Genre as a Pedagogical Resource in Disciplinary Learning: the affordances of genres. Fiona English London Metropolitan University EATAW 2011

Transcription

1 Genre as a Pedagogical Resource in Disciplinary Learning: the affordances of genres Fiona English London Metropolitan University EATAW 2011

2 Since I ve started university I ve felt myself struggling with the academic work and yearning to do something creative. This assignment seemed like a good opportunity. Sonia - First Year Undergraduate fiona english - EATAW 2011

3 Genre is everywhere! Cultural Products classification ( what type ) Linguistics communicative practice ( what like ) Pedagogy literacy & oracy ( how to ) fiona english - EATAW 2011

4 Problematising Genre in writing pedagogy Focus on form what genres look like Templates / Writing frames to be filled with content? (skills and techniques)(how to) Focus on Purpose what genres are for Appropriacy right genre / wrong genre (obligation, permission)(access & power) Disciplinary material? Debates? Preoccupations? Content? fiona english - EATAW 2011

5 As soon as the word genre is sounded, as soon as it is heard, as soon as one attempts to conceive it, a limit is drawn. And when a limit is established, norms and interdictions are not far behind. (Derrida 1980 p.221) fiona english - EATAW 2011

6 Essays Regenred as How might anthropological considerations of the built environment lead to better understandings of issues such as social status, identity construction and nationalism? Snails and Other Gastropods (a play in eight scenes) Interest Rate Determinants in Classical & Keynsian Economics Debate Time (a radio phone-in with John Maynard Keynes and Milton Freedman) Give an account of the origin and present day function of one African lingua franca. Culturally Confused (a dramatised bedtime scenario) fiona english - EATAW 2011

7 About Affordance I think I also had to have much more, had to have much more of a take on it a position I could get always with not really taking in the essay... To be able to put it in that format to re-express those ideas in a form of interaction between two and sometimes three characters certainly gave more vitality to the whole theme and it clarified a lot of the issues for me also.... And only the format of dialogue and character allowed that to happen fiona english - EATAW 2011

8 A multimodal toolbox Design - choose semiotic resources (genres, modes, textual materials, media) Produce - text Distribute - utter Redesign - interpret Cycle of Communication fiona english - EATAW 2011

9 The Orientations of Genres Contextual orientation The Social design, production, distribution GENRE Discursive orientation agency & discursive identity Thematic orientation The Material topics & organisation Semiotic orientation fiona english - EATAW 2011 modes & textual materials, media

10 For example: Sonia s Work Give an account of the origin and present day function of one African lingua franca. The word 'Swahili' is Arabic in origin and means coast. Swahili is spoken on the East coast of Africa by many as a first language and has spread into the interior as far as the Congo as a lingua franca. Though Swahili uses words adopted from Arabic, English and Portuguese, it has the definite structure of a Bantu language and is written in the Latin script.

11 Swahili is presumed to have started its life in the region of the Tana River estuary and to have spread further when Arabs and Persians settled in the area due to trading, thus spreading the language along their trading roots. In 975 Ali Ben Sultan al Hassan Ben Ali bought the island of Kilwa in exchange for a few bails of textiles and it became an important trading centre encouraging the use of Swahili along the coast south of the Zambezi River. * +

12 There are a very large number of Swahili dialects that have derived from specific social situations, some of which are dying out because of a change in social circumstances. Due to the function of some of these dialects, such as the mode of common communication in the army and work force the dialect has undergone considerable simplification and lost much of its structure until it can only be called a pidgin

13 As well as English influences Arabic continues to influence Swahili as a language and Swahili literary forms and songs. All though Swahili draws from other language sources it is seen as a nationalistic language and its success as a lingua franca in East Africa could be attributed to this and its strong association with the Africanism that evolved after gaining independence from colonial rule. English's growing prestige as a dominant world language could be seen as a hindrance to Swahili's progression but it is difficult to imagine English ever performing the same functions of Swahili in that Swahili has become a common medium for people of different vernaculars who other wise would have no means of communicating.

14 Parent: At this point seated in the armchair addressing the children. "Can you remember what our bedtime story was about yesterday? Child 1: Yesssssssssss! It was about.. [six more exchanges] Parent: OK, anyway, today I thought I could tell you the story about how Swahili came to be such an important language in East Africa. People always talk about the importance of English as a world language but they rarely consider that there exists many other important non-european languages all over the world. People need to learn one of these important languages so they can talk to people who have different first languages to themselves. Child 1: Umm Why would they be speaking to people with a different language? Parent: That's a good question you bright little spark! Now in the situation of Africa there are two hundred thousand different languages spoken. It's not like in England. In Africa if you go from one village to the next you are likely to find a different language..

15 Parent: [after a lengthy phase of expounding on the topic of Swahili] Sorry, I can see you re getting bored now but I just want to tell you one more thing! It was only late in the eighteen hundreds that Swahili became a written language. Africa is not like England. Here we write about everything we think is important, whereas in Africa people pass on information by telling each other stories. Story telling is important, it is only Western influence which brought about the idea of recording information in writing. Child 2: If you lived in Africa people would put sellotape over your mouth or everyone would always be asleep!

16 The Social Contextual Orientation Essay Bedtime Story Design responding to client's design designing for client Production Essayist (student essay) dramatised didactic conversation Distribution For institutional assessment normative practice reproduction of.. Evaluation against normative implicit disciplinary (and institutionalised) criteria and/ or values For institutional assessment alternative practice experiment reconfiguration of Interpretive effect for assessment / evaluation against non-normative disciplinary criteria and /or values

17 Discursive Orientation Purpose Process Display knowledge of client's design Display learning Acquire Reflect on information Reproduce information Report, Describe Experiment with learning / writing Tell (teach) about Inform Entertain Reflect on information Reflect on experience Recontextualise information Create Inform Contend / Evaluate Identity Novice as though expert Expert as if parent (Unwilling) pupils (as if) young children Role Performer Informer (parent) Dissenter (children) Agency mediated disguised/ unidentifiable Intertextual unmediated visible Interpersonal

18 The Material Thematic Orientation Essay Bedtime Story e.g. General characteristics of macro genre e.g. Specific characteristics of micro genre' e.g. Specific characteristics of the work in hand Descriptions, examples Essay management (introduction, body, conclusion i.e. sequence of information/ideas) disciplinary features e.g. linguistic concerns Swahili as a lingua franca examples of history and uses presented as list Interactions between characters, dialogues Narrative & stage management (sequence of events) Interactive 'story' telling Didactic parent and argumentative, assertive children. Swahili as a lingua franca presented as political act, linked to discussion on languages and cultures

19 Semiotic Orientation Genres Essay Dramatic dialogue Modes writing (writtenness) written speech / scripted speech (spokenness) characters, props, stage management Textual Materials impersonal forms (e.g. 'it' fronted, nominalisations, passive constructions) density of expression /clause complexity personal forms subject fronted, personal pronouns + impersonal forms where 'father' is 'recounting' the essayist information - clause intricacy + clause complexity during 'recount' sections formal (writing-like) expression (e.g. full forms, subordination) topically organised with no explicit threading absence of interpersonal resources (i.e. no cohesive directives, lack of attitudinal markers, no links between topics) explicitness as asserted fact encyclopaedic information (e.g. no hedges) colloquial (speech) expression topically organised but strongly mediated by dialogic interactions (e.g. responses to questions, challenges, recapitulations) frequent use of interpersonal resources, interruptions, agreements / disagreements explicitness pedagogised information didactic, directives (e.g. People need to learn ), approbation (e.g. That's a good question) hedges (e.g. perhaps it's to do with )

20 ...so what happened during the genre shift? Shift in the communicative circumstances (Contextual Orientation) Shift in who the writer can be (Discursive Orientation) Shift in what can be discussed (Thematic Orientation) Shift in how it means (Semiotic Orientation) fiona english - EATAW 2011

21 The student essays reflection on: knowledge as thing (asserted knowledge) body of knowledge, mastery reproducer / novice / performer / observer ( read experience)(economical, compact) The regenred work reflection on: knowledge as activity (negotiated knowledge) knowledge as practices producer / expert / informer / participant ( lived experience)(expansive,stretched) fiona english - EATAW 2011

22 Using genre as a pedagogical resource Disciplinary Learning - recontextualising & reconfiguring Engagement (doing the discipline)(lived & read experience) Participation (identity and ownership) Reflection (learning and understanding) Disciplinary knowledge as negotiated Connecting the disciplinary with the everyday (making real) (vertical and horizontal discourses (Bernstein)) Understanding genres and their affordances (different types of disciplinary production (e.g. lab logs to reports, posters to papers, etc.) English, F., 2011, Student Writing and Genre: reconfiguring academic knowledge, Continuum Books