The Value of the Concept of Genre in Learning to Write - Case Study Example

 «The Value of the Concept of Genre in Learning to Write» Introduction Genre is the term used in referring to “a group of texts used in representing how writers should use the English language in writing a response to a given situation” (Hyland, 2004, p. 4). In order for a writing to be considered legible, competitive writers are expected to have skills in writing their experiences and ideas in a logical manner. By learning how to organize thoughts properly, primary school students will be able have a consistent flow in the way they describe and express their personal opinion in texts. The use of redundant words in a sentence is not a good writing practice. With regards to writing skills, one of the common problems that primary students have is their inability to recognize similar words they used in a single sentence. For this reason, primary school students often end up using redundant words when writing a sentence or a paragraph. Aside from the use of redundant words, primary school students also have difficulty in assembling the meaning of words within a text. As a result, they often end up being unable to write in a manner that their expressions of thought would flow in a smooth pattern. In this study, the value of genre in learning to write in primary school will be determined by examining evidences gathered from peer reviewed journals. As part of going through the main discussion, strategic ways in which primary school teachers could effectively integrate the concept of genre in the lesson plans, student reports, and class examination will be tackled in details. Prior to conclusion, some recommended techniques that will enable the primary school teachers to include the concept of genre in teaching the primary school students how to write legibly will be provided. The Value of Genre in Learning to Write in Primary School Aside from having an idea on how writings should be structured, primary school students will have a clear understanding on what is expected from them to write based on genre which states the purpose of the essay, terms and condition with the use of English vocabulary and grammar, the performance criteria, range of variables, and students’ tasks in writing (Wrigglesworth and McKeever, 2010; Hyon, 1996, p. 707). Basically, the main purpose of genre in learning how to write is to “encourage the primary school students to participate effectively in school curriculum” (Hyon, 1996, p. 700). Since the use of this concept allows the primary school teachers and students to determine the possible link between formal and functional properties of texts, it is necessary for the primary school teachers to know how to incorporate the concept of genre in the learning process of primary school students to enable the students to have a better idea on how to structure the text in writing. By doing so, primary school teachers could effectively improve the students’ writing skils. As explained by Hyland (2004, p. 6), “genre is a useful concept because it pulls together language, content, and contexts that offers writing teachers to have a meaningful way of presenting the students with explicit and systematic explanation of the ways writing works to communicate”. Given that primary school teachers are able to include genre pedagogies within the class curriculum, teachers will be able to effectively guide the students with regards to the proper way of executing their ideas in textual form. The application of genre in writing creates a significant impact with regards to how the primary school students will perceive and use language in their everyday living. This is possibly by learning how to apply “socially informed theory of language” when learning how to use texts and its contexts (Hyland, Genre: Language, Context, and Literacy, 2002). By teaching the students the importance and relationship between texts and contexts, primary school students are likely to become aware of how readers would criticize the systematic flow of their writings. After providing the students with drawings which illustrates engineering genre-competence assessment, Artemeva and Fox (2010) revealed that exposing the students on genre at an early age could help the students identify and characterize rhetorical and textual features of genre which could result to effectively developing their genre knowledge in writing. Upon examining the impact of describing the genres of scientific writing and drawing activities in the writing ability of second- and third- grade students, Honig (2010) revealed that primary school students are more active and flexible when it comes to participating in classroom activities. Strategic Ways in which Primary School Teachers could Effectively Integrate the Concept of Genre in the Lesson Plans, Student Reports, and Class Examination According to Hyland (2004, p. 5), the concept of genre in teaching the primary school students how to write is more focused on analyzing how the primary school students write. By knowing how the primary school students write, school teachers will be able to correct the mistakes that most of the primary school students do when they are writing sentences and paragraphs. In line with this, primary school teachers should learn how to apply the concept of genre in their lesson plans and classroom activities whenever the intend to teach the primary school students how to write in accordance to the acceptable academic writing practices. For example: Primary school teacher can instruct the students to read and understand the story behind a historical text. In order to test how the students analyzes the historical events, the primary school teacher could ask the students to write their own interpretation of the texts and give examples that will serve as an evidence that they had fully read the script. After giving the students direct instructions on how to write the essay, the school teachers should immediately give them feedback in the form of suggestions on how they can improve their writing. Since there is no single rule that would guide the primary school teachers on how to incorporate genre in the students’ lesson plan, student reports, and class examination, primary school teachers who teaches the students how to write should be able to apply different teaching techniques in order for them to be effective. In line with this, Honig (2010) suggests that primary school teachers should focus on explaining to students the importance of structure in writing, the purpose behind writing a story, and the linguistic nature of genres that will be used inside the classroom since these information could somehow affect how the primary school students would react and participate with the classroom activities. Therefore, primary school teachers should be careful when incorporating the concept of genre in class curriculum. There are three ways in which primary school teachers could effectively teach students how to produce successful write-ups. In line with this, Hyon (1996, p. 704) explained the significance of the following: (1) ‘modelling’ which includes a teacher-led presentation; (2) ‘the joint negotiation phase’ which highlights the importance of negotiation process between the school teacher and the students; and (3) ‘the independent construction of text’ which allows the students to have the opportunity to contruct their own preferred genre. After examining the ability of the students to write two instructed genres like story writing and persuasive writing and two uninstructed genres such as personal narrative and informative writing, Harris, Graham and Mason (2006) concluded that the application of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is highly recommended in terms of increasing the primary school students’ writing performance. Specifically the ambiance within the classroom setting could affect the learning experience of the primary school students. In line with this, Cohen and Riel (1989) suggest that primary school teachers who are teaching the students how to write effectively should consider the importance of audience impact on the students’ writing performance. For example: Before instructing the students to write their personal experiences in essay form, the primary school teacher should inform the students ahead of time that their writings will be read out loud in front of the class. Given that the students are aware that their writings will be judged by other students, the chances wherein the students would be able to deliver good writings will be higher. One of the advantages of teaching foreigners who are enrolled in primary schools the English language is to give the students the opportunity to develop awareness, acceptance, appreciation of foreign languages and other cultural issues beyond their own culture and traditions (Martin, 2000). In line with this, Larson-Hall (2008) revealed that three to twelve year old students who receive minimal exposed of less than 4 hours each week learning a foreign language are capable of getting a higher score than students between twelve or thirteen years old who received foreign language exposure in secondary schools in terms of having a better phonemic measures. Given that the foreign students who are in primary school are carefully guided by their primary school teachers, Schoonen and Verhallen (2008) confirmed that primary school students who learn the English language at an early age will have a wider vocabulary as compared to the late learners. In other words, foreign students who were taught how to write at an early age are likely to have better Engligh writing skills by the time they have completed their education and eventually join the global work force. Several research studies suggest the need to teach the primary school students English as their foreign language in order to prepare them for secondary school level (Larson-Hall, 2008; Martin, 2000). However, learning how to write in English can be very difficult on the part of foreign students because of their lack of familiarity with the English words. In order to enhance the foreign students’ ability to read and write the reading materials, Cheng (2007) highly recommends the use of simulation-based approach in genre writing instruction when teaching second language students. The teaching-and-learning techniques used in teaching primary school students with English as their primary and secondary language requires a different approach. Given that the students are using English as their native language, the primary school teachers can make use of more advance teaching styles. However, this is not applicable in the case of foreign students who are not familiar with the English language. In fact, the use of English as a mode of classroom instruction may cause foreign primary school students to receive below average test scores due to their inability to interpret the class intructions correctly (Yu, 2008). Upon examining the cognitive and reading comprehension of 157 Chinese undergraduates on an English text by asking them to summarize the provided text using English and Chinese words,Yu (2008) revealed that the use of English language has a different effect on how the students understand the reading material (Yu, 2008). As a result of constant failure, primary school students may develop the tendency to become demotivated in learning how to use the English language in writing. Recommended Techniques that will enable the Primary School Teachers to include the Concept of Genre in Teaching the Primary School Students How to Write Legibly Given that the primary school students who uses English as their primary language requires a different teaching-and-learning technique as compared to foreign students who has limited knowledge with the use of the English language, it is highly recommended that the primary school teachers should give consideration with regards to the learning ability of the students before developing the class curriculum. Since primary school students who uses English as their primary language could easily adopt with almost any kind of teaching techniques, the primary school teachers should stay focus on developing a clear genre that will enable the students to have a better idea on what is expected from them to write and how to develop a good quality paper. To avoid miscommunication, primary school teachers should always make use of direct and simple English words when describing what is expected from the students. In line with this, it is important for writing teachers to avoid the use of slang or informal words. In the case of foreign students who are learning the English language as their second language, the primary school teachers should be careful in giving out instructions. Since foreign students have limited English vocabulary, the chances wherein miscommunication will occur is high. For this reason, it is advisable for teachers to take advantage of using special type of teaching approach such as the use of simulation-based instructions, flash cards with bold and highlighted English words, and visual aids. To increase the vocabulary of foreign students, primary school teachers could decide to display some of the visual aids or flash cards on the classroom wall in order to constantly remind them of the meaning of common English words. To increase the ability of foreign students to write in English, primary school teachers should avoid the use of idiomatic expressions which contains figurative meaning. Since foreign students have limited knowledge with regards to the use of the English language, it would be very difficult for them to comprehend with the real meaning of idiomatic expressions. Teachers who are supporting the foreign students’ native language could enable the learners to have a better access to the academic content used in classroom activities. Therefore, primary school teachers who are handling foreign students should give importance to bilingual support. This strategy will also give the teachers the opportunity to show respect and value with regards to the native language of the students. As a result, foreign students and primary school teachers could learn to develop ‘trust’ which is essential in the process of student’s learning process. Most of the English language educational materials that are available in the market are mostly designed for students with average learning capabilities. Instead of using commercially-produced curricular materials such as textbooks, workbooks, or teacher manuals, primary school teachers should design their own curriculum materials based on the learning capacity of each foreign student. With regards to the modified English learning materials, teachers are advice to use bright coloured highlighter pen to highlight the important words such as instructions, key words or phrases. Conclusion Since the gathered literature review explains the importance, benefits, and significance of genre on primary school students’ writing curriculum, the gathered literature review can be used in enabling primary school teachers have a better idea on how they can make use of genre and how they can incorporate genre in their lesson plans, student reports, and class curriculum when teaching the primary school students the proper way of writing. The gathered literature review is limited in terms of discussing how genre can be applied in the class curriculum of students with learning disabilities. In line with this, this report did not tackle issues related to how genre can be advantageous on the part of the primary school teachers in terms of teaching students with learning disabilities how to improve their writing skills. With regards to the limitations of this study, there is an emerging need for other researchers to conduct a research study on how primary school teachers can develop genre for students with learning disabilities. *** End *** References Artemeva, N., and Fox, J., 2010. Awareness Versus Production: Probing Students’ Antecedent Genre Knowledge. Journal of Business and Technical Communication , 24(4), pp. 476-515 . Cheng, A., 2007. Symposium article: Simulation-based L2 writing instruction: Enhancement through genre analysis. Simulation Gaming , 38(1), pp. 67-82 . Cohen, M., and Riel, M., 1989. The Effect of Distant Audiences on Students’ Writing. American Educational Research Journal , 26(2), pp. 143-159 . Harris, K. R., Graham, S., and Mason, L. H., 2006. Improving the Writing, Knowledge, and Motivation of Struggling Young Writers: Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development With and Without Peer Support. American Educational Research Journal , 43(2), pp. 295-340. Honig, S., 2010. What Do Children Write in Science? A Study of the Genre Set in a Primary Science Classroom. Written Communication , 27(1), pp. 87-119 Hyland, K., 2004. Genre and Second Language Writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Hyland, K., 2002. Genre: Language, Context, and Literacy. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , 22, pp. 113-135. Hyon, S., 1996. Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL. San Bernardino: California State University. Larson-Hall, J., 2008. Weighing the benefits of studying a foreign language at a younger starting age in a minimal input situation. Second Language Research , 24(1), pp. 35 - 63. Martin, C., 2000. Modern Foreign Languages a Primary School: a three-prolonged approach? Language Learning Journal , 22, pp.5 - 10. Schoonen, R., and Verhallen, M., 2008. The assessment of deep word knowledge in young first and second language learners. Language Testing , 25(2), pp. 211 - 236. Wrigglesworth, J., and McKeever, M., 2010. Writing History. A genre-based, interdisciplinary approach linking disciplines, language and academic skills. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education , 9(1), pp. 107-126 . Yu, G., 2008. Reading to summarize in English and Chinese: A tale of two languages? Language Testing , 25(4), pp. 21 - 551. Read More