Application to teaching English as a Second Language
Similar texts to the news articles that were analysed, could be used for teaching the genre of news report writing to learners of English as a second language. Authentic articles on current, local issues of interest could be chosen by students and the language used analysed.
According to Devitt (2015, p.46),” teachers approach genre
instruction through analysis, but more advanced learning happens through
practice, feedback from experts in the genre, reflection, and then practice
again."
The target genre is firstly modeled by the teacher. A text is jointly constructed with learners and then the learner constructs the text independently. The teacher needs to have high expectations for the (English Language) EL learners and high support to help them gain confidence, through the scaffolding they provide. Learning grammar and vocabulary is learnt best when there is authentic meaning making. The teacher temporarily scaffolds for learning to support the English language learner, with the aim of helping them gain new skills, leading to independence of the skill. The nature and type of scaffolding depends on the individual language needs of the students.
Collaborative learning
is also vital so that students can share knowledge and experience with other learners and the teacher. Students should use their mother tongue to then learn concepts
in English, thereby linking their mother tongue and English. Students should learn how language is used for different purposes and for different audiences. The different linguistic features of a particular genre of writing should be explicitly taught, by using real-life events and texts such as the news articles analysed. This makes the teaching relevant to the learners' real lives and assists them with the acquisition of English.
Teaching and learning cycle using scaffolding, when using a news article text:
According to Cope and Kalantzis,(1993, p.11, in Devitt, 2015, p. 49), “the teaching-learning cycle …typically begins with analysing the rhetorical purposes, social functions, and organisational and textual features in some models of a particular genre."
1. Firstly the teacher needs to speak to, listen to and discuss with students about the genre of news articles. This may include gathering information by using the internet, collaboration with peers, using their prior knowledge and experience of the genre. Students view a variety of real life local and current news articles, including comparing digital and paper versions, to expose the learner to the different types and features of news articles. The teacher discusses the similarities and differences between the texts, including the linguistic features, layout, font and content, purpose and the target audience. By viewing different texts, students can be shown how the content differs depending on the words and sentences chosen. Brainstorming of students' particular topics of interest can lead to further research of those topics.
2. The teacher then models the genre, the writing of a news article, so that students can see the purpose and linguistic structure of the genre. As a group there is a discussion of the possible variety in the linguistic features and layout of the texts. These features are compared with real life news articles.
3. The teacher and students jointly construct the text, a news article, using the topic of interest. Students suggest ideas and the teacher scribes. As a group students' brainstorm how to improve the writing, by rereading and discussion. As a group explicitly discuss the language used and the structure within the context of the discussion, as needed. The teacher with the students can also sequence the parts of a news article text.
4. Finally students independently construct the text on a topic of interest, either individually or in pairs. Students should have the opportunity to write texts independently. The teacher can show the students how their texts vary due to factors such as different language backgrounds, prior knowledge and due to different experiences with the genre. Then the teacher can give student's feedback and they then revise the text and improve their writing where needed.
According
to Devitt (2015, p.49) students learn “how there is no one right way to perform
any writing task.” Swales (in Devitt,
2015, p.49) hypothesized that “transfer is more likely to happen if…the
acquired genre skill involves not only competence with the product but also a
raised rhetorical consciousness.”
Devitt (2015, p. 49) explains that “Swales’ analysis of genres, with their tasks and moves…(can be) a method for teaching genre performance as well as competence."
As Devitt (2015), notes since Swales, students’ reflection of their writing is an important part of the writing process. Students reflect
on what they have written previously. They learn how to adapt the genre and the aspects of their writing that need improving and the aspects they did well. They can then discuss as a whole
class what they learnt. According to Devitt (2015, p.50) students need to be taught that “no writing situation they will encounter will fit the abstracted
genre perfectly or even fit one genre only. Every writing situation requires
writers to perform in unique ways, to dance without knowing the steps, to
improvise their own moves.” Devitt (2015, p. 51) states that genre studies
create a paradox “that our scholarly conception of genre grounds itself in
rhetoric analysis, and awareness, while the material reality of genre lies in
language, production, and text.”
Students can apply these moves to writing on local topics
that interest them. Students can research a topic of interest by using the
internet and summarise what they have learnt. They can use Swales’ moves to
help them structure their writing, such as writing a news article.
An example of how to use Swales’ moves for teaching students
to write a news article is as follows:
Move one can be viewing how according to Sutton, (2000, p. 450), ”news media influences public perception of
certain groups of people," by analysing the grammar and language used in various news articles and the content and context of the articles. Move two can be summarising results
of an article, filling in their own information on a given topic through their own research. In move three, students can look at their own area and the current issues of the topic. If there is a fourth move, the student can do their own study on the topic.
Students begin with reading an article on a local topic of interest, look at similar national and international topics, then write their own article. This can also be done in the opposite way, by starting with a broad topic and moving to a local issue of interest. By doing this, according to Sutton (2000, p. 450), students “learn to view themselves as original researchers, creating new knowledge: they learn to evaluate previous researchers’ claims and test those claims’ applicability to their own world."
Swales' Moves description Sutton (2000, p.451)
Swales’ Moves Table 21 Coffin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.114)
Move 1: Establishing research territory- introducing and
reviewing items of previous research
Move 2: Establishing a niche-gap in previous research
Move 3: Occupying the niche-outlining purposes or stating
the nature of the present research
Viewing different examples of genre reveals textual
patterns.
The importance of using Systematic Functional Linguistics in English language teaching
As Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.178) notes, “it is the functional relation between sociocultural purpose and generic structure and between the register variables and the metafunctional components of the linguistic system that make genre and register such useful concepts of language education. They can be used to analyse and make explicit to learners the sociocultural features of a particular text-type.” Students may not be aware of the schematic structure that is appropriate for a culture. Students can be taught how to rewrite texts by changing the mode tenor or field.
According to Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.178), “a consciousness of genre and register enables the teacher to identify and focus on whatever aspects of language in use the learner needs most help with...(and to) control the difficulty of the tasks.” As Painter (in Burns & Coffin, 2013, p.178) states, “students will thus be learning the ways and meanings of the culture as they learn the lexicogrammatical forms of the language."
The SFL approach has been used in many Australian schools in the English curriculum and in ESL and EFL settings. According to Coffin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013) SFL theorists believe that English language students should be explicitly taught grammatical features to help them learn linguistic conventions of texts for greater success in the work force. According to Coffin (in Burns & Coffin, 2013) the approach can be used for adult learners of English to give them the language needed for work and community life. They then learn how to use language appropriately in their social contexts, according to their social and cultural needs. Due to the globalisation of English, there is now a range of cultural and social contexts in which English needs to be used both locally and internationally.
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