Genre Approach to Develop Creative Thinking and Writing Skills - Research Paper Example

genre approach to develop creative thinking and writing skills BY [Name of the organization] [Author’s name] [Date of fulfilment] genre approach to develop creative thinking and writing skills I. Topic with justification The purpose of this paper is to make a practical investigation over a bunch of students in a classroom, in order to understand their learning abilities in terms of the cited topic. In this paper I am going to find out the facilities of teaching of reading or writing with a genre approach. My idea is to discover how through genre approach the system of studying can be well evaluated. This paper is an attempt to find out some of the concrete solution to the creative thinking and writing skills in terms of genre approach. This paper is trying to have the analytical proceedings in order to make the students learn their second language that is English through various applicable stages. In order to justify my point, I am considering a class of 15 students for the investigation. All these students speak Cantonese as their first language. I have got 11 males and 4 females in the class and they are aged between 11 and 12. All these students are learning English as their second language in their first year of secondary school in Hong Kong. The medium of instruction as has been followed here for all subjects is English. Added to this the students are also provided reading materials, but all in English. In order to learn English they have got 18 lessons of English, each of which lasts for a span of 50 minutes. As all these students are from local primary schools of Hong Kong where Cantonese is used as the medium of instruction in all subjects, they are facing lots of problems in picking yup the new language that is English. As they had very little exposure to the task of writing in English, they are also facing the problem in expressing their thoughts in English. Due to all these hindrances these students are unable to perform well and their proficiency level is low in terms of vocabulary, reading, grammar & spelling. In order to overcome all these hurdles, these students are given minimal practice to writing in different genres. All these students are provided with 'solution oriented investigation' for the learning of English in the domains of writing, reading, expressing and above all in communicating. II. Background WITH Literature review The approach as has been undertaken to have a clear dominance lies in the system originated in L1 writing instruction that are mostly used for English-speaking countries. ESL (English as Second Language)/EFL profession were most popular during 1980s. The approach has been undertaken under the application of English as a second language. As Zeng puts it to be “a complicated cognitive process” and “involves multiple stages can be well demarcated. These are basically the sections related to pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing” (2005, p. 67). The process concentrated over the process of creating ideas, composing and articulating them. It further demanded the initiative in terms of revising them and generating a text (Zamel, 1983a, 165-187). iii. Reflection on practice Application of genre knowledge is very mandatory and it is the best way to make the language get grasped in a more proper and correct way. In this approach it is very obvious to have initial confusions but examples from the native or the first language can well help it out. The approach of genre is defined as “abstract, socially recognized ways of using language” (Hyland, 2003, p. 21) that is very much dependent over the communicative activities that are very pragmatically employed by members of a particular discourse community (Swales, 1990). Teaching skills The writing teaching skills must have the dominance over narrative, argumentative and expositive fields. However there are all supportive instances to consider it as a social and communicative process for negotiation and understandings (Flower, 1994). Language occurs in variety in reference to various social cultural contexts. When this comes into the periphery of written production then there needs to be the needs to have context all related to social and cultural audience and participators. A possibility with different text types for different purposes needs to be checked and modulated as per the social functions (Paltridge, 2004). Writing classes thus must have to develop students in the proceedings related to the understanding of the social functions in reference to multiple genres. There must be clear declaration regarding the language creative process with proper meaning in different social cultural contexts (Hyland, 2003). III. Critical discussion of the problems The basic problems related to the ELT can be as follows - i. There is the insufficient class during the school days ii. The dedication of time is very limited and insufficient time limitation brings in the hurdle that can be scheduled in proper calendar for the activation of all kinds of activity. On the contrary the time can be well scheduled for all sorts of unimportant issues rather than the vital outcomes. iii. In most cases the scheduler fails in order to motivate or bring in the consideration and the e structure of the subject matter. This is also very necessary in support the relative developmental needs of the learners. iv. In every case the participation of the teacher is important. Teacher needs to manage the time under ineffective circumstances. v. There are many outside influences that act as an interference with schedule of classes. As in the case of hustles and bustles. vi. In many cases the teacher gets adhere rigidly to schedule and sometimes it is very abrupt. vii. There should be the scope for the students to engage themselves in extraneous activities and apply the communicative skills thereby. This is the means that needs time to be apportioned in all those activities of learning rather than some rigid goals. viii. In some cases it has been discovered that the students get reluctant to pursue the instructional activities. ix. In cases where the students are in a state of not being able to pursue activities, the verbal and moral support needs to be added. x. There are many tasks that can that needs to be structured in order to promote and disengage the states that are not well designed or are related to the non-rewarding situation. xi. There are some students who are not efficient in making a selection for appropriate activities. The teacher needs to monitor the activities and should be able to stay on the task more dynamically and effectively. xii. In some cases the students might have a situation where they lack the ability to deliver the accepted performance. The lack of application of the key steps instruction is sometimes not arranged properly. xiii. The teacher lack in the knowledge of the key steps of making ELT possible. This is the hurdle that may lead the student to the same phase. They may not get the instruction successfully and may fail to follow it. xiv. In case of failures, the learners deliver a way to come out and to recover and in such cases the communicative skills must be very strong. The learning is hindered a lot through the specifications of making ELT possible xv. Learning of ELT also gets into hindrance through bad lesson structure. It very abruptly minimizes the chance of success in learning. The solutions to all these hurdles get solved through the following applications - i. There must be an increase in the length of school year. ii. Higher priority needs to delivered in cases related to important objectives iii. All kinds of important outcomes, along with the thinking skills and the predominant affective outcomes need to be well structured. iv. It is never suggested to schedule time for cases that are relatively unimportant and without any outcomes. v. There are many situations where overlapping of objectives and all kinds of activities can be detected. The distribution thus needs to be well synchronised. vi. In order to have more benefits there must be a proper understand of the whole structure of the subject matter. The developmental needs of learners should be well scrutinised. The needs are to get it all well scheduled. vii. Management of all the instructional events must be well taken care of for the proper amalgamation of ELT success. viii. Provision needs to be made to minimize all kinds of outside distractions to bring the atmosphere of concentration. ix. It is also important to get departed from the schedule. It is all related to the speculations over the good reason to increase the possibilities of engaging time or the related success rate in the learning through ELT. x. Effective organisation of the classroom discipline and innovative techniques can bring in more success to the whole process of ELT. It is here that the teacher needs to concentrate over the including behaviour and the modification of the same. xi. The capabilities of the teacher must be well structured to get the motivations in a much effective way. xii. Reinforce is also needs to be added to the on-task behaviour of the learner. xiii. With proper training the teaching must be supported with prerequisite skills and all kinds of prior knowledge to it. xiv. Proper considerations related to the individual participation and differences should be well speculated. xv. All the developmental level s must be treated in various different ways. xvi. Management related to the classroom and the ELT structure tasks must be followed to help the learner in completing the task. xvii. Developments related to the thinking skills are very important. It is well speculated especially in all those cases that are related to metacognitive skills. xviii. Particularised use of all kinds of effective scaffolded instructions can bring in more proper and comprehensive learning. xix. The teacher must be able to monitor and very efficiently facilitate all the relative key steps of instruction. xx. Regular evaluation must be done very effectively and that will give some well managed and useful feedbacks. xxi. The teacher must provide the necessary help to the learners in recognizing their success in the learning system. xxii. The teacher needs to provide all sorts of corrective feedback on the basis of ELT. It is also very necessary to prompt the learner for every success that he achieves in learning the language xxiii. Grammatical usages needs to be well made understood from practical fields. genre approach in teaching writing The process genre approach is very much dependent over the issues related to the dominance of making very random and particularised application of some characterizes. In order to gain learner’s creative thinking it is important to have clear understanding of the linguistic features and discourse community for the platform of the genre. Added to all these, the writing skill development depend on the participation and the response led by the learner. Situational understanding of a context with examples is very effective and the learners get to identify the purpose and the writing mode. Modelling of the given text needs the application and zeal of proper speculative and creative concerns. Genre approach thus can be over-focused on the reader in a way of paying less attention to expression of language in this new version (Swales, 2000). Language and discourse features are very important in this instance. As for Reppen, a text can be illustrated with direct interpretation and it “can better understand how to make a piece of writing more effective and appropriate to the communicative purpose” (2002, p.322). Paltridge (2001) sees possible limitations and considers that there can be manifold process but the basis of each learning means must have the dominance initiated by the teachers in terms of giving better understanding of expression and articulation. ‘The emergence of genre theory does not attempt to replace or suggest abandoning the process approach to writing, but draws on the demand for a more balanced approach to teaching ESL/EFL writing (Kim & Kim, 2005). Developing writing skills The particularised genre to have the capacity to articulate well comes in through the teaching of correct language forms. Self practice and learning methods through the acquisition of language skills for communicative purposes is very difficult and thus the initial proceedings must be well helped through proper teaching guidelines initiated by the teachers. The efficiencies can be better collected through English teachers’ contribution towards the necessary process of writing three-paragraph essays on the basis of the choices made by the students. In such instances the students will have enough matters to write and at the same time will be able to make a difference in meaning-oriented exploration in the field of writing. Grammatical and lexical errors need to be clarified with all kinds of feedbacks and remarks. According to the ideas explored by Flower (1981), ‘writing is a complicated recursive process instead of a linear one whereby writers are supposed to go back and forth when they compose.’ This is a clear intimation towards the influence of alternative generic approaches to the teaching of writing in English. Instead of product approach in the writing class, it is always proper to have step by step declarations and proper undertakings in the process of correcting the errors made by the students. The writing tasks should not get encouraged in a decontextualized context (Berger, V.  1989). There must be appropriate space and very dominant aspects to be explored in the process of discovering the writing phenomenon. Figure 1: The teaching learning cycle (Hyland, 2003, p. 21) Source Teaching Korean University Writing Class: Balancing the Process and the Genre Approach. http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/pta_May_07_jg.php Application of Hyland’s (2003) in the process of teaching learning cycle, elaborates the specific and particularised means to control of a genre that can be developed in a very systematic way. The process needs proper identification of the characteristic features and the stages of modelling, joint construction and independent construction of the creative text. Modelling stage is where the genre gets introduces to the learner by the teacher’s direct instruction. This then gets structured on the basis of the features; and the dominant context in the predetermined language. Conclusion Eventually it is true that learning the creative art of writing of a second language is not that easy. However through the genre approach it can well be applied. These are the stages of pre-writing where the role of the teacher is very vital. In this stage the teachers are help students in the process of generating ideas through reading materials, brainstorming sessions and group discussions. All these ideas will get carried to the second stage that is called the pre-writing stage. It is here that the students will have the actual exposure to writing. This consists of the process of draft making and collecting the feedback from the teacher. The third and the final stage are of polishing the ideas and to give the whole creative write up a better look and articulate means with the final text. Among all variety of genre structure there is also the possibility to face the confusion for a starter of 11 to 12 years. This is in a way that needs lower level of analytical perspectives. May be writing of a poem or a short story can be appropriate for a child of 11-12 years of age. The children must be given maximum exposure to the language through rhymes and short stories. Various kinds of riddles too are of great help. The role of the teacher is very vital here. It is also of great help if he can understand their native language. By understanding their native language he can use certain terminologies in order to make it more clearly to the learner. references Berger, V.  (1989). The effects of peer versus self-feedback on ESL students’   between-draft revisions. Unpublished master’s thesis, San Diego State University,  San Diego, CA. Flower, L. (1994). The construction of negotiated meaning: A social cognitive theory of writing. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Flower, L. & Hayes, J. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College  Composition and Communication, 32, 365-387. Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagogies: A social response to process. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12. Johns, A.M. (1997). Text role and context: Developing academic literacies.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kim, Y. & Kim, J. (2005). Teaching Korean University Writing Class: Balancing the Process and the Genre Approach. Asian EFL Journal Online, 7 (2), http://www..asian-efl-journal.com/june_05_yk&jk.pdf [retrieved on 16. oct. 2008] Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom. Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press. Paltridge, B. (2004). Approaches to teaching second language writing. 17th  Educational Conference Adelaide 2004. http://www.Englishaustralia.com.au/ea_conference04/proceedings/pdf/Paltridge.pdf [retrieved on 16. oct. 2008] Reppen, R. (2002). A genre-based approach to content writing construction. In J.C. Richards & W.A. Renanda (Eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An A nthology of current practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. Swales, J.M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Swales, J.M. (2000). Further reflections on genre and ESL academic writing. Abstract  of the keynote presentation to the Symposium on Second Language Writing,  Purdue University, Lafayette, IN, September. Zamel, V. (1983a). The composing processes of advanced ESL students: Six cases studies. TESOL Quarterly, 17 Zeng, D. (2005). The process-oriented approach to ESL/EFL writing instruction and  research. Teaching English in China, 28(5) Read More