a) what are the typical activities
involved in this approach?
b) what are the reasons for and against taking a genre approach to teaching writing.
A. Typical
activities (Underlined)
1. Activities to sensitise the Ls to, and practice the features of the genre. This is less confusing for learners if only one feature of the text is focused on at once – eg grouping of related information in paragraphs (for expository texts) rather than random order of points; the use of direct speech (for story writing); avoidance of informal language (for business reports) etc. This means several features may be presented and practised (see also points 2 and 3 below) before the ls are asked to write a full text.
Examples of typical presentation activities include:
2. Presentation
of two versions of the same text – one well written and illustrating the
feature to be “noticed” the other not. Ls decide which they prefer and why. Eg
if the genre was story writing (many exams give the Ls the option of writing a story as part of the written paper), the Ls might read
two versions of the same story, one using adjectives and adverbs of manner to
help the reader visualise the scene and the other not.
3. Learners can
be given several model texts and asked to compare them for similarities,
thus increasing their awareness of the fact that specific genres do follow
conventions that all writers adhere to. Eg: If the feature was organisation of
information – eg in a university application cover letter which many EAP
learners might need to write– learners could be given several model texts and
asked to identify the topics covered, the amount of space/number of paragraphs
and lines devoted to each, and the order in which they were included.
4. If the feature
is linguistic - eg the use of ellipsis
in customer reviews on websites such as “Trip Advisor” (relevant to all general
purpose learners who might want to write such reviews after a holiday), Ls
can be given authentic samples and asked to “notice” the feature – here by
identifying what words are “missing”
from each sentence.
5. Matching activities : Similarly, if the feature was the use of connective expressions to indicate the semantic relationships between propositions in a text (useful for Ls needing to write expository essays in an exam) the Ls could first be given two (or three) lists of propositions – the second and third list in random order in relation to the first. They match them and decide the relationship (eg “Studying online has several advantages” matches with “It saves time”, which in turn matches with “You don’t have to leave home to attend lessons”) They match the propositions and decide the relationships between them (here proposition 1 – example – cause). They then read the text and note how these relationships are marked linguistically – eg : “Studying online has several advantages. First of all, it saves time as you don’t have to leave home to attend lessons.”
Activities to give further receptive exposure to the individual
features. Eg :
6. Gapped texts
: If the feature that has been presented was the use of topic sentences in
expository texts, Ls might be given a well-structured text with the topic
sentences missing from the paragraphs. They could then match a list of
“jumbled” topic sentences with the paragraph they relate to.
7. Sentence
reconstruction : If ellipsis is being focused on, Ls can be given a text
with the symbol ^ used where a word has been ellipted – eg in a review of a
hotel :” ^ Didn’t sleep well - ^^ too much noise from the traffic outside. But
^ breakfast ^ excellent.” They then
“notice” which words have been ellipted.
8. Scrambled
sentence/paragraph activities : Eg- If ls are focusing on the organisation of
information, a list of scrambled sentences can be provided which they then
organise into logical order.
Activities to give practice of the individual features include.
9. Text
Completion : As 6 above, but this time the Ls invent their own topic
sentences for the paragraphs.
10. Text Adaptation: As a follow up to 4 above, they can be given a text with all the words included and cross out those which could be ellipted.
Freer writing practice activities then allow the Ls to incorporate all the
features they have focused on into a complete example of the genre.
11. Early writing tasks
may be scaffolded by the provision of activities often used in product-type
approaches such as being given and following an outline plan for the
essay
12. At this stage elements
of a process approach may also be incorporated – eg Ls can be asked to
brainstorm ideas for an expository essay and then group them before actually
writing the text and incorporating the genre features they have focused on.
13. Peer
evaluation can then be done, using a checklist – Ls evaluate each
other’s texts to see whether and to what extent the features have been
incorporated (and to learn from examples which are more effective than their
own).
B. Reasons for
the approach
14. Genre
conventions differ from culture to culture. For example, Italian written texts
favour much longer sentences than are considered acceptable in English, will
avoid the type of hedging common in academic style, and will discuss many more
background details, often leaving the main point implied rather than directly
stated. An Italian who transfers this style to writing in English is liable to
be criticised as “not knowing how to write” by eg an academic supervisor or, in
a work situation, their boss. This may lead to them being penalised – eg
achieving a low mark or being passed over for promotion. The genre approach
ensures the Ls have a clear idea of what is expected and how to produce it.
15. Where the
features differ radically between cultures, it provides a systematic “feature
by feature” approach which allows Ls to concentrate on and master one feature
at a time. As part A above suggests it is a PPP approach to writing which
ensures that learners are not overloaded or given full writing tasks until they
are ready for them.
16. As part A
suggests, the approach generally incorporates activities based on a
constructivist approach - discovery learning, peer-evaluation etc. This will a)
mean that understanding tends to be processed at a deeper cognitive level than
if Ls are simply “told what to do” and understanding and retention are more
likely; b) contribute to the development of learning autonomy; c) engage the
learners more fully with the lesson, increasing enjoyment and motivation.
17. It is an approach which can be adapted to cultural needs. The “constructivist” aspect of the approach may be alien to the educational cultures of some countries (eg Vietnam) where the T. is expected to be the “knower” and to “tell” the Ls what they need to learn, and could therefore create student dissatisfaction with the course. However, in this case it would be easy to revert to a more traditional product based approach (presentation of a model – explanation of features by the T – reproduction of features – T. evaluation) without abandoning the focus on genre features.
C. Reasons
against the approach
18. It has been
argued that this type of “imposition” of specific genre features suggests a
“colonial” approach where “our way is right and yours wrong”. It has therefore
sometimes been rejected for political reasons.
An Example Lesson...
For an example of materials teaching learners to write customer reviews, and using a genre approach, see here. This genre has also been analysed in the Language Matters section - see the post on Customer Reviews. Looking at it first will help you understand the rationale behind the materials.
