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The genre approach to writing assessed.

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is primarily to evaluate the strengths of the genre approach to the teaching of writing in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Theoretical and pedagogical references will be identified and exposited upon in both first and second language learning contexts, with specific reference to Japanese learners at the college level.

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In recent years the methodological field within linguistics has yielded yet another approach, the focus of which rests largely on the writing and reading/interpretive skills of the student. The genre perspective, which rose chiefly in Australia over the past fifteen years, (Martin 1986; Martin and Rothery 1986; Cairney 1992), attempts to develop literacy across a broad range of identifiable categories by raising the learner's awareness of the linguistic elements of genres. As such, its modus operandi acts as a pedagogical springboard from which the learner is elevated to new heights of privity, cognizance and competence. Essentially, the procedure is based on the linguistic definitions of Functional Grammar (Halliday 1994), an expanded version of the descriptions of language which involve how a text is bound together to create meaning in its particular context (Halliday and Hassan 1976). This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the genre approach to the teaching of writing, particularly to non-native English-speaking students or ESL students based in Japan. A sub goal will be to determine how far the genre approach can successfully couple process pedagogy as a teaching tool for the ESL writing classroom in Japan. Initially, however, a definition of genre will be presented and its evolution as an educational force described.

What Is Genre ?

The term genre goes beyond the traditional definition of a recognizable category of literary composition, to include any distinctive form which has attained a general level of identification. Degree of formality, mode of argumentation, textual structure, and purpose are all specific characteristics imposed on a genre which influence the use of language. As mentioned above, the genre approach is underpinned by a functional model of language which discusses the association between discourse and the context in which the language is used. The social constructionist position (Johns 1990, Swales 1990) which evolved out of dissatisfaction with the psychological theories of behaviourists (Lado 1964) and the naturalistic pedagogy of the process methods (Murray 1980), holds that writing is a social phenomena, in which each audience and context is idiosyncratic. That is, each discourse community has individual qualities. Further, Fiske (1987:114) views genre as a "means of constructing both the audience and the reading subject".

Indeed, there appears to be common ground between genre analysis and schema theorists. From the perspective of the latter, genres are "textual schemata" (Chandler 1998:2) and our background knowledge plays an important role in decoding a text:

From the point of view of the producers of texts within a genre, an advantage of genres is that they can rely on readers already having knowledge and expectations about works within a genre...

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