Genre-based pedagogy

Ideal for methods and foundational courses in world language education, this book presents a theoretically informed instructional framework for instruction and assessment of world languages. In line with ACTFL and CEFR standards, this volume brings together scholarship on contextualized, task-based performance assessment and instruction with a genre theory and pedagogy to walk through the steps of designing and implementing effective genre-based instruction. Chapters feature step-by-step lesson designs, models of performance assessment, and a wealth of practical and research-based examples on how to make languages explicit to students through a focus on genre. Including sections on Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, and other major world languages, this book demonstrates how to effectively teach and assess world languages in the classroom. Francis John Troyan is Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University, USA.

This article argues that the construct of task can provide a principled and effective foundation for the development of extended, multi-year curricula and pedagogies for second/foreign language learning of adults. That assertion is made with an important condition: “task” must be expanded, both theoretically and empirically, toward issues that arise in conjunction with textuality and literacy rather than being grounded primarily in psycholinguistic, sentence-oriented processing considerations, as original proposals by Long and Crookes (1992) had suggested.
The article presents that overall theoretical argument and then describes how genre-based tasks have been used (1) for selection and sequencing decisions within an existing content- oriented collegiate curriculum in the German Department at Georgetown University; (2) as a way to inform pedagogical choices that target advanced levels of L2 ability, particularly the crucial area of vocabulary development; and (3) to devise genre-based tasks that assess L2 learners’ language abilities and content knowledge across the curriculum and also help to further specify learning objectives and curricular choices.

Mother earth tied to the train tracks: The scriptive implications of melodrama in climate change discourse abSTracT This article examines the way climate change narratives have mobilized melodramatic frameworks, by examining An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006) as paradigmatic. It engages with recent scholarship that recuperates melodrama from the realm of the pejorative to observe how it structures political discourse and expands on that scholarship by introducing a performance studies methodology to examine how melodrama offers the broad outlines of a script that the would-be hero is asked to improvise within. The essay examines the tropes of melodrama – which include Manichaean dichotomies of good and evil, the implication that suffering is a marker of virtue, and the imperative of a dialectic of pathos and action – in order to analyse their implications for the potential to solve the impending tragedy of devastating climate change. This essay engages in close readings of performances struc-tured by generic scriptive discourse to argue that, for climate change activists, the forms that environmental narratives take, may communicate as much as the content of those narratives.

The application of genre analysis to language teaching has so far been mainly restricted to ESP. This paper considers the application of the techniques and results of genre analysis to more broadly-based courses, in particular those for learners aiming to use English in professional settings. The paper argues for an educational, or process, approach to the teaching of genres, as opposed to the training, or product, approach mainly employed until now. The paper examines distinctive features of professional genres in order to illustrate some of the types of variation which genres are subject to, and which learners need to be made aware of. A number of genre analysis activities are presented to demonstrate how learners can be taught to approach, adapt to, and ultimately acquire new genres.'

O que tem esse termo [gênero] e área de estudos que ele representa para atrair tanta atenção? O que lhe permite agrupar sobre o mesmo guarda-chuva terminológico críticos literários, retóricos, sociólogos, cientistas cognitivistas, especialistas em tradução automática, lingüístas computacionais e analista do discurso, especialistas em Inglês para Fins Específicos e professores de língua? O que é isso.. que nos permite reunir sob o mesmo rótulo publicitários, especialistas em comunicação empresarial e defensores do inglês Simplificado?" Candlin (1993)

Notwithstanding the voluminous literature devoted to research genres, more investigation needs to be conducted to demonstrate the pedagogical significance of studying linguistic features in relation to communicative functions. Motivated by a concern for the pedagogical applicability of genre analysis, this paper investigates the extent to which results of an analysis may be effectively employed for the second language acquisition of syntactic structures and lexical items commonly found in the Method sections of management research articles. On the basis of the data analyzed, I suggest that writing courses in tertiary institutions should be tailored to meet the needs of students encountering difficulties in associating linguistic features with communicative functions of academic texts. Using an innovative and comprehensi-ble approach to describing the steps under each rhetorical move, I have provided relevant materials that may be usefully exploited in the teaching of the genre specifications of the Method sections of management research articles. Despite the acknowledgment that no single model can be considered entirely appropriate for learners in different academic disciplines, reasons are given to explain why constituent steps should be investigated in sufficient detail if ESP teachers are to provide a pedagogically meaningful model for second language learners in a particular discipline.

The aim of this dissertation is to explore how two teachers communicate content knowledge and metalinguistic knowledge in the teaching of young second language learners. As a qualitative classroom study, it examines how two widely advocated forms of metaknowledge are used in instruction: metalinguistic knowledge, in particular genre knowledge, and reading strategies. Bernstein’s sociology of education theory is synthesized with systemic-function linguistic theory to explore how the participant teachers scaffold and place varying demands on the students. The central concept is pedagogic communication, which is defined as the way in which the teachers use language to communicate instructional content, build and uphold relations and organize information flows in teaching. The materials for the study have been generated through audio recordings, observations and collected teaching materials in school years 1 and 6. The school has a high percentage of second language learners and implements genre-based instruction.
The empirical chapters focus on preparations for reading assignments, weekly instances of “sharing time” and a genre-based curriculum area about stories in school year one and a curriculum area about maps and population which integrates geography and Swedish as a second language in school year 6. An important finding is that strongly controlled classroom discourse was associated with introducing and reminding students of abstract concepts in the studied interaction, including metalinguistic and subject-related concepts. Conversely, weaker control tended to promote negotiation of everyday knowledge rather than disciplinary knowledge while also placing implicit demands on students’ participation in the discourse. The study also attends to less-researched features of classroom discourse and scaffolding, such as how the teachers showed solidarity and built engagement through interpersonal resources and managed the information flow through textual ones. A final important finding is that the explicit attention to metaknowledge, such as genre knowledge and knowledge about reading strategies, seemed to come at the expense of encounters with meaningful texts. Therefore, it is argued that such domains of metaknowledge should not become the main instructional content.

For teachers interested in using critical literacy writing approaches in their university-level discipline-specific/English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes, there are precious few models that could serve as useful examples. This chapter illustrates one such practically-oriented discipline-specific approach drawing upon a variety of critical literacy perspectives including the model developed by Hilary Janks (2010). Janks’ critical literacy framework can be used in writing for specific disciplines in a number of important ways that address the model’s components of power, diversity, access, design and re-design. A wide range of critical literacy approaches with students can not only be utilised in traditional genres such as the essay, summary and business email, but also for multimodal applications in students’ video productions as a form of writing itself (see Miller and Richards, this volume), as well as the various social media now increasingly part of today’s university curriculum.

The chapter first discusses what is meant by critical literacy, its dimensional aspects, and a brief review of its relation to functional grammar and critical genre analysis. It then argues for the role of critical literacy approaches in aiding in the instruction of ESP. The second part of the chapter will then introduce the critical literacy model developed by Janks and a classroom-based instructional framework in implementing a critical literacy approach to disciplinary-specific writing. By way of a practical illustration, a module based on an English for Business Purposes course in which students had to write a business memo in an email is then featured, along with pedagogical suggestions. These include addressing how ESP students can appropriate the required genre of writing a business email through a critical literacy perspective and implementation, and exploring how alternatives can help in the reshaping and redesign of such emails.

Genre knowledge can be defined as the type of knowledge that is required to communicate within a discourse community. As an integral part of the academic community, students are also expected to conform to the conventions of particular genres in their assignments, reports or presentations. However, the literature relevant to Genre Knowledge in the Turkish higher education context appears to be indicating a gap regarding if and how the knowledge of a particular genre is related to the written composition profiles of learners. In this respect, the present study aims to find out if genre knowledge is related to writing performance in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, language use and the mechanics of writing. To meet the aims of the study, a quantitative and cross-sectional study design was employed in the setting of a compulsory English Literature course in an ELT department, during which students are frequently assigned to write literary analysis essays. Since the study is of a correlational nature, 30 literary analysis essays were collected from second-year ELT students with low, middle and high levels of genre knowledge, which was assessed by means of a checklist, developed and validated by Uzun (2016) in the same context to assess the level of adherence to the genre conventions of literary analysis essays. The ESL Composition Profile of Jacobs et al. (1981) was used to assess essay writing performance. The relationship between genre knowledge and writing performance was sought for through correlation analyses. Group comparisons were made by means of Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U tests. The findings are discussed in the conclusion section.

Writing, outside the academic realm, is often seen as a neglected skill in teaching English as a second or foreign language. It is perceived as boring and irrelevant by many students, and teachers, in turn, will often skip the writing sections of the course books. However, the Anglo-Saxon culture arguably relies on the written medium of communication more than many other cultures, so learners need to develop the skill. This paper looks at the practical task rather than theoretical implications of teaching a class to a group of intermediate learners of English (L1 Turkish speakers) where the students approach writing a letter of complaint (an email asking for a refund for faulty goods bought online). Since refund emails fall under the broader category of letters of complaint, which in their turn are types of formal lettersI start by exploring the genre features of these texts. I then proceed to identify the common challenges faced by English learners when faced with writing a formal text (namely, lack of genre awareness, poor proofreading and/or self-editing skills, Lack of both system and process knowledge). Finally, I conclude with putting forward suggestions to teachers seeking to overcome these challenges (these include activities to introduce topical lexis and functional language, to develop the learners' proofreading and/or self-editing skills, pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming).

Wise 3 acknowledges the growing influence of graphic design on composition. In "From Analysis to Design," George writes, "If I have given the impression that the media revolution of the fifties and sixties was a tough one for composition teachers, then I must say here that the world of graphic design, electronic text, and Web technologies certainly will prove even more difficult, though ultimately perhaps more useful for future understandings of composition as design" (223). George, Kress, and the NLG have called attention to the fact that composition is in the midst of a media revolution. The dominant medium of writing has shifted from the page to the screen, the screen having its own internal logic: "And whether it is true or not that their teachers are aware of the difference between the blank screen and the blank page, our students are certainly aware of this difference" (George 224).

This thesis investigates pupils’ learning about writing from giving feedback. Research on peer assessment and L2 writing is plentiful, but little attention has been given to younger learners and to potential benefits for the peer feedback provider. My project was carried out as two intervention studies with Swedish pupils in year 8. During the intervention, the pupils wrote two drafts of various genres (the reply letter, the newspaper article, and the argumentative essay), and the teaching involved a joint formulation of criteria lists, feedback training, and peer review in groups. Learning from giving feedback was operationalised as links between the revision changes and the peer feedback provision.
Results show that the pupils were able to produce relevant feedback on their peers’ writing. The inclusion of formative information, i.e. explanations and suggestions, varied between the groups and between the genres. In terms of learning, it was especially the macro-level of writing that benefitted from giving feedback, as the pupils paid attention to paragraphing and the content of their texts, among other things. The intervention was inspired by genre pedagogies, and the pupils in the second study who wrote texts in three different genres presented an emergent genre awareness. As regards micro-level aspects of writing, the pupils self-reported improved ability to proofread their own texts from having read and commented on peers’ writing.
The pedagogical discussion of the findings highlights the roles of genre pedagogy, feedback training, criteria, and the pupils in relation to my results and to pupil involvement in assessment-as-learning activities. In conclusion, this thesis suggests that involving pupils as instructional resources for each other and for the teacher requires the advancement of pupils as agents in the classroom practice.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

This chapter provides an overview of some of the core issues in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) in Pakistan. After contextualising EMI within the larger medium of instruction debate in the country, the chapter critically reviews some of the relevant findings from three major studies on attitudes towards languages in Pakistan. The chapter then evaluates the impact of EMI on academic performance by looking at current research on students’ language backgrounds, students’ English language proficiency, and research publications by Pakistani academics. The findings of this assessment suggest that the current EMI policies in HE do not enable all students in HE and might actually perpetuate the socio-class variations in the society. Next, the chapter discusses the role of language within EMI and considers what type of ‘English’ is appropriate within a HE context. Finally, the chapter looks at one project that successfully supported students’ English language and literacy skills as an example of how some of the issues discussed in this paper may be redressed. In summary, this paper critically analyses the status and use of EMI in HE in Pakistan and suggests some ways to move forward.

2013 : « L’approche par genres de discours dans l’enseignement du français langue étrangère et langue de scolarisation », Pratiques 157/158, pp. 189-200

La didactique des langues doit à D. Hymes le concept fondateur de compé-tence de communication et celui de communauté de communication (« une com-munauté possédant en commun des règles régissant le déroulement et l'interpré-tation de la parole, et des règles régissant l'interprétation d'au moins une variété linguistique » (1972 : 133). Mais elle lui doit aussi (1) , comme le soulignent Coste, de Pietro et Moore (2012 :113), celui de genre de discours, qui n'est pour-tant que l'une des 16 composantes (la dernière, d'ailleurs) du modèle SPEAKING, mais qui a été au coeur d'une « opérationalisation didactique de la compétence de communication » en Suisse. Au-delà du contexte Suisse, nous décrirons la place stratégique du concept de genre de discours en didactique des langues étrangères, en particulier dans celle de l'enseignement du français comme langue étrangère mais aussi en didactique de l'enseignement du français langue première/des langues de scolarisation, comme matière spécifique et surtout comme vecteur de la transmission des con-naissances dans les autres matières scolaires (par ex. mathématiques, géogra-phie, sciences de la vie et de la terre…). Ces deux approches de la structuration des enseignements par objectifs définis en termes de genres de discours sont cer-tes distinctes, mais elles relèvent bien d'un principe commun, qu'il nous a déjà été donné d'exposer, pour ce qui concerne le français langue étrangère (par exemple, Beacco, 1991) et, plus récemment, pour ce qui est des langues de scola-risation (par exemple, Beacco, 2009). Nous reviendrons ici sur certaines formes de sa mise en oeuvre dans la constitution des programmes d'enseignement.

Needs-based courses of instruction in the English language and related academic training in higher education have come into greater focus in recent years. This has been in tandem with developments in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) towards the enhancement of reading and writing skills among second/foreign language learners. Assessing the genre-based language as well as strategic text processing needs of EAP learners is necessarily complex and arduous, but has to be attempted if the course designer is to provide pedagogically viable solutions to help the learner come to grips with the rigours of studying in English at the university. The research reported here acknowledges that the needs analyst has to go beyond a synchronic one-off investigation. Hence, it establishes essential population parameters about Malaysian TESOL undergraduates in the UK through academic needs-oriented surveys and provides insights into how an institutional sample of students strategically process selected research genres. The findings contribute to a generalised needs profile and should bring greater clarity to the thematic as well as the methodological aspects of similar professional efforts.

Resumen

A lo largo de la historia la mujer ha sido invisibilizada y relegada a un segundo lugar como reflejo de su espacio en la sociedad y su otredad respecto a la masculinidad hegemónica, algo que se traslada a las manifestaciones culturales y su historia. En el caso del canon y la historia literarias, la mínima presencia femenina se siente también en las aulas de modo que se perpetúa la transmisión de una historia literaria con sesgo androcéntrico, lo que poco favorece a objetivos de actualidad como lograr una educación inclusiva y equitativa que se extrapole a la sociedad como conjunto en pos de alcanzar la igualdad efectiva entre todas las personas que la conforman. En este trabajo se investigará acerca de las bases de esta problemática, que se concretará en torno al currículo de 3º de la Educación Secundaria para realizar una revisión y propuesta de contenido inclusiva.
Palabras clave: feminismo, literatura, igualdad de género, Educación Secundaria, canon, patriarcado, androcentrismo.

Abstract

Throughout history women have been omitted and relegated to a second place as a reflection of their role in society dynamics and their otherness regarding the hegemonic masculinity, which shows in cultural manifestations and their histories. When talking about literary canon and history, the infimum feminine presence is also felt in the context of the classroom. This helps to nothing but perpetuate the transmission of a literary history characterized by its androcentric bias and thus does not promote present day objectives, such as guaranteeing and inclusive and equitable education, which must be both a goal and a step further in achieving real equality for every people conforming society. This issues’ foundations will be explored in order to later set the focus on how it affects the Spanish Language and Literature syllabi for the third year of secondary school in Madrid and contribute to it with a content revision about women as literary subjects.

This paper explores the value of ecopedagogies and ecojustice education in an increasingly nature-deficit and attention-directed world, and does so through the lens of place-based education. More specifically, this paper explores the positive impact nature-based writing in the Department of English Language Learning at Utah Valley University (UVU) has on English language learners (ELLs). The ecopedagogical program at UVU includes multiple opportunities for conducting environmental/economic research and writing in several relevant genres, but this paper primarily focuses on qualitative data retrieved from semester-long Nature Journals and a Wilderness Writing Workshop held during a four-day department-sponsored excursion to Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah in the United States. The benefits of nature-based writing include greater engagement and increased desire to write, improved vocabulary and language skills, more poetic writing, less reported stress, and a greater sense of connection to all other living beings. As added benefit, English language learners at UVU have also had opportunities to participate in civic-minded conferences, have been interviewed with the author on public radio, and are expected to have work published in an upcoming anthology.

(Abstract - short version)
In Australia, a significant number of international students undertake intensive language instruction to prepare for higher education (Australia Education International 2014). Difficulties with academic writing pose a barrier to tertiary entrance. With much at stake, effective support for academic writing development is an on-going concern for researchers and educators.

A substantial body of research has analysed the linguistic demands of ‘academic’ texts. However fewer studies explore the negotiation of meanings, through classroom interaction. This study uses methods of qualitative phasal analysis (Malcolm 2010) and discourse semantics tools of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin 1992; Martin & White 2005; Martin and Rose 2007) to examine teacher-student talk, during five lessons of a collaborative writing step, known as joint construction (Rothery 1996; Rose & Martin 2012). It builds on previous studies to examine three main aspects of collaborative text creation: what students do; what teachers do to support student activity (without taking over); and how meanings are negotiated at the time of text creation.

Findings contribute to a better understand of how the ‘end product’ is created. They also provide insight into the semiotic resources that teachers and students use to talk about and negotiate academic language choices, at the time of writing.

This paper introduces key principles behind a five-year research project into analyzing competent academic discourse at the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, a specialized university for Petroleum Engineers. After briefly introducing a holistic approach to ESP that combines research, assessment and learning, one component of the research that involves the analysis of competent student-written texts across genres is illustrated by sample analyses of laboratory experiment reports. The ultimate aim of the analysis is to determine in a holistic manner what constitutes a 'competent' performance in written deliverables, both within particular genres and more
ambitiously across genres. In other words, an attempt is made to identify some general features of competent text above and beyond what has been identified in particular text types. The text analysis is designed to correspond to four assessment components used to evaluate competence in course rubrics, Task, Organization, Content and Language. These move from the most holistic categories of task and organization (related to holistic genre considerations) to the more detailed atomistic analysis of detailed content and the language used to express it. Given the holistic nature of the model, the focus in this paper is on just a few of the categories from the model.
From the more holistic components of the model (Task and Organization), the focus is on generic structure. In relation to the more atomistic analysis of content and language, the focus is on transitivity. Experimental laboratory reports are selected here as one of the simplest of 20 academic report genres. I argue, with an example from the data, that the most competent
students can transcend genre requirements even in this relatively restricted genre.

Cohesive devices are important elements in that they contribute to the overall quality of writing in terms of establishing connections, actualizing transitions and linking ideas. Related to this, conjunctions also carry the same importance as cohesive devices since they connect paragraphs, sentences and clauses. In this regard, the present study aims to document the use of conjunctions by upper-intermediate and advanced learners of EFL in their argumentative essays and look for potential relationships between the frequency of the use of conjunctions and argumentative essay performance. The study is of a descriptive nature, utilizing quantitative data to conduct analyses. The corpus for the study is comprised of 160 argumentative essays written by 40 students throughout one semester in an English Literature course. The frequency values regarding the use of conjunctions for each essay in the corpus were formed by the researcher taking Halliday and Hasan's (1976) taxonomy of conjunctions as a basis. For the scoring of the essays, a holistic rubric developed for the scoring of argumentative essays was preferred. The use of conjunctions in the corpus was reported as frequencies and percentages classfying them under the subtitles of additive, adversative, causal and temporal. Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Coefficient was computed to see if there was a relationship between argumentative writing performance and the frequency of conjunction use. The findings are discussed in relation to relevant litearture in the conclusion section.

This study explores the multimodal and linguistic contours of the individual feedback consultation classroom curriculum genre (Amundrud, 2015), which is comprised of five stages: Opening, Conferring, Advice, Scoring, and Closing. This genre was found through the examination of audiovisual classroom observation data collected from two separate Japanese tertiary EFL courses. Examination of 49 consultations collected from both courses found the stable, social, and goal-oriented use of this genre by teachers to ascertain problems with student work and provide feedback. Through the systemic-functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) of classroom discourse (e.g. Christie, 2002; Eggins & Slade, 1997; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Hood, 2011; Kress et al., 2005; Martin, 1992; Martin & Rose, 2007 & 2008), these consultations were examined for the use of spatial position, gaze, gesture, and language. This study extends prior work on classroom spatiality (Lim, 2011), refines metafunctionally-based systems for describing gestures (e.g. Lim, 2011; Martinec 2000), and develops a novel system for describing and analyzing the interpersonal content of gaze. It also develops upon prior work in SF-MDA on the language contextualization of gesture (e.g. Lim, 2011; Liu & O’Halloran, 2009). Regarding the linguistic content of individual-feedback consultations, this study also makes a number of contributions. For instance, it found 10 stratally and metafunctionally consistent pedagogic strategies that occurred in different stages of the consultation genre, such as pedagogic strategies of corrective feedback that utilized resources of heteroglossic ENGAGEMENT in APPRAISAL. However, its main contribution is the finding that while teacher-student consultations comprise a significant portion of class time in both courses, their pedagogic potential was underexploited due to a lack of an informing explicit, language-oriented pedagogy. From this analysis, it makes suggestions for the improved usage of in-class consultations that would enhance their pedagogic value for current and future language teachers and their students.

THIS MONOGRAPH, REALIZING ADVANCED FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING Development in Collegiate Education: Curricular Design, Pedagogy, Assessment, is about ways of realizing foreign language (FL) writing ability to advanced levels over the 4-year span typical for collegiate undergraduate programs in the United States. That focus has the following interrelated dimensions that deserve to be highlighted: First, to date no comprehensive treatment of college-level FL writing development exists; second, there is, therefore, no adequate description of what instructed FL writing development by literate adults looks like; third, lacking as well is a differentiated understanding of the nature, possibilities, and limitations of writing development in the instructed setting of collegiate FL teaching and learning; finally, what reasonable levels of attainment for FL writers are, at different points of their program of study and, most especially, at the conclusion of a program, is therefore mostly a matter of conjecture.

Nowadays, there is increasing pressure on academic staff and their postgraduate students to publish in prestigious high-impact journals. It is therefore not surprising to find that academic writing programs are increasingly targeting English for Research Publication Processes (ERPP), in particular the research article (RA) genre. Grant proposal writing is another important high-stakes genre as getting a research article published is often dependent on being awarded a grant to undertake the research project in the first place. However, this "behind-the-scenes" genre has not received much attention in the ESP literature, either from a research or pedagogic perspective. This article describes the design and implementation of a research grant proposal writing module offered to postgraduate students of science and engineering. The materials are very much influenced by the research findings on grant proposal writing and adopt a Swalesian genre-based approach to the pedagogy. Tasks in which students match lexico-grammatical patterning to specific move structures are also outlined. At the same time, I also briefly raise two issues related to lexico-grammar, i.e. the question of novice writers' language re-use from corpus resources and the identification of ELF-type language in academic writing, important aspects which merit more attention and reflection for ESP courses targeted at scholarly writing.

Técnicas de escritura en español y géneros textuales / Developing Writing Skills in Spanish es la primera publicación concebida para desarrollar y perfeccionar la expresión escrita en español a partir de una metodología basada en géneros textuales. Cada capítulo se ocupa de un género y está diseñado para guiar al escritor en la planificación, el desarrollo y la revisión de textos. Las novedades de esta segunda edición incluyen: un cuestionario sobre la escritura, listados con objetivos y prácticas escritas, nuevos materiales y actividades, repertorios de vocabulario temático, ejercicios de corrección gramatical y estilo, ampliación de las respuestas modelo y diferentes rutas para la escritura.

As university students are frequently given the tasks of writing research reports to fulfil their respective programme requirements , teaching novice writers to present the results of their reports understandably constitutes an essential component of English lessons at tertiary level. While past research has shown that results are consistently commented on in the Discussion section in various disciplines, the degrees to which they are allowed in the Results section may vary across different disciplines and across research reports based on different research methods. Without a detailed investigation into such disciplinary and methodological differences, instructors and supervisors would find it difficult to inform novice writers about the permissibility and necessity to incorporate comments of different categories in the Results section. This mixed-method genre-based study used quantitative and qualitative techniques to (i) identify the extent to which disciplinary and methodological differences have a bearing on the frequencies of comments in the Results sections of research papers in applied linguistics and education, and (ii) investigate the various categories of comments in relation to their prominent linguistic mechanisms. The findings of this study can also help instructors design relevant teaching materials that illustrate how experienced writers link their comments with major categories of research results.

The paper reflects recent thinking and research on what genre is, what the purposes of teaching genres are, and how genres should be taught. The paper argues a case for the application of prototype theory to teaching genres, especially with a view of teaching genres to advanced learners. To align its method with the objective specified, the paper presents perception-based data from questionnaire responses provided by a study group of 100 University students. Results from a test on both the receptive and productive skills of the respondents in the group are discussed. Final Test results of the experimental group and a control group are contrasted. The general method applied is a quantitative one as it coheres with the basic postulates of Rosch " s experimental prototype theory. The research method applied is experiment. The conclusions drawn from the study " s data corroborate strongly the applicability of the notion of prototypes to genre teaching.