Meyer, L. (1996). The contribution of genre theory to theme base-based EAP: navigating foreign fiords. TESL Canada, 13(2), 33-45
This article discusses the use of genre theory as an alternative and or supplement for the currently popular theme-based learning instruction (TBLI). The author describes TBLI as a method which doesn't have the necessary coherence of content focus to assist ESL students in the development of skills required to interact in a North American academic community She describes genre theory as the idea of a total configuration where the area of content specialization is enmeshed in the web of social interactions conducted by those participating in the genre's community. She stresses that form and structure are not the first step but the ultimate growth of a process of clarification. All students, native and non-native speakers alike, must go through the process of induction into the academic community. This process is more difficult however, for some non-native speakers whose values are at odds with the manner and methods of the academic community. She feels that ESL students should specifically be intellectually introduced to the strategies for academic acquisition as well as to the general expectations of the academic community. This is to prevent their arriving at false conclusions. All this should take place in a community having the same focus and interacting as a group to pursue the same specific discipline of knowledge. Through this interaction the students learn to argue and question and above all to share the same values held in their area of study.
1. Interesting to see that Dr. Carson has written a related article referred to by the author.
2. Leki, I. & Carson, J.G. (1994). Students perceptions of EAP writing instruction and writing needs across the disciplines. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 81-102.
"What genre theory adds to TBLI pedagogy is the reminder that writing is the textual realization of a wide range of human interactions (Bazerman,1994) and that the challenge facing students is to become coparticipants. They need to provide disadvantaged students with the familial advantages their mainstream counterparts already possess, and to do so explicitly. They must give students not only the grammatical and discourse building blocks, but also, more importantly, the skills needed to learn and use these building blocks in community appropriate interactions in order to build a genre. To do this instructors must strive to create a real social purpose for writing tasks, and this real purpose entails creating a community with intentions and dialogue revolving around learning and working with content knowledge." (p. 41)
This passage shows how contextually oriented genre theory is. It is a brief overview of genre theory's emphasis on the social environment of learning. It offers some insight as to how to enhance TBLI.
Bazerman, C. (1994). Where is the classroom? In A. Freedman & P. Medway(Eds.). Learning and teaching genre (pp. 25-36), Portsmouth, NH.: Heinemann.
1. The value of trying to create an academic community among ESL students.
2. The importance of using context when teaching ESL students.
3. The importance of maintaining continuity in materials.
Li, S. & Mumby, H. (1996). Metacognitive strategies in second language academic reading: a qualitative investigation. English for Specific Purposes, 15(3),199-216.
This article is the summary of a qualitative research project conducted with two Chinese native speaking graduate students at Queen's College, Canada. The authors begin their article with a definition of metacognition. They state that metacognition is one's awareness of one's own mental processes (p.199). This awareness also deals with self-monitoring and self-regulation. In this study the authors are concerned with the metacognitive strategies which their student subjects may use. They are partially interested in the results as a confirmation of previous research indicating the different types of strategies used by students. The authors acquired subjects who were Chinese and in the Social Science masters program at Queen's College. Of the two students who volunteered, one was male, the other female. Chinese students were desired because they have little background knowledge in Western social science and would therefore have to use strategies for comprehension. Interviews, think-aloud sessions and journals were used to evaluate the students' processes. The students read two passages about which they were subsequently questioned regarding their reading strategies. The most common strategies were found to be: use of background knowledge, translation, self-questioning, summarization, and prediction (p.204). One student used, picking out key words and the other student used L1 domain to compare and contrast what he had read. The authors concluded that the students were very adept at using strategies. They also learned that the students found it difficult to think in English on hard passages and reverted to their native Chinese.
Shuyun Li completed her masters at Queen's College in Education. When this article was published, she was a lecturer of communication skills at Nanyang Technological Univ. in Singapore.
When this article was published, Hugh Mumby was a Professor of Education at Queen's University. He conducts research on teachers' professional knowledge.
"The most obvious implication of this study for ESL instruction derives from the finding that some strategies learned in English classes may not be adequate or applicable in L2 academic reading.. This suggests that due to the demanding nature of L2 academic reading, the teaching of a specific reading strategy in an English training class may not necessarily be productive. Carrell (1991) argued that effective second language reading pedagogy must include not only training and practice in the use of task specific strategies (i.e. strategy training), instruction in orchestrating, overseeing, and monitoring these strategies (i.e. self-regulation training) but more importantly, information about the significance and outcome of these strategies and the range of their utility (i.e. awareness training). More immediately, ESL instructors should encourage their students to vary their strategies as the reading requires. Research has shown that readers have to employ a wide range of strategies in order to read efficiently (Forrest-Pressley, 1994: Grabe, 1991).
This quote shows that if students haven't been trained in the use of strategies it is probably really difficult for them to come to terms with their academic reading assignments. The use of strategies is something we should look for and utilize in our work with our ESL student.
Carrell. P.L. (1991). Strategic Reading:In J.E. Alatis (Ed.), Georgetown University Round Table in Language and Linguistics 1991. Georgetown university Press.
Forrest-Pressley, D.L. & Waller, T.G. (1984). Cognition, metacognition and reading, New York: Sringer- Verlag.
Grabe, W. (1991). Current developments in second language reading research. TESOL Quarterly. 25, 375-406.
Use of strategies can be taught to ESL students while simultaneously building schema fields.
Carrell.P. (1985). Facilitating ESL reading by teaching text structure. TESOL Quarterly, 19(4), 727-745.
This author summarizes the work of many authors before presenting her own study on the teaching of text structure to ESL students. The goal of teaching text structure is to improve the students' reading facility. She refers to Meyer and Freedle (1984) as having shown that the rhetorical structures of expository writing affect reading comprehension (p.728) This study used native speakers, in fact all the first studies she refers to are intended to show that teaching native speakers about text structure helps improve their retention of detail and overall comprehension. This is shown to be true for narrative as well as expository writing. She then reviews some studies which have dealt with ESL learners. She refers to the work of Hinds (1983a, 1983b) in which he has English native speakers read expository texts having a Japanese rhetorical pattern. He found that it was very difficult for the English speakers to understand the texts they had been given. This demonstrates the influence of different rhetorical styles on the L2 learner. Carrell's study was designed to answer the question, "Can we facilitate reading comprehension by teaching text structure?" (p.734). They selected 25 heterogeneous ESL students to participate in the study. There was an experimental group and a control group. Basically the experimental group was taught about top level rhetorical organization and the strategy for using that information as a basis for reading and recalling expository text (735). The control group was not exposed to this information. Although they read the same texts,in their sessions they were given grammar exercises to do. Both groups were administered a pre-test and a post-test. After reading a text the students were asked to write a recall. The experimental group improved in the recognition of top-level text organization. This improvement endured even up to three weeks after the last session. She concluded that teaching the top level rhetorical organization helps ESL students' reading comprehension.
This is a complex article and although rather older (1985) it is rich in references to other authors and their studies on similar topics.
"The results of the qualitative analysis shows that the training facilitates recall of supporting detail as well as of major topics and subtopics" (p.741).
This quote shows the areas in which her study was successful.
1. ESL students can be instructed in the various types of rhetorical styles found in English. They can use this knowledge for comprehension and recall strategies.
Hyon,S. (1996). Genre in three traditions: implications for ESL. TESOL Quarterly, 30(4), 693-722.
The author makes it clear in this article that there are some distinctions of what is called genre theory in North America and Australia. The North American schools are ESP (English for specific purposes) and New Rhetoric Studies. The Australian genre theories have been influenced by systemic functional linguistics. Swales, who has been influential in the ESP movement, has described genres as "communicative events." (1990). In ESP there is an emphasis on both social function and structure. ESP is geared to English for Academic Purposes and English for Professional Purposes classrooms. Proponents feel that genre orientation can help students read and write in their field by gaining insight into the "functions and linguistic conventions of the texts" (702). New Rhetoric studies on the other hand have been oriented toward L1 speakers. They are more interested in the situational and action aspect of their texts. They have also used ethnography to study different contexts. Because of their theoretical focus, New Rhetoric Studies have been less oriented to classroom applications. Their goal is the learning of all aspects of a genre. Australian genre theories have grown in their own environment, influenced by a language theory known as systemic functional linguistics which was developed by Michael Halliday. This theory has been influential in both language theory and education. The theory concerns itself with the interplay between language and social context. Halliday's focus has been on linguistic register; however some of his students have focused on genres. Their area of interest has been primary and secondary education.. The Australians have developed practical applications for the classroom which are used in public education to foster an understanding of different social genres. This approach is seen as particularly empowering for minority students. Of the three genre schools, the Australian school is the most political.
After reading this article I can conclude that my first article; The Contribution of Genre Theory to Theme-Based EAP: Navigating Foreign Fiords, is rooted in the North American schools of genre theory, particularly the New Rhetoric Studies. I say this because of the author's situational emphasis which was an aspect of the New Rhetoric noted in the Hyon article. Meyer however does a remarkable attempt to blend theory with practice as she offers an alternative to theme based language instruction. She didn't offer too many specifics though.
"The ESP and Australian definitions of genres as structured, communicative events and as staged social processes, respectively, are useful for sensitizing ESL instructors to links between formal and functional properties of texts that they teach in the classroom." (p.712)
This seems to capture the essence of genre description.
1. Taking the notion of the situational context and depending on the level you are teaching, different texts can be introduced; perhaps in conjunction with the assistance of professional members of that genre community. They could lead workshops in their genre-field with the students.
2. More information can be procured about the LERN cycle. This cycle suggests possibilities for classroom practice.
Corbett, J. (1993). Appropriating arguments: academic reading and writing. TESL Canada, 10(2). 91-99.
The author states that his teaching strategies were developed for the BA in EFL students at Stirling University, Scotland. The thrust of his article is that students need to know how to make appropriations from their background reading. They need to do this in such a way as to avoid plagiarism,which is more of a problem for ESL/EFL students than for native speakers. Again, this is because the EFL students do not understand how to appropriate. The professors at Stirling developed their own activities for their students because they felt that most of the materials available emphasized science and business as opposed to the humanities and social sciences which were of more interest to their students. He notes that when students are making quotations in an essay the quotations often fall at the end of the essay as a kind of clincher. The first part of the essay being based on personal experience and knowledge. The author points out that rather than writing from a personal point of view the student needs to be able to synthesize and summarize his/her background reading.
Although this article is ostensibly about appropriation, it is also about text type or genre to a lesser extent. The student must come to understand the material in order to be able to summarize and synthesize and not just plagiarize.
"I argued earlier that it is not generally advisable to end a piece of work with a quotation, but I shall anyway(quotation as pithy topic closer) Bazerman(1988, p,328) argues that good writing is good science. To paraphrase, developing student writing is the first step towards developing not just a greater control of language but a greater control of academic procedure. The learner develops strategies which help validate knowledge claims to the satisfaction of the academic community. It is this which makes the subject so fascinating and rewarding to teach."
Bazerman, C. (1988). Shaping written knowledge. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Using the techniques outlined in this article can be useful for acquainting students with text, text type and academic logic.
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