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Genre-Based Approach

David Sang Putra


Desi Andriani
Tri Rahayu
Background
 Hyland (2007:4) defines, “Genre is a term for grouping texts
together,representing how writers typically use language to
respond to recurring situations.”

 Nunan (1999:308) also


stated:“Genre is a purposeful, socially constructed oral or writ
tencommunicative event, such as narrative, a casual
conversation, a poem,
arecipe, or a description. Different genres are characterized b
y a particular structure or stages, and grammatical forms that
reflect thecommunicative purpose of the genre in question.”
 The genre-based approach played a great role in language
teaching reforming in Australia and has profound influence in
language teaching and researches throughout other
countries and regions.

Research in genre studies in Australia has been extensive


from middle of 1980s, having considerable impact on language
and literacy education

The genre-based approach played a great role in language teaching


reforming in Australia and has profound influence in language teaching
and researches throughout other countries and regions.

This approach aims to help learners understand the lexical and


grammatical features of different rhetoric contexts being aware of
communicative purposes, social interactions
Approach : Theory of language
and learning
Underlying Genre-based approach was the evolving model of language in
context known as Systemic functional linguistics (SFL). SFL is developed by
Halliday (1978), which is both a theory of language and a methodology for
analyzing texts and their contexts of use. Due to its dual nature, SFL aims to
explain how individuals use language and how language is structured for its
different usages (Eggins, 1994).

According to Halliday (1978), what unites these aspects of language education


is that learners are expected, through a contact with language as substance,
instrument and object, to create a system, a meaning potential, from the
instantiations of language (texts) they are exposed to. And the key to this
transformation is the context of situation, that is, “the coherent pattern of
activities from which the discourse gains its relevance”
In Halliday’s (1978: 23) words, in language education“The learner has to
(1) process and produce text; (2) relate it to, and construe from it, the
context of situation; (3) build up the potential that lies behind this text and
others like it; and (4) relate it to, and construe from it, the context of
culture that lies behind that situation and others like it. These are not
different components of the process, with separate activities attached to
them; they are different perspectives on a single, unitary process.”

To learn a new language, learners are expected to communicate effectively


orally or in writings. In order to achieve this goal, learners need a
grammatical description of the language and of how they are used in different
social contexts.
Design: Objectives, syllabus,
learning activities, roles of
learners, teachers, and materials

Prior to genre-based approach, process writing


Objectives was mainly conducted in writing pedagogy.
However, it is believed that students need direct
instruction in order to mastering written genres.
Genre forms should therefore be explicitly taught
through the study of models, the learning of
genre elements and their sequencing, and the
production of the genres through joint and then
individual construction.
To fulfill those purposes, the textbooks should
present and explain the social function, textual
syllabus features and structural features of a genre. And
also, the activities leading up to the writing tasks
should provide adequate scaffolding for students
in generating a genre.

Here are examples of teaching/learning activities


Learning from modality in appraisal in students’ essay- a
activities study of the effect of genre-based instruction:

1. Study of sample texts to observe the social


context of the writer and reader of a piece of
writing, conventional discourse practices in
exposition, cognitive strategies for developing
stance, and appropriate patterns of language.
2. Decision-making activities requiring students to
select and justify their selection of stance-
developing strategies, ideational meanings, or
language in a given writing context (e.g. select or
reject ideas as support for a given writer position).

3. Interactive activities involving role play to


practise specific thinking and communicative
strategies (e.g. to practise anticipation of
opposing views, students role-play personalities
with an interest in a given issue and likely to
object to the writer’s position on it).

Writing exercises to practice specific cognitive processes and high level


goals of information packaging, meaning and language or grammar selection
(e.g. Plan support strategy for justifying student’s position statement on a
given topic), discourse acts (e.g. writing a position statement for the essay
introduction to address the issue in the essay question), and use of language
for realizing specific discourse acts (e.g. practice sentence structures for
bringing up an anticipated opposing view).
Procedure
In the begging stages, students need to be widely exposed to many
models or examples of a certain genre for them to gaining the
knowledge of the specialized configurations of this genre and the sense
or memories of this reading and learning experience when they meet the
requirement of creating a new text of the same genre. This is the
modeling phrase, during which the required gene is introduced to
learners. Teaching focuses on the textual structure, language style and
social function of the genre.

The next stage is joint negotiation of text by learners and teacher. In this
stage, students practice exercises using similar language forms. It is a
discussing process of the teacher and the students including such
activities like exploring the cultural context, analyzing the target situation
and models of specific genres and identification of grammatical patterns.
The final stage is the independent construction of texts by learners when
learners create actual texts with all the learning and analyzing from
previous two stages.

he whole process generates a great amount of integration of teacher and


learners or between learners including understandings of social
functions and language, analyzing language, using of language,
discussing social contexts, communicational purposes, text structure,
rhetoric features.

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