The relevance of genre theory in supporting adult learners

Unit 3: Genre Theory

The relevance of genre theory in supporting adult learners

Literary genre has an important Role in the teaching of literacy: “Any text requires what is sometimes called ‘cultural capital’ on the part of its audience to make sense of it. Generic knowledge is one of the competencies required.” Allen (1989) One of the first questions the Literacy student may ask is ‘why read?’ They may understand that to be able to read the ‘basics’, such as a gas bill or an application form, is useful but the relevance of wider reading is often obscure to them. The literacy tutor must therefore, demonstrate the importance of wider reading to the mastery of written and spoken language and how the appreciation of different genres can enable the learner to borrow from them to develop and enrich their own personal style: “Genre provides an important frame of reference which helps readers to identify, select and interpret texts.” Chandler (2000)

Primarily, genre puts literacy in context; the meaning and substance of text is also its purpose because vocabulary, grammar and genre are interdependent; “a genre can be seen as a shared code between the producers and interpreters of texts included within it.” Chandler (2000)
Most people understand genre from TV and film, the ‘soap’, the detective series, comedy, science-fiction etc. They may already have an understanding of the different styles of language, constructions of plot and characterisation of these programmes but they may not have applied that understanding to the analysis of text. Because genre tends to be consistent through reading, writing, speaking and listening, the study of contrasting genres illuminates the power of language and the importance of structure:
“Genre is a framework within which to make sense of related texts.” Chandler (2000)

A novel way to explain genre to the student would be to liken it to predictive text – you know what’s coming next: “Familiarity with a genre enables readers to generate feasible predictions about events in a narrative.” Chandler (2000) A phrase such as ‘the old door creaked open slowly…’ immediately sets up expectations in the reader which allows them to anticipate and predict what words mean in a specific context. Conversely, a phrase such as ‘a deathly hush’ means two different things if it is either part of a commentary on a snooker game or a horror story. Sometimes one word can conjure up a genre by itself; for example, ‘Wimbledon’ instantly brings to mind tennis and all the characteristics of the English lawn tennis tradition. Even just a set of numbers - 9/11 - has become loaded with meaning in modern language usage. The student will soon come to appreciate the difference a word can make in their own writing.

There has been some debate around the use of genre in young children’s writing (Barrs in Stiener and Maylin (1994). It is argued that children are too often encouraged to write in a narrative and self-expressive style. There has been a call for more explicit teaching of impersonal and factual genres such as the report or instruction. However, adult students seem to be most familiar with these genres in their reading; a newspaper or recipe being often the only reading they do. It is important to encourage adult learners to embrace a wide variety of genres in both their reading and writing because this is a sure way towards a more enriched vocabulary. Often adults will have only dim and troubled memories of reading novels and writing stories. Frequently they will recall being given dense and academic texts to read (Dickens?) and being heavily penalised for spelling and grammar in their creative writing. It can be a great release for an adult to be able to engage in creative writing without fear of censure and from this activity will be the self-motivation to improve their spelling and grammar.

Approaches to the teaching of genre

One approach to teaching an awareness of genre is as follows:
Structured writing - the student is given a writing frame around a theme based on current affairs. The example below incorporates what the student may already know from news reports (and the associated vocabulary and terminology) with an opportunity to freely express feelings and imagination with the help of a ‘scaffold’. In this way one genre, the newspaper or TV report, is used to develop another (the war story). Students are able to experience first hand the way structure and language change according to genre yet may still ‘borrow’ from one another: “The multiple purposes of journalism often lead to generically heterogeneous texts.” Van Leeuwen (in Fairclough 1995)

Imagine you are a young soldier on a troop ship going to Iraq. You have not seen active service before. You have no idea where in Iraq you will be going and it is still unclear if there will be a war. You get sea-sick.
Write about how you feel before you get on the ship.
Write about how you feel during a day at sea.
Write about how you feel after the ship docks at Iraq.
Each time describe what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you are doing.
Write about what happens the day you are sent into battle.
How do you think you will feel about the war when you are an old man?
Ww.E3.1 Rt.E3.5 Rw.E3.3&4 Ws.L1.1-3

The explicit teaching of spelling and grammar can follow on from the student’s first attempt at the work. For example, students often over-use direct speech in creative writing; they can be encouraged to re-phrase sentences to reduce the number of quotation marks in the piece. They may also mix tenses and reveal particular miss-spelling patterns (this work is also very useful as part of students’ initial assessment). Finally, useful discussion can follow by comparing and contrasting the style of the students’ finished piece and the original source material (newspaper reports). It is probably not necessary to teach the idea of genre itself explicitly (“readers learn genres gradually, usually through unconscious familiarisation.” (Fowler 1989) but to use it as an implicit developmental process in the student’s emerging command of language.

Other approaches used include:
A weekly diary for an autistic student who is unable to put her feelings into words. The student had read and enjoyed The Diary of Anne Frank.
A letter to the Prime Minister about the public smoking ban (again using a newspaper report as source material)
Speech writing on a topic of local interest using Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream…’ as inspiration for the use of emotive language.
A reading and discussion about a ghost story on Halloween night. The use of language and vocabulary were examined to see how fear and alarm were created in both the ghost story and a re-telling of an old Irish tale about the turnip lantern. Students were then encouraged to write about their own ghostly encounters.
Reading and discussion about a Christmas story followed by making Christmas cards using the word processor and including a Christmas message.
Conclusion
In Literacy, genre is unavoidable if the teacher is to use an interesting variety of texts in the scheme of work. It would be difficult and very dull to stick to only one or two genre in the course of a literacy programme, consequently an understanding of genre will occur at an unconscious level even if it is not explicitly taught. The teacher should make full use of a wide range of texts and expose students to as may genre as possible to broaden and develop their understanding of language use and structure while attending to the mechanics of spelling and grammar with students on an individual basis according to need.
In the lesson included with his assignment, a Level 2 student herself came to the realisation that to understand Seamus Heany better, a familiarity with his other work (or ‘genre’) would be an advantage. She had understood that to predict a poet’s meaning it is helpful to understand his ‘style’ and purpose. The class as a whole appreciated the value of poetry as a medium for experimenting with words and sentence structure in a flexible and imaginative way.
It is important to note that this lesson came at the end of 30 week programme which had covered a variety of genres, including more ‘factual’ texts. It would not be appropriate to introduce poetry to a mixed-level group of learners, all with very different needs, at the start of a programme. The learners had experimented with different ways of expressing themselves in writing, from letters of complaint to childhood reflections and had read and used a wide variety of texts. This aim of this lesson was to empower the learners to break some of the ‘rules’ they had previously learned and understand that ultimately language is ours to use as we wish.

 

References:

Allen, R (1989) Bursting bubbles: "Soap opera" audiences and the limits of genre. In Seiter, E. Borchers, H. Kreutzner, G & Warth, EM (Eds.) Remote Control: Television, Audiences and Cultural Power. London. Routledge, pp. 44-55
Barrs, M (1994) Genre Theory: What’s it All About? in Stiener, B and Maylin, J. Language, Literacy and Learning in Educational Practice. Open University
Chandler, D (1997) Working within genres. An Introduction to Genre Theory URL http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/.html [Accessed 18.04.2006]
Fairclough, N (1995) Media Discourse. London. Edward Arnold (Chapter 5)
Fowler, A (1982) Kinds of Literature. Oxford. Oxford University Press

 

Filed Under: Adult Learners Genre Theory English