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Date Posted: 08:37:07 07/14/03 Mon
Author: Daniela Elisa Duarte Ferreira
Subject: Task # 11 - Genre-based approach

Genre-based Approach

The concept of genre was in past only related to literacy. Literary texts are classified according to language and subject matter, such as drama, comedy and tragedy, as Caudery (2003) states, “genre oup texts according to type, and to identify and describe features which texts of a particular genre have in common”. In linguistics terms, genre is also related to specific features, but not limited to texts. Rodrigues (2003) asserts that "genres are social processes accomplished via the use of specific registers in specific situations (Halliday and Hasan, 1989). From the ESP perspective, genres are structured, communicative events which have specific communicative purposes and which occur in distinct discourse communities (Swales, 1990)”. Baktin (1986, apud Rodrigues, 2003) also argues on the linguistic use of the term genre, saying that it “correspond(s) to typical situations of speech communication, typical themes, and, consequently, also to particular contacts between the meanings of words and actual concrete reality under certain typical circumstances.” Rodrigues (2003), based on Baktin (1986) and Swalen (1990), defined some principles of genre:

“1. Genres are conventionalized occasions of social interaction,
2. Genres are to be understood as social action,
3. Genres involve a set of relationships between people acting in a given
social context and performing certain social roles,
4. Genres entail relationships in which participants share the same set of
purposes,
5. Genres are recognized by members of the same discourse community,
6. Genres are distinct ways of using language to achieve different goals,
7 Genres are interactive processes of oral and/or written communication,
8. Genres have linguistic stability and recurrence,
9. Genres have similar patterns in structure, style and intended audience,
10. Genres are processes of social language/linguistic practices.”

Besides that, genre has also some pedagogical applications. It is related to language teaching as it is important for students to be aware of the relation between language and social context. Within this approach, students learn that there are specific linguistic communities and different genres for each of them. This understanding of genre diversity, “provides individuals with specific linguistic knowledge required in specific social environments which in turn allow them to take part in a number of distinct discourse communities” (Rodrigues, 2003). Students who have had contact with different genre, become conscious of how language usage depends on its social context and therefore “they are likely to become more proficient in recognizing and behaving according to the socio-cultural situations they may come across in their everyday discursive practices” (Meurer, forthcoming). Meurer also argues that when teaching is genre-based, teacher and students might go beyond “the genre studies themselves to reach the social spheres where these genres occur”.

The Genre-Based Approach in language teaching aims improving students’ communicative competence by proving them contact with different linguist communities. This contact with different genres helps learners understanding specific language codes used by those groups and also helps acquiring genre knowledge (Bhatia, 2003). Morover, learning materials role an important part in this approach. Bhatia (2003), state that they base genre acquisition because they “do not simply promote the awareness of the linguistic system underlying a particular genre but also offer genre-specific explanations as to why certain features of language realize specific values in individual genres. The underlying principle, therefore, is to take the learner from pure descriptive linguistic tasks towards genre-specific explanations of why such linguistic features are used and to what effect.” Once learners have understood how language is differently used by each linguistic community, they are able to acquire this specific genre and use it to communicate, which is the main goal above all.


References:

BHATIA, Vijay. Applied Genre Analysis and ESP
City University of Hong Kong
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/BR/functionalsec4_10.htm - 14/07/2003


CAUDERY, Tim. "Increasing students' awareness of genre through text transformation exercises: An old classroom activity revisited” University of Aarhus, Denmark
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej11/a2.html - 14/07/2003.

SWALES, John M. “Genre Analysis”. In: Table of Contents.
http://eserver.org/home/danzico/Discourse/swalessummary.html - 14/07/2003

RODRIGUES, Felix Augusto. “A Brief genre-based study of electronic mail”
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - Universidade Federal da Paraíba – 14/03/2003
http://sw.npd.ufc.br/abralin/anais_con2nac_tema056.pdf

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