socially powerful forms of language. It has emphasised enquiry learning, process, and naturalism, but has neglected to offer learners systematic explanations of how language functions in various social contextsÓ (Burns, 2001, p. 200).
    In demonstrating how language choices are actualised through ways key vocabulary and grammatical structures associated with particular genre interact with the "who, what, where, when, how and why" of the text in terms of situation and context, the relationship between culture and language can be directly addressed.

    Genre in the EFL classroom

    EFL works both top-down and bottom-up, as the need arises. Also explores "genre colonies" according to student needs.

    Example
    References
    Bradford-Watts, K. (2003). What is Genre and Why is it Useful for Language Teachers? The Language Teacher, 27 (5), 6-8.
    Burns, A. (2001) Genre-based approaches to writing and beginning adult ESL learners. In C. Candlin & N. Mercer (Eds.), English Language Teaching in its Social Context., London: Routledge
    Johns, A.M. (Ed.). (2002). Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Marwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
    Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the Language Learning Classroom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
    Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A revised version of this presentation was published as:
Bradford-Watts, K. (2003). The Role of Genre in TEFL. The Language Teacher, 27 (12), 9-13.

Email me: kim@bradford-watts.com