Genre analysis and reading of English as a foreign language: Genre schemata beyond text typologies

Abstract

In schema theoretical views of reading comprehension a distinction has been established between linguistic, conceptual, and formal schemata. Formal schemata have been understood as the (partial) knowledge the learner has about, mainly, the written texts’ structure. Research of various kinds has proven that comprehension is favored by if the learner uses this knowledge, when enhanced through explicit instruction. Many of the studies done consist mainly in comparing readers’ behavior towards different text typologies or in comparing the reaction toward different text structures by readers from different linguistic backgrounds. This paper seeks to show the need to include the notion of genre in schema research, and more specifically in research on formal schemata. The notion of genre or rhetoric schemata brings up a pragmatic dimension, and incorporates a consideration of the sociocultural conventions for the assessment of reading comprehension. A distinction is made between textual and generic typology; the distinction is illustrated through the comparison of two related genres; the book review and the book printed advertisement, following Paltridge's model for analyzing genres. The comparison shows that the comprehension of textual macrostructure does not necessarily imply comprehension along essential dimensions such as the text's communicative or pragmatic function.