Genre and Language Teaching
The importance of analyzing genre in language teaching
Writing structures and expression rules of
articles vary according to different genres, so teacher should well recognize
the features of different genres and choose appropriate teaching methods in
order to accurately grasp the value of the text to achieve better teaching effect
and meet the needs of students. One of the most important aspects of learning writing
is to learn the way of expression, and the emphasis on genre teaching can
improve students’ writing skills effectively. It is not helpful for students to
improve their writing skills if a teacher ignores the characteristics of different
genres and only teach grammar and vocabulary. So the style of teaching is an
essential part in language teaching .
Since genre teaching is so important, what
should a language teacher pay attention to while teaching?
Cross-cultural comparisons should be taken
into account. Paltridge. B(2001) mentioned ‘It
is also helpful to ask students to consider particular genre systems in their
first language. They can then do cross-cultural comparisons of systems of genre
to see what is the same and what is different in English and in their first
language. They can also compare differing assumptions and expectations between
the genre systems in the two languages and cultures. in the chapter ‘Cross-Cultural
Comparisons’, which arouses my interest and cross-cultural comparisons are
usually ignored by most language teachers. My Chinese students’ English writings can
be easily affected by Chinese writing styles. Taking a Chinese and an English
thank you letter as an example:
the structures; the choice of punctuation;
the ways to express gratitude of writing a thank you letter are of great differences. Chinese believe that longer letter means more sincere, and quoting pomes is romantic, so the letter is much longer than the English one. Besides Chinese are more implicit so they tend to utterance their emotion at the end of the article.
In view of cultural differences, the task of a language teacher is not only to
teach the language, but also analyze the differences of culture; and make a comparison, and help students avoid the influence of their first language.
Reference: Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and
The Language Learning Classroom. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press
Wow, I your cross-cultural comparison between an English and a Chinese thank you letter was fascinating! I particularly found it interesting that in a Chinese letter, poetry would be included as part of the thanks. It's quite a lovely idea, even though I know that in English this would seem unnecessary and bizarre. This was a great way to show how understanding the context in terms of culture and genre is really important!
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