Second language (L2) writing instruction often includes two main approaches, process-based and genre-based approaches. Teaching L2 writing according to the process-based approach primarily focuses on surface correction (e.g., formal accuracy, prewriting activities, and extensive feedback; Hyland, 2003), whereas teaching L2 writing from the genre perspective sees writing as “purposeful, socially situated responses to particular contexts and communities” (Hyland, 2003, p. 17). Hyland (2003) emphasizes that writing instruction would be more successful if students were aware of what target discourses look like.

A Genre-Based Writing Lesson

The goal of this article is to discuss the implementation of a genre-based approach in designing a lesson plan for an academic writing course. Teaching writing under the view of genre aims to raise students’ awareness of how target texts are structured and why they are written in the ways they are (Hyland, 2007). The focus of teaching is on the language used in specific contexts rather than syntactic structures, vocabulary, and composing processes. By categorizing and analyzing the texts, students will have more opportunities to understand how the texts are structured for a purpose, a context, and an intended audience. Designing a lesson plan for an academic writing course from the genre perspective often goes through the following steps.

Step 1: Activating Schema

From an L2 writing perspective, schema can be understood as a concept that contains background knowledge of content, text structure, and hierarchical organization of the text (Fushan, 2014). The purpose of Step 1 is to help students build up certain knowledge of the target genre, particularly to think of what they already know and what they do not yet know about the topic. To activate schema, the teacher may ask students some leading questions in relation to the writing topic. For example, in an ESL academic writing course with the writing prompt, “Taking many science courses is unnecessary to students majoring in the humanities. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?” (Smalley, Ruetten, & Kozyrev, 2012), the teacher may activate their students’ knowledge by asking questions like, “Do you like science courses?”, “Have you ever taken any science courses at the university?”, and “How helpful are science courses to humanities students?” Then, the teacher can provide students with some information regarding the topic. These pieces of information can be adapted from regular academic sources, but the teacher should design them in various forms, such as brochures, pictures, newspapers, or webpages, because multimedia materials can promote learner attention and interest better than plain texts or paper-based materials (Chen & Sun, 2012). Through the provided information, the teacher can ask students to identify the contexts in which the writing topic may occur.

Step 2: Exploring the Genre

Exploring the genre often includes two main activities, one to explore the text type (e.g., argument, exposition, narrative, descriptive) and one to explore the text form (i.e., physical or digital format). Students are given a sample text of the target genre. To help students explore the text type, the teacher may ask some leading questions like “What is the text about?”, “What purpose does it serve?”, “In what context does the text normally occur?,” and “Who are the potential readers of the text?” Students scan the sample text and then discuss these questions in groups. They report their answer in front of class and the teacher comes up with what this text type is and which purpose it serves.

To help students explore the text form (i.e., physical or digital format), the teacher shows a graphic organizer (e.g., mind mapping or outlining) on the screen and then asks students to read the text again to fill in the graphic organizer, including supporting details in the sample text. The purpose of this activity is to help students have a full understanding of the organization, communicative purpose, and the potential audience of the target genre before they examine the typical grammatical features of the target text and basic vocabulary for the topic in the following step.

Step 3: Exploring Grammatical Features and Basic Vocabulary

The activities in Step 3 enable students to identify common lexico-grammatical features of the target genre. Students work in groups to highlight basic vocabulary (i.e., words in relation to the current topic sentence and context of each paragraph in the sample text), grammatical features (e.g., tenses), modals, passive and active voice, types of sentences (i.e., simple, compound, complex), and grammatical cohesive devices (e.g., first, second, therefore, additionally) in the given text. Before receiving teacher feedback, students report their findings in front of class by answering such questions as “What are the main linguistic features employed in the introduction, or in the first body paragraph?”, “How do these language features help the writer achieve the communicative purpose?” (i.e., the purpose of each paragraph, each section, and the whole text). The teacher’s feedback is of great importance at this point because it helps students gain an in-depth understanding of the lexico-grammatical features of the target genre.

Step 4: Face-to-Face Conferences

Depending on students’ language proficiency, teacher feedback can be conducted with groups of students or with individual students in the form of face-to-face conferences. That way, students have more opportunities to discuss what they do and do not understand of the target genre with their teacher. Similarly, the teacher can respond to individual students’ needs by clarifying meaning, explaining ambiguities, and allowing students to ask questions (Ferris, 2014). The content for these conferences mainly revolves around the text type, text form, and lexico-grammatical features of the target genre.

Step 5: Text Construction

The last step is for students to construct the text in the target genre (e.g., argument, narrative, or exposition) about the given topic or another topic they are interested in. Students work in groups to develop their ideas using the online mind mapping tool. During this process, the teacher monitors students’ interaction to help them where necessary. Once each group has outlined its ideas, groups can share their outlines with the class. The teacher and members of other groups comment on the outlines. After class, students individually develop their outline into a completed text and then submit the text to their teacher the following week via Google Docs. The teacher gives feedback on the first draft. The feedback should be given in form of teacher-student conferences, using face-to-face interaction to help students have a better understanding of the genre. Finally, students revise and submit the final draft for grading.

Conclusion

This article suggested one way to design an L2 writing lesson plan from the genre perspective. The activities provided in the preceding steps aim to help students have a better understanding of the target genre (i.e., the context in which the text may occur, the communicative purpose of the text, the target audience of the text, the text type and text form together with its particular lexico-grammatical features) before students start constructing the text on their own or with their peers. Likewise, giving feedback in form of face-to-face conferences might be more constructive and helpful to both teachers and students. This activity may be of value to teachers in various instructional contexts of L2 writing.

References

Chen, C. M., & Sun, Y. C. (2012). Assessing the effects of different multimedia materials on emotions and learning performance for visual and verbal style learners. Computer and Education, 59, 1273–1285.

Ferris, D. R. (2014). Responding to student writing: Teachers’ philosophies and practices. Assessing writing, 19, 6–23.

Fushan, S. (2014). The application of schema theory in teaching college English writing. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4, 1476–1482.

Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagogies: A social response to process. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12, 17–29.

Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, 148–164.

Smalley, R. L., Ruetten, M. K., & Kozyrev, J. R. (2012). Refining composition skills: Academic writing and grammar (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle Cengage Learning.

Thu M. Lau is currently a PhD student in the English Department at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include L2 writing, genre-based instruction, and intercultural pragmatics.