Genre Awareness Research Articles

Moving Away from the Implicit Teaching of Genres in the L2 Classroom

English language proficiency exams are often associated with high-stakes decisions. Guidance however, concerning the writing tasks is often implicit. The emphasis is usually placed upon grammatical and lexical features rather than the pragmatic aspects that differentiate the tasks. Aiming to boost genre awareness as part of L2 pragmatic competence in this context the present paper provides a description of individual exam genres and their relations to each other. Such knowledge is expected to assist both teaching and material writing. Using a pedagogical genre-based corpus with model answers from teaching material we contrast eight genres to each other based on a set of sixteen features. Each feature is associated with a specific text property. Findings reveal some unexpected relations between pairs of genres and offer insight as to the points of convergence and divergence. It is shown that assumptions made about the similarity of texts which belong to the same text type group can sometimes be mistaken. Therefore, it is argued that the tendency to use general labels for text categories in teaching material may mislead novice writers.

A Study on Correlation Analysis between Genre awareness and Writing transformation in Academic Writing Process of College Students

A Study on Correlation Analysis between Genre awareness and Writing transformation in Academic Writing Process of College Students

,,Students' awareness of the linguistic genre and roles of the literary language

,,Students' awareness of the linguistic genre and roles of the literary language

Exploring the Design Patterns That Elementary School Students Use to Create Multimodal Display Boards in a Classroom Project

The goal of the present study was to examine the design patterns of multimodal information representation that elementary students used to create a project display board, and to gain insights into their emerging identities as multimodal text authors. The study was conducted at an el ementary English dual-immersion school located in an urban city, Korea. Year-long inquiry-based instruction was offered for the entire body of fourth- to six-grade students. Students created their own project display boards as the culminating product of their inquiry learning, which were collected as the data for the examination of multimodal design patterns. Descriptive data analysis was conducted to identify the array of design elements, features, and layouts used in the display boards and to classify these student authors according to their different multimodal engage ment. The analysis resulted in three related but distinctive profiles of student authors, including (a) emergent authors mainly using images for aesthetical purposes, (b) conventional authors using written text as the dominant mode of information representation, and (c) developing multi modal authors integrating written texts and images into a spatial framing of messages. The result indicated different stages of multimodal literacy development with respect to use of design features, genre awareness, and audience consideration. Implications are discussed in relation to literacy research and practice.

Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence.

The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to examine effects of genre awareness on sentence processing and evaluation. We hypothesized that genre awareness modulates effects of genre-typical manipulations. We manipulated instructions between participants, either specifying a genre (poetry) or not (neutral). Sentences contained genre-typical variations of semantic congruency (congruent/incongruent) and morpho-phonological features (archaic/contemporary inflections). Offline ratings of meaningfulness (n = 64/group) showed higher average ratings for semantically incongruent sentences in the poetry vs. neutral condition. ERPs during sentence reading (n = 24/group; RSVP presentation at a fixed per-constituent rate; probe task) showed a left-lateralized N400-like effect for contemporary vs. archaic inflections. Semantic congruency elicited a bilateral posterior N400 effect for incongruent vs. congruent continuations followed by a centro-parietal positivity (P600). While N400 amplitudes were insensitive to the genre, the latency of the P600 was delayed by the poetry instruction. From these results, we conclude that during real-time sentence comprehension, readers are sensitive to subtle morphological manipulations and the implicit prosodic differences that accompany them. By contrast, genre awareness affects later stages of comprehension.

Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL in a single EFL classroom (CoP). The participants’ genre understanding and meaning-making decisions when writing discussion essays were studied over two semester-long courses. To do so, their developmental changes were analyzed using pre- and post-instructional writing tasks. In particular, their ability to convey interpersonal meaning, such as through the use of modal verbs, was examined and compared between the pre- and post-tasks. To triangulate the findings, participants’ genre awareness in relation to discussion essays was also examined using in-depth qualitative analysis of their self-reflective texts and peer assessments, based on a grounded theory approach. In the pre-writing task, it was apparent that the learners lacked understanding of the components of discussion essay writing. However, analysis of their post-instructional tasks revealed that most had begun to apply the language components required to convey interpersonal meaning in their discussion genre texts. These results suggest that the changes in learner’s genre awareness and knowledge affected the lexicogrammatical features they used when writing discussion essays. Thus, this study concludes that applying the SFL framework to writing instruction enhanced EFL learners’ awareness of textual meaning and their understanding of the function of discussion essay texts.

The Effect of Genre Awareness on English Translation Quality and Pedagogy: A Case of News Reports Translation as an Academic Curriculum

To produce an adequate translation, language students are required to learn varieties of language features including syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Considering the curriculum language learners are face with, one can claim that almost all language students in Iran are taught these features in their academic settings including linguistic courses. Yet, there are some aspects of language which are disregarded in course books and syllabi and ignored by language teachers. Thus, language learners find it a formidable task to deal with these shrugged off aspects of their curricula. Genre of language is among these invisible features which have challenged translation students in translating specific texts. News reports is one of these genres that Iranian media translators, in spite of enjoying technical competence in language, are not familiar with knowledge and rhetorical conventions of it. So, the current is conducted to investigate the familiarity of these translators with genre features of news discourse and examine the effect of raising genre awareness on developing the quality of translation. To this aim, fourteen translation students studying translation for media purpose were selected through convenient sampling who were given some news reports to translate. Using Baker’s taxonomy (1992) and House’s quality assessment model (1997), the quality of their translations were assessed before genre awareness raising session and after it. The findings showed that the quality of translation ameliorated meaningfully after the instruction, indicating the importance of genre knowledge in linguistic competence. These findings have implications for syllabus designers and EAP and ESP teachers and students.

Reading for Writing—The Application of Genre Analysis in College English Writing in China

Writing is seen as the most difficult one in the four skills of learning a foreign language. And also one cannot be quickly improved in teaching. Genre approach is a teaching pedagogy based on the theories of genre analysis. The purposes of genre approach are to cultivate learners’ genre awareness of texts and master a certain genre which has its own communicative purpose and generic structure, to help learners understand and apply generic knowledge in writing. The author analyzes the existing problems in teaching college English writing in China. Then, the author designs a teaching approach, combining the advantages of three genre approaches and the author’s teaching practice, which is suitable for college English writing in China. Last, some main findings are recommended in teaching writing.

Toward a Framework for Linking Linguistic Knowledge and Writing Expertise: Interplay Between SFL‐Based Genre Pedagogy and Task‐Based Language Teaching

This article attempts to apply some systemic functional linguistic (SFL) concepts to task‐based language teaching (TBLT) as a means of enriching the fields of learning, teaching, and evaluating writing in an additional language. The purposes are twofold. First, this article presents a concrete example concerning SFL‐initiated genre‐based tasks, which were designed for college‐level writers of English as a foreign language (EFL) so that they can learn genre, task, content, and language concurrently. Second, this article presents a descriptive study on how the systematically designed genre‐based tasks were experienced by the EFL writers, how their genre awareness changed as they experienced the genre‐based tasks, and how their meaning‐making choices for constructing a genre changed over time. This study's findings highlight the effectiveness of linking the conceptual framework of SFL to the methodological principles of TBLT in terms of the simultaneous development of linguistic knowledge and writing expertise.

Literature reviews, citations and intertextuality in graduate student writing

Literature reviews are a genre that many graduate students do not fully understand and find difficult to write. While the genre, language and rhetorical moves of literature reviews are widely researched, less research focuses on citation use in literature reviews. Teaching students ‘how-to’ write the literature review through explicit genre awareness is not enough. What is needed, is a focus on the discursive nature of citations since citations are a core ingredient in literature reviews. The complexity of citing, referencing and using sources is difficult to teach in university classrooms, especially in courses that focus on content knowledge. When it is taught, it is often imparted to students as conventions with particular organisational features around citation styles. Or it is taught within the discourse of morality and academic dishonesty that surrounds plagiarism. What is lacking is a pedagogy that relates citing to the more complex discursive practices that are implicit and deeply embedded in particular time-bound contexts. The purpose of this research was to explore citation patterns in 23 draft and final masters’ student literature review papers to better understand the ways in which students use sources in literature reviews with the aim of informing pedagogy. Findings indicate that the concept of intertextuality, specifically, transgressive intertextuality, intertextual engagement and discursive intertextuality can help with the teaching and learning of literature reviews and citation use.

A genre-based study of shell-noun use in the N-be-that construction in popular and professional science articles

This article investigates the N-be-that construction in popular and professional science articles with a focus on shell nouns. This examination of shell-noun use in two corpora, one consisting of popular science articles and the other of research articles, reveals the preferred ways of evaluation in these two genres. The study shows that, despite the overall similarity in semantic distribution, there are distinct variations in shell-noun use between the two genres. Popular science writers are more inclined to use this focus construction and tend to be more explicit in making evaluations than are professional science writers. In popular science articles, shell nouns express more epistemic certainty, news-worthiness, and subjectivity, whereas in research articles these nouns express more tentativeness, objectivity, and scientific rationality. This comparative study further expands current understanding of the evaluative functions of shell-noun use and can also help cultivate writers' genre awareness.

If-Conditionals in Economics Research Articles: From Keywords to Language Teaching/Learning in the L2 Writing-for-Publication Class?

Using the tools of corpus linguistics, this study identifies the basic means of knowledge construction in research articles in economics. The results suggest that discourse-signals realize conditional prediction and empirical hypothesis within the macro-speech acts of hypothesis, analysis/interpretation/generalization and prediction, with if being the most key of all connectors and cohesive devices. If-conditionals are described based on categories such as factual and theoretical conditionals, case-specifying and rhetorical conditionals. Given the vast array of forms and functions, the complexity of conditionals can be considered relatively high from the point of view of explicit knowledge. Turning to implications and applications of the research for an elective L2 writing-for-publication program intended for Ph.D. students and researchers in economics, however, it is clear that scholars in economics can use their domain expertise and L1 genre awareness in the L2 classroom. In this context, some recommendations are given for developing consciousness-raising tasks, activities and materials about if-conditionals. Materials are intended to promote semantic processing, noticing and/or reflecting based on nontechnical vocabulary and working explanations that are comprehensible to the learner and adequate to his/her background knowledge, needs and goals. They comprise grammaticality judgments, in-class comparison of well-formed examples for rule identification, explicit corrective (peer) feedback and discussion of multiple-choice items and gap-fills.

Subject-Specific Genres and Genre Awareness in Integrated Mathematics and Language Teaching

The increasing attention devoted to the role of language in the different school subjects calls for approaches of integrated subject matter and language teaching and learning. In this article we argue for the importance of subject-specific genres for integrated mathematics and language teaching. Based on an exemplary analysis of geometric construction texts we show that subject-specific genres in the context of schooling might be influenced by different academic and institutional contexts. In a case study of a classroom discourse in 7th grade about geometric construction texts we show how these different contexts pose a challenge for teaching this genre. As a result, genres in school mathematics might appear as blended genres. Based on our findings we refine the notion of genre awareness as an important aspect of teacher knowledge in order to better prepare teachers for the challenges of integrated subject matter and language teaching.

The Relationship Between Students’ Text Genre Awareness and Critical Thinking Disposition with Their Reading Comprehension

Abstract This research was aimed at knowing the relationship among three variables, genre awareness (X1), critical thinking disposition (X2), and reading comprehension (Y). The study was conducted at SMAN 4 South Tangerang, and the participants were 180 students of the twelfth-grade students. A quantitative method was used to get through this research using the correlation as the design. Some instruments were developed to collect the data; they are tests (genre awareness test and reading comprehension test) and questionnaire to measure students’ critical thinking disposition adapted from Facione (2000). In data analysis, r product moment and R multiple regression coefficient tests was applied to test the correlation value through SPSS 21 program. The research found that (1) there is a correlation between genre awareness (X1) and reading comprehension with correlation value ro 0.876 which is higher than 0.05, (2) there is a correlation between students’ critical thinking disposition (X2) and their reading comprehension (Y) with value ro 0.263 which is higher than 0.05, (3) there is a simultaneous correlation among students’ genre awareness and critical thinking disposition with their reading comprehension with correlation value Ry.12 0.881 and the ρ-value = 0.00 < 0.05 meaning that the Ho is rejected. The contribution of X1 and X2 to support the Y variable is found as 77.5%, or it is stated that reading comprehension success is determined by students’ genre awareness and their critical thinking disposition. Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui hubungan tiga variabel yaitu, pengetahuan genre (X1), sikap kritis (X2), dan kemampuan membaca (Y). Penelitian ini dilakukan di SMAN 4 Tangerang selatan dan siswa kelas XII sebagai populasi penelitian. Seluruh populasi 180 siswa dipilih sebagai sampel. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode quantitative dan model korelasi sebagai desain penelitian. Adapun untuk menjaring data, ada beberapa instrument penelitian yang digunakan yaitu tes (test pengetahuan genre dan tes pemahaman membaca) dan kuesioner sikap kritis Facione (2000). Untuk menganalisa data, penelitian ini menggunakan r product moment dan R uji koefisien regresi ganda melalui program SPSS 21. Penelitian ini membuktikan bahwa: (1) terdapat hubungan antara pemahanan genre (X1) dan pemahaman membaca siswa (Y) dengan nilai korelasi rhitung 0.876 yang mana lebih besar dari 0.05; (2) terdapat hubungan antara sikap kritis siswa (X2) dan pemahaman membaca (Y) dengan nilai indeks korelasi rhitung 0.263 yang mana lebih besar dari 0.0; (3) terdapat hubungan yang simultan di antara ketiga variable penelitian X1, X2, dan Y dengan indeks korelasi Ry.12 0.881 dan ρ-value = 0.00 < 0.05 yang menyatakan bahwa Ho ditolak. Kontribusi variable bebas terhadap variable terikat adalah sebesar 77.5%, yang manadapat dikatakan bahwa keberhasilan pemahaman membaca ditentukan oleh pengetahuan siswa terhadap genre dan sikapkrits mereka. Maka, dapat disimpulkan bahwa pengetahuan siswa terhadap genre dan sikap kritis mereka berhubungan dengan kemampuan pemahaman membaca mereka. How to Cite : Indra, H. (2017). Salafiyah Curriculum at Islamic Boarding School in the Globalization Era. TARBIYA: Journal of Education in Muslim Society, 4(1), 104-113. doi:10.15408/tjems.v4i1.5909. Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15408/tjems.v4i1.5909

Using the research article as a model for teaching laboratory report writing provides opportunities for development of genre awareness and adoption of new literacy practices

The retention and success of students from under-represented groups in University science programmes remains a global issue. Despite increased enrolments, these students still have the greatest rate of attrition. One of the factors that affect success is an inability to navigate the specialized literacies required within the culture of science. Here we present an intervention to develop the disciplinary literacy practices and genre awareness of first year biology students, using the pedagogical genre of the laboratory report. This is one of the most common genres in undergraduate biology and is modeled on the genre of the research article. To help students learn to write laboratory reports, we designed an intervention that included a lecture series around the reading of a research article, a quantitative literacy workshop on data communication and a peer-review workshop. Students received feedback on their reports and had several opportunities to rewrite them. To assess the success of the intervention, the first and final drafts of 20 students' reports were compared and a subgroup of these students was interviewed. Analysis of the reports revealed that most students made significant progress in terms of genre acquisition and development of genre awareness. The interview data confirmed that the intervention brought about enhanced understanding of the genre and notably created opportunities for students to adopt new science-relevant literacy practices.

Learner characteristics in an EAP thesis-writing class: Looking into students' responses to genre-based instruction and pedagogical tasks

The individual differences of learners in genre-focused EAP writing classes, as well as their learning trajectories, have become a subject of focused attention in recent ESP research on the learning of academic genres. However, questions still remain as to whether learner characteristics and any characteristics they have in common may need to be considered in ESP genre-based pedagogy. This study examines the characteristics of the students in an EAP thesis preparatory course at a Chinese university. Drawing on data from interviews, participants' process logs, and their written texts in the course, the study identifies two salient learner characteristics that influenced the learning process. One was the students' self-direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis writing, a characteristic conditioned by the teacher's role and the pedagogical writing tasks. The second characteristic was the learners' positioning themselves as merely doing assignments when doing thesis-preparation writing tasks, which revealed a potential mismatch between the course goal of increasing students' genre awareness and the pedagogical nature of the EAP writing tasks. The two learner characteristics suggest potential challenges for how students respond to EAP instruction and tasks, which in turn have pedagogical implications for genre-focused EAP writing classes.

Genre Identification Based on SFL Principles: The Representation of Text Types and Genres in English Language Teaching Material

Genre awareness has recently gained a lot of attention due to the recognition of the vital impact of genres in discourse comprehension and production. At the same time, the rapid development of corpus linguistics studies has caused a reconsideration of methodological issues such as the classification of texts during corpus building. This study aims to untangle commonly confusing terms such as ‘text type’, ‘genre’ and ‘register’, reviewing their use by prominent researchers. It then attempts to investigate the range of genres involved in writing tasks presented in English language teaching material. Reporting on experience from the Writing Model Answers corpus classification of texts, we explain how we identified genres based on Systemic Functional Linguistics principles. We also suggest a more student-friendly ‘naming’, which signals the basic requirements of the task. By measuring the representation of the initial text types compared to the redefined tasks, seen as genres, we show the range of genres involved in each text type category in this context. Classification of texts based on genres and appropriate ‘naming’ of these genres is shown to offer more insight on the variation among texts. We propose that its implementation in teaching material could assist second language learners in developing linguistic and pragmatic knowledge, a combination of competences that is required in language testing.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARD THEIR READING DIFFICULTIES OF DIFFERENT GENRES

Students of English Language Teaching Program are required to have the ability to comprehend different kinds of texts or genres. Howewer, their reading ability as reflected in Reading courses and other courses is low. This paper is aimed at describing the students’ perception toward their reading difficulties of different genres. The data presented in this paper are partially derived from the data collected through a descriptive research conducted in 2009/2010 at the English Department of FBSS, State University of Padang. The instrument of the research were a reading test, which was to determine the level of the students in genre awareness and reading comprehension, and interview to gain students’ perception on their reading difficulties. Data were analysed descriptive-qualitatively and descriptive-quantitatively. From the result of the test, the students thus are categorised into high, middle and low achievers. The result of the interview showed that students with different level of comprehension had different difficulties in understanding texts with different genres because of some factors. Thus, improving the syllabus on Reading courses and other related courses such as Writing, TEFL dan Linguistics are considered important. Keywords: perception, genre awareness, reading comprehension

Digital Reading

This article informs educators about the importance and challenges of teaching digital reading practices. In positioning reading as a design-oriented activity and readers as text designers, instructors can teach genre awareness as a way to help students strongly engage with and comprehend digital texts.

Genre awareness and academic lecture comprehension: The impact of teaching importance markers

This paper explores the impact of teaching importance marking expressions on EFL learners' comprehension of main points in English academic lectures. The participants of the study were 100 EFL learners (53 males and 47 females) studying medicine at a major university in Iran. Half of the participants were assigned to the experimental group and the other half were put in the control group. The learners in the experimental group received explicit instruction in importance markers within 15 one-hour sessions, whereas the students in the control group participated only in the classes of their regular major-related courses, one of which was a course on English for the students of medicine. A test of the comprehension of important points in English academic lectures was developed and used as a post-test to measure the students' comprehension of important points. The results of t-test showed that knowledge of how importance marking is done in English academic lectures improves the EFL learners' comprehension of the main points of lectures. This was taken to mean that genre awareness or an understanding of the discourse structure of academic lectures improves the students’ comprehension of the main points of lectures.