Genre: ‘Verbal tailoring from ready-made cloth’?

Language Sciences, Volume Pruned in Great Brttain 12, Number 2/3. pp. 221-242. 1990 0388-0001/90 $3.00+.00 Pergamon Press plc Genre: ‘Verbal Tailoring from Ready-made Cloth’?’ Joseph Foley The National University of Singapore zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcb ABSTRACT In recent years the notion of Genre and genre-based approaches to teaching in the classroom have become a stgntficant topic of discussion in applied linguistics. Theoretically that of a systematic-functional the basis IS model of language which explains how language works within different contexts. The focus on the relationship between language and the context means that the theory can account for language variation across dtfferent registers and across the different genres that students need to speak, listen to, read or write. It treats language at the level of text rather than simply at the level of sentence, as do many other approaches. It will be argued here that the concept of genre IS not only useful in the first language but also in the second and foreign language classroom. In recent years the notion of Genre and genre-based classroom have become It (Genre) relation\htp a significant is based on a functional topic of discussion model of language, approaches to teaching in the in applied linguistics. which systematically describes the between the context in whtch language occurs and the actual language used. This model through its theory of register and descrtption of grammar and discourse, relates context of culture and context of situation to actual language use It is based on the belief that grammar Itself is functional, realizes (Hammond that ts, language is organized in the way it IS because of the meanings it 1987: 164). Hammond (1987) has already given an overview of the genre-based approach to the teaching of writing in the Australian context. I would like to broaden the discussion and outline the theoretical basis for this concept of genre and show why it is so important for teaching both in first language and second language (ESL/EFL) classrooms. 222 Language Sciences, THE THEORETICAL Volume 12, Number 2/3 (1990) zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYX BASIS The Systemic-Functional model as developed provides us with a framework for language language is seen as it relates to social structure by Halliday and other systemicists as a ‘social semiotic’. ;hat is to say, and as it is used in social contexts. By knowing the variables of the context of situation we can predict how the meanings approprtate to the context can be realized linguistically. So within the systemic framework ‘grammar’, which is modeled as a network of interdependent most part as choices in meaning. for example. is seen as a resource choices. Choices are viewed for the These grammatical systems are organized in two ways. The first is by rank, with clause, group and word acting as the points of origin of a distinct network of choices. Rank then organizes system networks with respect to constttuency. The second major organizing systems (and some group-rank rank these are referred to as transitivity, searching for a semantic interpretation framework Functional functions: proposes a grammar principle is metafunction. systems) tend to fall into distinct groupings. Clause-rank At clause mood and theme. Looking across ranks and of this patterning, the systemic-functional organized with respect to three types of meaning. components in the grammar in other words reflect the more general metaideational, interpersonal and textual. The ideationaljknction doing with language is present in all language (apart from a few exceptions uses; no matter what a person is such as phatic utterances), there will be exploitation of the ideational resources. It is the potential for expressing a content in terms of the speaker’s/writer’s experience and that of the speech community. The whole of the transitivity language of the different system in language - the interpretation types of process of the external world, and expression in including material, mental, abstract processes and the processes of our own consciousness (seeing, liking, thinking etc.) - is part of the ideational component of the grammar. Transitivity, then, is simply the grammar of the clause in its ideational aspect, e.g. “I like the dress that you bought for the wedding.” The interpersonal finction embodies all use of language to express social and personal relations. In the clause, the interpersonal element is represented by mood and modality: the selection of the speaker/writer of a particular role in the speech situation, and the determination of the choice of roles for the addressee (mood), and the expression of judgements and predictions (modality). The speaker/writer is not only doing something him/herself but also requires something of the listener/reader, e.g. “Have you finished your homework?.” The textual function is necessary because language has to have a texture in real contexts of situation that distinguish a living message from a mere entry in a textbook cr a dictionary. The character of a message in English has the form theme-rheme within Halliday’s model. The theme is the element which serves as the point of Genre in Teaching Language departure for the message, the remainder is the rheme. By moving the circumstantial element from rheme to theme, the speaker/writer emphasis can, for example, change the whole of the message: 7Iteme Human Rheme float on the edge of the cold wind voices On the edge of the cold wind What we know as grammar selections realising 223 in meaning then is the linguistic which are derived them in a unified of the ideational, float human voices structural interpersonal device for gathering from the various functions together of language, form. A clause is the simultaneous and textual meanings. However, the and realization the learner, learning a language, has to learn to use that language in a way that is related to the contexts of situation: the interpersonal choices the learner makes reflect the tenor ofthe discourse (how the interactants view their relationship, e.g. one of equality or superior to inferior etc.); the ideational reflect the field variables (the nature of the social activity the interactants are engaged in, e.g. teaching or learning); and the textual reflect the medium by which they are conveyed or the mode (how the sayings/writings of one interactant become accessible to the other (e.g. face-to-face, by letter etc.). If we apply this linguistic realization to the specific context of classroom discourse we might present this diagrammatically It is important as shown overleaf. to realize that this diagram is at the macro-level The more we enter into the system, or into the micro-level, delicacy of analysis. The situational variables or register. Halliday ofjeld, defines of representation. the greater the degree of mode and tenor predict a particular register text variety as the contiguratton of semantic resources that the member of a culture typically associates with a sttuatton type (Halliday 1978: 1I I). However, the concept of genre, as used by some systemic linguists, not found in Halliday’s own work. The term “genre” as it is used here bears a relationship to its traditional usage, particularly literary discussions. A text may be said to have “generic characteristtc pattern of shape, making it identifiably functions will of course be of a different different. is another level structure” in because it has an overall different from some other genre, whose kind. What marks the present use of “genre” as however, from its traditional usages, is the fact that it refers as much to spoken as to written texts. It is suggested that it is in the nature of the social construction of experience that human beings generate texts which have distinctive overall patterns or shapes, through which meanings pertaining to the given context or situation are created (Christie 1989: 168). Language Sciences, Volume 12, Number 213 (1990) 224 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Figure Note: [ #= determined by; A A = realised by1 (*Martin et al. would not include this infield) (adapted from Ventola 1988:57; and Hasan personal communication). Genre in Teaching Language As Christie (1982), Martin the usage. further points out, this definition (1984) and Hasan (1985b), The following systemic -functional is a summary 225 owes much to the work of Kress although there are some differences in of how genre is seen to fit into an overall framework. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJI 1 (adopted MarUn 1986’17) Figure 2. Its mam peculiartty is that unltke Halliday (1978) or Halliday and Hasan (1985). it includes a fourth variable beyond the more tradittonal field, mode and tenor; and that unlike Gregory and Carroll (1978) it makes thts fourth variable, referred to as genre. dominate the other three. Field, mode and tenor are then referred to as register, which is treated as a semiotic system realized through language, whtle genre in turn is treated as a semiotic system realized through register and language (Martin Martin defines 1986: 17). genre in the following terms: Genre will be taken here as a staged goal-oriented Genres are social processes social process (Martin because members 1986:33). of a culture interact with each other to achieve them; they are goal-oriented because they have evolved in order to get things done and they are staged because a number of steps are necessary to achieve the goals. Martin’s notion of genre is based on the distinction made by Hjelmslev (1961) of denotative and connotative semiotics. For Hjelmslev, language, which has a phonology for making meaning is denotative (having its own expression form) while the connotative finds expression through language and this is regisrer and genre. (Martin 1985:249). Genre was added by Martin as a distinct stratum to better cope with the semantic aspect of Halliday’s model. Hasan sees no need for this Language 226 additional produced Sciences, Volume 12, Number 2/3 (1990) stratum (Hasan 1985a). According in situations of a particular kind, (specifically semantic to her, as texts of a certain a configuration of linguistic features with their realizations in grammar) type are features becomes associated with a particular situational configuration. This contextual configuration is made up of a set of values that realize Field, Mode and Tenor. The specific features of the contextual statements configuration then permit statements about the structure of texts. These taken together constitute what Hasan calls the generic structure potential of that genre. patterning. elements. obligatory The generic structure Texts belonging potential to one genre of a genre involves are characterized distinct linguistic by a set of discourse These discourse elements correspond to the stages of the activity. and optional elements, together with the order of these elements their recursive possibilities, form the schematic structure The and of the genre. The semantic attributes of the structural elements can also be specified for texts belonging to one genre as can the patterns in the lexico-grammatical realization of each discourse element. Martin et al. (1987) point out that genre theory differs from register theory in the amount of emphasis it places on social purpose as a determining variable in language use. Though Martin does not explicitly say so, it is implied that the purpose of a social activity underlies the genre plane and it is purpose that determines the staging structure of the text-type (see Martin 1986:34). Rothery in an early paper in 1980 put it more directly when she said that the speaker’s purpose derermlnes the type of discourse and hence IS responsible for the schematIc structure of rhe text (ManIn To briefly and Rothery 1980:9). sum up then, Martin and others see texts as categorized according to the purposes or goals of the social activities they verbalize. This contextual feature has more importance than the other variables as it determines the stages of the activity and the schematic structure of the text-type, while simultaneously regulating the field, mode and tenor combination of each discourse element or state in the activity. Contrastively, Hasan does not give special attention to functional tenor; she includes the goal orientation of an activity within the contextual feature of field of discourse (see Fig. 1). The difference in these two approaches is not major enough to affect the application of the genre based approach in the classroom. The most important fact to keep in mind about genres is that they are evolved systems, in that they arose as the members of our culture negotiated meaning in the process of living. Genres are part of the evolutionary system in that they introduce stability into the culture at the same time as being flexible enough to enable participation in social change. Genre in Teaching Language 227 THE APPLICATION IN THE CLASSROOM The First Language The genre approach Britton to language in the classroom et al. (1975) with the tripartite has had a number distinction of expressive, of precursors; transactional and poetic texts; the Crediton Project of Wilkinson et al. (1979), and (stemming from the earlier Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) patterns of discourse in the classroom) Sinclair’s (n.d.) three-part structure for both oral and written discourse. Here Sinclair proposes a very general structure of Posit (P) : proposing, imposing or opposing, React (R) : the reaction to P and Determining pair. Conformity, to the underlying of well-formedness in the classroom approaches (0) which makes an evaluation of the preceding P-R-D structure Sinclair suggests, is the basis in texts. This particular by Morgan to children’s (n.d.). writing model has been applied (For an overview in the classroom in some detail of a number of linguistic see Harris and Wilkinson 1986.) However, it is the work of Martin and Rothery (1980, 1981) that brought to the fore the significance of genres in the classroom. The fact that much of the thinking on genre was taking place in Australia in the early 80’s is not surprising as Halliday and Hasan, Kress, Martin and Rothery were all teaching in tertiary institutions in Sydney, while Ventola and Christie were doing research there. Since then, a growing body of scholars has added to the corpus of writing on genre such that we are now seeing the praxis which is so essential to the systemic model of language. A still very prevalent view of language in the classroom is the duality between meaning and form. This allows genre to be seen as an arbitrary set of conventions employed in the transference of ideas. However, the genre bused approach is based on the fact that language makes meaning. Grammatical structures serve to make meaning, and a child will develop them to do just this. Also language is a functional resource in that the language system as a whole can be viewed as having the form it does because of what it is called upon to do; in other words the needs of language users have shaped the linguistic system itself (Painter 1989:20-l). Therefore, the usefulness of the concept of genre in the classroom is precisely that it focuses on how the student’s oral and written language is related to the contexts of culture and the situation in which they are produced. One of the main concerns of the genre approach is to make explicit, to teachers and students alike, knowledge about how the type of text will vary according to purpose, topic, audience and the channel of communication. Therefore, in order to provide access for all students to the genres used in society, knowledge about language and the role of pedagogic to be made explicit (Hammond discourse (Bernstein 1986) has 1987). Language is not how we know something else, it is whar we know; knowledge is not something that is encoded in language ‘SC 12-*,3-G knowledge is made of language (Halliday 1988:9). 228 Language Sciences, Volume 12, Number 2/3 (1990) This leads to a broader question of the nature of knowledge that is to say, what schools value as knowledge. EducatIonal languages creation knowledge IS knowledge of the sciences, or the discovery freed from the particular. of forms of reflexweness of new realities (Bernstem within the school system, the local. through the various of the arts which makes powble either the 1971a:58). It is not surprising that we have to turn to Bernstein in order to see how the transmission of knowledge in the classroom and language are one and the same. The obstruction in the articulation and exploration proposed by Bernstein (1971, Bernstein’s theory of education; occupation statements of the theory of codes, as originally 1973, 1975), has not been the responsibility of the obstruction has been in linguistics. The pre- of much of linguistics during the 60’s and 70’s was with formalizing concerning syntax. What is crucial to the understanding of codes is a pattern in meanings. The systemic-functional theory provides the tool to search out the contrasts and consistencies of semantic orientation in different contexts (Butt 1989). Applying this to the classroom we see that pedagogic discourse is made up, on the one hand of insrructional discourse, transmitting specialised competencies and their relation to one another and on the other of regulative discourse, the discourse creating specialised contexrualising order, of discourse relation (Bernstein and identity. 1986:211), Pedagogic discourse is a re- that is to say, the learning of the content of history, geography or physics in school will necessitate a ‘re-contextualising’. The re-contextualising principles select and de-locate the discourse of history, geography and physics from their primary fields (universities, research institutions etc.) and relocate, refocus them within the context of the school, through text-books, written/spoken work of both teacher and students. The students then have to be given access to these forms of discourse, for example, technicality and abstraction, because knowledge of these specialised genres is a powerful means of entry into society and needs to be taught directly (see Eggins er al. 1987; Wignall et al. 1987). Oral zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Genres The processes produced of school learning by the children are mainly encoded in language. All the discourse, and their teacher in any one class, may be thought of as text. However, because the situations are different they produce different texts. In fact, examination of the school routine demonstrates that it involves many different learning activities spread over the day, Furthermore, a major indicator of the differing learning activities is the language used. That is to say, the very shifts in learning activities ate themselves encoded in shifts of behavioutal patterns. This also involves a shift in linguistic pattern which represents a response to the changing nature of elements of Genre in Teaching Language the context of situation, of curriculum Curriculum 229 so that the overall shape of the text alters, creating a number genres (Christie 1984). genre refers to the genres produced orally together by teacher and students. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Just a s it is po ssib le to ta lk o f a writte n to m a ke m e a ning - it is a lso po ssib le the wa ys in whic h te a c hing / le a rning g e nre - a c tivitie s pa tte rns o f c la ssro o m disc o urse . C urric ulum wa ys o f m a king m e a ning (C hristie pa tte rne d a nd o rg a nize d g e nre , whe re the te rm re fe rs to a re syste m a tic a lly struc ture d g e nre s a re a lso syste m a tic a lly a nd o rg a nize d in sha pe d a nd struc ture d 1984:2). The emphasis on the relationship of the principal a te xt syste m a tic a lly to spe a k o f a c urric ulum areas of interest between written text and curriculum of Christie’s work (1984, n.d., genre is one 1989). Christie analyses a number of curriculum genres and demonstrates that the patterns interaction between teacher and student is reflected in the written genres produced the children. For example, she has described the patterns of interaction of by that occur in morning news sessions (1984, n.d.), where individuals offer observations to others in the class on ‘newsworthy’ items. This activity is closely monitored by the teacher who determines how the newsgiver will be nominated, and who then offers comments on each child’s contribution. Christie found that in first year and second year of school the most common written genre produced was that of observation. She suggested (Christie 1984:9) that this fact may be explained by reference to the patterns of language the children encountered in their reading and the patterns of spoken discourse in which they engaged with their teacher. The finding that children use particular written genres because of the context in which they are learning means that even when teachers are not conscious of what they are doing, they are having a very powerful effect, not only on the children’s writing development, being constructed in their classrooms. but on the kind of knowledge Hasan reading’, (1987) looked at a specific form of curriculum genre, that of ‘picture where a picture presented by the teacher is the focal point for class dis- tinction. Hasan found that ‘determinate’ reading of the picture was by far the most common, while ‘inferential’ and ‘hypothetical’ readings were less often in evidence. Perhaps more important, Hasan’s research indicated that the teacher’s interpretation may not be the same as the student’s, yet they both have a validity. Different interpretations are possible because of the zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPO regulative principle or code which involves ‘culturally determined positioning devices’ generated by social class relations (Bemstein 1981:327). What is important for classroom interaction is that the teacher must not only be aware but must also see the value of the student’s interpretations. The teacher’s role is to offer alternatives which are real choices, not simply superimposed. (For the application of oral genre outside the framework of the school, see Ventola 1988.) 230 Language Sciences, Volume 12, Number 213 (1990) zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU Written Genres Martin and Rothery’s Report No. 1 (1980) was the precursor on written genre. They analyzed a narrative of a number and an expository of studies text, as these were two of the genres most commonly zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLK use d in schools. The narrative text was examined for schematic structure, transitivity, text was analyzed for schematic (see Halliday reference, structure, 1985 for an explanation to show that the patterns of structure, conjunction and theme. The expository lexical cohesion, conjunction and theme of these terms). Martin and Rothery were able theme, conjunction and lexical cohesion were being constantly repeated in the texts in such a way that there was no doubt that a schematic structure existed (Martin and Rothery 1980:24). The report also looked at the key question of what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ writing. It was suggested that the kind of analysis outlined in the report offered insights into the structure and linguistic features that contribute to a cohesive and well developed text. In other words the teacher no longer needed to give ‘impressionistic’ comments to the student on the ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ of the writing but was now equipped to be specific, that is to say, at more than one level of text, not just at the lexico-grammatical. Report No.2 (Martin and Rothery 1981) was based on a sampling of a large number of texts from primary generally schools. The main finding refer to all children’s from this report was that teachers texts as ‘stories’ regardless of the genre; that is to say, that while primary teachers accept a range of genres in children’s writing, they tended to favour narrative rather than factual genres (Hammond 1987). Martin and Rothery attempted to outline a typology of the genres children Recount-Norrotwe write at school. ThemoW norrtive Observation/ Comment < ExposlUon -Lterory cntzism Years of schooling 7 I23456 (Martin 6 and 9 Rothery IO II 12 1961) Figure 3. A very important part of this second report was the detailed linguistic description of each of the genres identified; it is this explicit description which makes the work Genre in Teaching Language of Martin and Rothery different 231 from that of Britton et al. (1975) and Moffett (1968). Martin and Rothery have further developed their typology and Poynton (1986) listed nine genres that could be found in the primary school. 1. Labelling 2. Observation 3. Observation/Comment 4. Recount 5. Narrative 6. Report 7. Procedural 8. Procedural - method instrumental 9. Exposition This list of genres is not meant to be an absolute; of the characteristics of the genre needs of society will determine is its flexibility as we have already indicated, within a stable framework. one The what genres are used and in what contexts. Labelling, Observation, Observation/Comment are the earliest types of texts produced by children. Labelling is characterized by exophoric reference linking texts to pictures. Observation/Comment has two distinct structural elements, description and reaction, where most of the text is descriptive with a final comment such as ‘because I like them’. However, often a child will produce a piece of writing that is a mixture of genres or at a transition stage between genres, for example between Observation/ Comment and Recount where there are signs of temporal organization. The teacher has to be able to identify this transitional type of text so as to be in a position to intervene successfully in helping the child master a new genre. Narrative differs from Recount in that it has the schematic structure: Orientation, Complication, Resolution, Coda. Report, perhaps above all the written genres at this early stage, depends to a large extent on the manner in which the preparation for writing was set up in the class. This involves the process of ‘scaffolding’ (Bruner 1985) or the building up of a generic structure which the child can learn to recognize and use. It also shows that oral and written genre are closely linked. The right sort of ‘scaffolding’ for the child, whether provided by the teacher or arrived at by group work is essential for later more advanced Report writing or Exposition. Thus there is an important difference to be made between the specifications of various kinds of relations between statements and simply a list. Report genre should also help to gradually get children away from extreme dependence on written sources of information and the temptation to simply copy. If, in the initial stages of learning to handle factual material, this dependence is seen as modelling rather than as simply copying, then children will move on to producing more independent texts (Poynton 1986). Procedural texts (method and instrumental), the ‘how to do something’ e.g. planting beans, would be seen as method, while the instrumental is a detailing of the hoe used Language Sciences, Volume 12, Number 2/3 (1990) 232 in the planting. because The presentation of the need to establish for the learner of this sort of task in the classroom a set of principles is very important or ideas which become the basis to proceed to learn newer and more demanding information. Also, as we have seen in the curriculum genre, the type of questions determine the written outcome of the student. the teacher asks can Lastly, there is Exposition: this particular genre has the schematic structure of thesis plus argument, e.g. ‘football is important to me because. . .’ The more complex the fiefd of discourse involved We can summarise, the more explicit the ‘scaffolding’ then, by saying that instructional a variety of genres should create the opportunities discourses However. needs to be. discourse which incorporates for the de-contextualizing of societal such that the learner can learn how to use these discourses effectively. recent research, at least in Australia and in Britain (Harris and Wilkinson 1986). shows that only a limited range of genres is taught in the classroom. Childcentered education which has dominated the classroom in a number of English speaking countries has founded their ‘subjects’ on the idea that children in their own words. This is certainly can understand and undertake a starting point, as was seen in the success of the Nufield/Schools Council Programme in Linguistics and English Teaching (1964-71) (see Pearce et al. 1989 for an overview of these programmes). But once the breakthrough to literacy had been accomplished, too many children spent their time writing a limited number of genres (Observation/Comment; Recount; and Narrative). humanities, disciplines This, then, cut them off from any real understanding of what the social sciences and sciences were about and denied them the tools these have developed to understand the world. The claim is that these tools are fundamentally linguistic ones which describe the genres and varieties technical language associated with each discipline. of abstract and However, a very prevalent view of the young writer in the classroom is that of the ‘creator of his own world’ (Dixon 1967: 13), the ‘author’ in the classroom (Graves 1983). True authormg occurs naturally to the extent that the writer is composing with raw matertals, that IS. source content not previously maxImum abstracted and formulated by others Inslstmg on authorshIp should starve off the construmg or treating of wrmng as only some sort of transcrIptIon or paraphrasing or verbal tailormg from ready-made cloth (Moffett 1981:89). What Dixon and Moffett are concerned with is the limitations and constraints perceived in the genre approach. Their concept of the individual is that human behaviour can be explained not in terms of social experience but much more in terms of innate capacities which are then brought forth by a socializing process. The genre approach sees the individual in the Vygotskyan sense of the self-regulated individual achieved through interaction within his/her own zone of proximal development (Foley in press). This ‘author in the classroom’ view of the child as some sort of full-fledged Genre in Teaching Language 233 individual confuses the concept of the immature child writing in the school and the mature literary author (Gilbert 1989). The child is in school to learn how to use the tools of the culture is an initiation carried to become through an effective interaction member of that culture because learning into the knowledge, values, attitudes and beliefs by that culture. The Second Language Much of what we have discussed in relation to the first language can be said of the second language classroom. Indeed, within the Australian context there are a growing number of studies that have concerned themselves with genre in the second language classroom, for example Gray (1986) on Aboriginal education, Drury and Gollin (1986) on EFL/ESL students in tertiary level institutions and Jones er zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfe al. (1989) on the slightly broader perspective of second language curriculum. There are also an in- creasing number of studies on genre in countries where English is one of the dominant languages in a bilingual education system, for example Singapore and Canada. Oral Genres Oral genres were looked at by Samraj (n.d.) in Singapore. She studied the structure of ‘Picture Talk’ lessons in the primary classroom. This is one of the possible forms of curriculum genre described by Christie (1985). What is involved in the ‘Picture Talk’ lesson in Singapore is that the students are given a picture (often from their classroom readers) and a discussion of the picture would develop. The students would then be given instructions to write a certain number of sentences based on the picture. Hasan’s (1987) model was used for this study. What Samraj’s study shows is that the teacher in the classroom did not build on the interaction created by the ‘Picture Talk’ activity when it was applied to writing. The skills manifested in controlling the genre in the oral form by the children were not exploited by the sort of questions the teacher asked in the children’s written work. For example, analytic exposition skills were shown in the child’s oral control as it developed out of the teacher’s question: ‘Would you like to live in the attrap houses or would you prefer to live in flats?’ This was reduced to simple Labelling by the teacher when she asked the question: ‘Write for me sentences on flats’. Samraj also found that the teachers needed to have greater control over the discourse production. In ‘Picture Talk’ there was Labelling, Personal Evaluation and Description all mixed together because there was no explicit instruction on the genres the students were asked to produce. The net result was a series of texts that lacked both cohesion and coherence. The themes and the manner of presentation did not allow for the possibility of ‘de-contextualization’ of discourse, that is, of the discourse being used in new contexts, to derive new results (Bernstein 1986). 234 Language Sciences, Volume 12, Number 2/3 (1990) Chang’s (n.d.) work in Canada on classroom discourse illustrates well the chasm that exists between the teacher’s awareness of the language control of the child in the spoken mode and what the child produces on paper. In a series of studies Chang gives a detailed account of the sort of interactive discourse that can go on in the classroom (see also Wells n.d.). Perhaps more importantly, Chang’s study showed the effect these closely examined patterns of discourse had on the teacher’s awareness of the language used. Teachers saw, perhaps for the first time, the effect that interactive ‘scaffolding’ could have upon the written outcome of the child. Written Genres Foley in two studies (1987) and (1989), looked at the developmental features of children’s writing in Singapore. The most marked difference from the Australian studies was the direct control imposed on the children’s writing by the teacher, Controlled writing is, of course, a widely used technique in second language classrooms, English but in Singapore is the dominant with English working language, medium schooling, and a society the degree of control manifested where in the children’s writing was much greater than expected. Transcripts of language used in the classroom showed that there were long stretches of teacher-talk which required no active student participation. The overall impression from both primary and early secondary classrooms was that when answers were given, they were highly mechanical, with polar questions dominating. There was no ‘scaffolding’, no negotiated outcomes between participants. In Bernstein’s terms there was srrong clussijcution and srrong framing in the classroom. Classification refers to the degree of boundary maintenance between contents. Framing refers to the degree of control teacher and student possess over the selection, organisation, pacing and timing of the knowledge received and transmitted in the pedagogical relationship (Bernstein 1973). Foley’s studies showed that the extremely restricted genre (observation/comment, recount and narrative) used by the teachers in their ‘guided composition’ classes, together with an over emphasis on the formal aspect of the lexico-grammar was leading to an arrestation in the development of the children’s writing. The controlling factor seemed to be the formal examination mode of assessment which begins in third year of primary school and continues at crucial intervals until the student leaves the educational system. Control by this type of formal examination places the emphasis on producing ‘grammatical’ sentences. This is not consciousness raising of language because language is seen here, simply as form, syntax and lexis within the stratum of the sentence. Closely controlled writing also has a wash-back effect on the oral discourse as can be illustrated from the following transcript where twelve-year-olds were preparing to write on Visiring a sick friend. Genre in Teaching Language 235 T. Was he badly hurt? P: Yes. T: Was it that serious that he had to be hospitalised? P: Yes, it was that serious that he had to be hospttahsed. T: Did he see a doctor? P: Yes. (Several utterances later, teacher addressmg another student) T If your friend is restmg at home, do you make a point to visit him, Chai How? CH: Yes, yes I make a point to wit him. T. Since your frtends or your friend will be away for quite some time, he’ll be resting at home or he will be m hospital recuperating? Don’t you think he wtll mtss his lessons? CH. Yes. (Saftiah bte Mohammed Amin n.d.). The type of question and answer paradigm involved in this exchange underlines the effect that language, seen in behaviourist terms, can have on discourse in the classroom. The most obvious would be the polar-type replies and the repetition of the full utterance which would be highly unusual In very many classrooms in ‘real’ classroom where the medium of education discourse. is a second language, once the child has entered secondary school the strong clussijcarion which is at work within ‘content’ areas means that there is little carry-over from the formal language class. The discourse paradigms of the humanities, social sciences and the sciences, technicality and abstraction are, at best, picked up, not taught. CONCLUSION The explicit teaching of genre in the classroom foregrounds the fact that there are certain modes of speaking and of writing which are more appropriate in some circumstances than in others and the delineation of these modes is one of the functions that the school has to play in a child’s education. It could be claimed, therefore, that a teacher’s understanding of the generic structure of a text is necessary for a child’s development as genre allows the teacher to focus on the writing and oral processes and the ways in which a piece of text is constructed by the child. The teacher can look for linguistic signals in the text of the child’s intentions and why the child included them. This, then, enables the teacher to get away from impressionistic comments such as: ‘this is a good/bad piece of work’ without being explicit about what constitutes ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ and at what level. Teachers tend to revert to ‘correction’: grammar, punctuation, spelling etc. and rarely go beyond the lexico-grammatical stratum of discourse. The student and very often the teacher are not aware that a failure to write well is determined by a multilayered process in discourse. Writers who put forward arguments for a genre-based approach do so on the grounds that genre, the stages passed through to achieve goals within a given culture, Language Sciences, Volume 12, Number 2/3 (1990) 236 provides a readily accessible starting point for learning about language. with genre we are dealing with texts, and text is the semantic In dealing unit of language in use. Within the community, there is a strong awareness that there are varieties of texts: Report, Narrative, Instruction, Consultation and so on. By beginning with genre we begin where there is already some awareness of a difference in these texts. The genre approach makes explicit the potential of the system for meaning. This allows building up a knowledge about language use of this knowledge in its own right, such that children in using language. For a child to become literate can make involves a consciousness of language not present in speech (at least not in the early stages of schooling) (Rothery 1989). Critics of the genre approach (Sawyer and Watson 1987) have asked why writing is any more a matter of conscious learning of structures than speech. To read and write children language, in particular must develop words, clause complexes a consciousness of the units of and texts and how they are organized graphically. Children have to learn to percewe same time semantlcally These are ‘the natural related these dlfferent (Rothery umts as entitles that are dtstlnct and yet at the 1989:229) iconic relation (processes in verbs, qualities as modifiers, logical relations as conjunctions, people and things as nouns etc.) between meaning and wording (Martin et al. 1987). It is through these ‘iconic relations’ that writing is used to store and consolidate information and interpretation which need to be organized. Abstraction through the process of replacing the active verb form found in speech by a nominal group (Halliday 1985) is an important source for organizing text. As a consequence children will have great difficulty in mastering the range of genres used in society which depend on abstraction as a basic principle of organization without Other some form of guidance in their writing. critics (Reid 1987) would reject the genre approach as ‘transcription’, ‘verbal tailoring from ready-made cloth’ (Moffett 1981:89) in favour ‘paraphrasing’, of an emphasis on the creative power of authoring. They see the genre approach in pedagogic discourse as arresting the development of the individual. However, a major weakness in their argument relates to this consciousness of language which is so important for the ‘apprentice adolescent writer’ (Gilbert 1988), precisely, because it falls into the background for the mature writer, the main focus becoming meaning. It may, therefore, be more accurate to characterize the process of writing as shifts in the degree of conscious awareness that a writer brings to bear on his/her language (Rothery 1989). The young writer has to have a degree of control over language before this conscious awareness can be backgrounded. Schematic structures then, which the context of culture and situation have created, are zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU real and not arbitrary . Genre should be seen as a fiberaring element as it provides the student with access to the highly Genre in Teaching Language prized ways of speaking and writing in the second language ‘verbal tailoring’ pedagogical classroom because discourse. within a given culture. 237 It may be true however, that there has been a danger that text would become of the strong classi$cation In the second language and strong framing classroom, language in the is foregrounded but often at the lexico-grammatical level and rarely rises to a consideration of genre. The main reason for this has been the necessity to provide a ‘correct’ model of the target language. The rules that were learned about grammatical clause and between clauses were seen as means for regulating relations within the the student’s language use in speech and writing. Maintaining such a degree of control for too long in the second language classroom has resulted in an excessive focus on a narrow interpretation of the textual aspect of discourse and not enough on the ideational and interpersonal. While the problem in the first language classroom has been in some ways the opposite, the textual. This paper, a focus on ideational and interpersonal then, has argued for a view and perhaps not enough on of successful teaching in terms of interactional strategies in the classroom. This would involve guidance in the context of shared experience, leading to the learner being able to develop texts by him/herself within the zone of proximal development. This is more than a ‘drawing out’ of the creativity of the young child but stresses a ‘scaffolding’ process. By making use of modelling and jointly negotiated texts for the teaching of writing, the claim is that we are simply making use of ‘natural’ strategies for language development. These are part of the child’s experience and build upon many of the features that a child has used in the development of oracy. In the context of the school, what is added is making explicit some aspects of the text which the child is learning to produce, in terms of its stages and patterns of linguistic choices. These choices convey meaning so that text can have a functional use to broaden the culture of the child by allowing the child to enter more fully into that culture. NOTES 1. I would like to thank the School of English and Linguistics, Macquarie University for providing me with the facilities to write this paper. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to Michael Halliday, Bridget Goom and an unknown reviewer for their careful reading and comments made on an earlier version. REFERENCES Bernstein, 1971 1973 B. 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