1. Soomin Jwa & Justin Cubilo
Genre Learning in a Writing Classroom: From the Perspectives of SFL and EFL
Soomin Jwa & Justin Cubilo

2. Systemic Functional Linguistics (Sydney School)
Colombi (2009)
Rhetorical
Genre
Studies
English for
Specific
Purposes
Cheng (2008)

3. Key Concepts: SFL
Genre is “staged, goal-oriented social processes through which social subjects in a given culture live their lives” (Martin, 43)
Form-function relationship
Context
Context of culture  genre
Context of situation  register
Register
Field, tenor & mode
Explicit instruction
Grammatical metaphor
(Halliday, 1985)
Teaching-learning cycle
Modeling
Joint negotiation of text
Independent construction of text

4. Teaching-learning cycle
Modeling
Joint negotiation of text
Independent construction of text

5. Key Concepts: ESP Discourse community Communicative purpose
“sociorhetorical networks that form in order to work towards a set of common goals” (Swales, 1990)
Communicative purpose
starting point for genre analysis
Textual analysis (Bhatia, 1993)
Move/step analysis
e.g., The three-move CARS model
Establishing a territory (move1)
Establishing a niche (move2)
Occupying the niche (move3)
Text-patterning
Lexico-grammatical features

7. Similarities & Differences between SFL & ESP
Difficulties
Analytical focus:
Pedagogical commitment:
Target audience:
SFL
ESP
Types of genre to teach

8. Similarities & Differences between SFL & ESP
Analytical focus:
connection between linguistics features and social context and function
Pedagogical commitment:
explicit instruction
Target audience:
SFL: Primary/secondary school students
ESP: Advanced, graduate-level NNS
Types of genre to teach
SFL: pre-genres (explanations, recounts, or descriptions)
ESP: academic, professional genres (research articles, conference abstracts, job application letters, etc.)

9. Discussion Questions 1. Which approach do you prefer? And why?
2. What are the possible challenges you might face when you adopt either SFL or ESP approach to genre?

10. Article Analysis Implied educational context (including learners)
Approach described by
Cheng (2008) as “ESP”
Colombi (2009) as “Sydney School”
Implied educational context (including learners)
ESP/L2 writing instruction;
universities
academic & professional settings
nondominant (“at-risk”) language learner (primary and secondary) [Who also have potentially advantaging linguistic and cognitive resources (79)] -> L2 and L1
adult learners (migrant workers - L2 -- workplace competency)
Underlying theory/ies of language and/or genre
Genre as social action, staged, recognizable
Writing is a social activity
“genre as a tool for analyzing and teaching the spoken and written language required of nonnative speakers in academic and professional settings” (Hyon p. 695)
genres are the answer to recurring social situations and communicative needs of a social group
authority is given to ideas when they follow expected generic standards
Language as a system of meaning making (SFL)
Not all language is equal
Oral and written language do different things, in different ways, in different contexts
Genres give access to different degrees and kinds of social power (Martin, 1991), but they are not fully controlled or determined by individual writers (67)   
Language is a system of meaning making (SFL)
Literacy=ability to denaturalise language and account for linguistic structure in terms of social purpose for wide range of discourses

11. Article Analysis Underlying theory/ies of language and/or genre
Approach described by
Cheng (2008) as “ESP”
Colombi (2009) as “Sydney School”
Underlying theory/ies of language and/or genre
Genre as social action, staged, recognizable
Writing is a social activity
“genre as a tool for analyzing and teaching the spoken and written language required of nonnative speakers in academic and professional settings” (Hyon p. 695)
genres are the answer to recurring social situations and communicative needs of a social group
authority is given to ideas when they follow expected generic standards
Language as a system of meaning making (SFL)
Not all language is equal
Oral and written language do different things, in different ways, in different contexts
Genres give access to different degrees and kinds of social power (Martin, 1991), but they are not fully controlled or determined by individual writers (67)   
Language is a system of meaning making (SFL)
Literacy=ability to denaturalise language and account for linguistic structure in terms of social purpose for wide range of discourses

12. Article Analysis Underlying theory/ies of learning
Approach described by
Cheng (2008) as “ESP”
Colombi (2009) as “Sydney School”
Underlying theory/ies of learning
Vygotskyan (scaffolding, collaboration)
“Noticing”
Learning to write is needs-oriented, requires explicit outcomes and expectations, is a social activity.   
Classroom applications of genre = outcomes of communicative approaches; current ideas of literacy
Vygotskyan learning theory
starting with student experiences
Learning genres to develop, change, disrupt --not simply to reproduce forms
learning to write is... a social activity ; is needs-oriented ; requires explicit outcomes/expectations ; involves learning to use language (Hyland)

13. Article Analysis Main principles of the pedagogical approach
Approach described by
Cheng (2008) as “ESP”
Colombi (2009) as “Sydney School”
Main principles of the pedagogical approach
social context & form are important
teaching students formal qualities of genres
ESP instructors concerned with “communicative needs of particular academic and professional groups-- Genres = properties of communities of use, not of the culture
Text types in genre theory and pedagogy have been fairly specialized.
scaffolding - authoritative (not authoritarian) teacher
*explicit teaching*
deconstruct and challenge mainstream texts students are often required to write in educational contexts
explicit analysis of generic features--critique of social function of genre--writing in the genre
Teaching and learning cycle -- modelling, joint negotiation of text, independent construction of text
teaching of genre empowers students

14. Article Analysis Example of a classroom activity Approach described by
Cheng (2008) as “ESP”
Colombi (2009) as “Sydney School”
Example of a classroom activity
mini-analysis of a feature text in students’ disciplines -- compare with students in other fields;
Compare written and spoken nodes (e.g., lecture and textbook)
- teachers need to illustrate activities that help students gain awareness of the communicative purposes and linguistic features of texts in their professions.
Microstructure [lesson sequencing]
Focus question: present students with a grammatical problem.
Input step - text is presented
Analysis step - students analyze texts (move from analytical to critical)
Main ideas - define what we have been noticing
Application - write your own text using this example.
Evaluation - Can the grammatical generalizations, which we have just been using, work for us in other places or say other things?
curriculum macrostructure: move from canonical genres to multigeneric and intergeneric texts.

15. Discussion Questions
How can we adopt the genre approach (either SFL or ESP one) in the context of WR097, WR098, WR100 or WR150?

16. Transfer of Genre Knowledge
Prior Genre knowledge/ antecedent knowledge
Transfer is “‘the personal creation of relations of similarity or how the new situation is connected with the thinker’s trace of a previous situation’ in a way that enables something learned to be anew” (Lobato, 2003 , p. 18).
Reiff & Bawarshi (2011)
Boundary crossers
Boundary guarders
Perkins & Salomon (1989)
High-road transfer
Low-road transfer

17. Questions & Answers
Thank you!

18. Across contexts and approaches, genre-based pedagogy...
is about making processes and conventions visible
is about awareness, consciousness, metaknowledge, metalanguage
involves some kind of “explicit” teaching
views genre as social
aims for staged learning, scaffolding
recognizes the importance of exposure to and working with sample texts (input matters)
is not inherently prescriptive
See Hyland (2007)