Genre Analysis is a Branch of Discourse Analysis: Connections Between Language and Types of Texts

Genre Analysis SLR Outline

Introduction

• Importance of understanding genre-based writing for language teachers

Literature Review

• Definition and purpose of genre analysis
• Key terms in genre analysis: 'genre', 'stages', 'register'
• Role of genre analysis in language teaching

Genre Analysis

• Identification of the genre of the assigned text (exposition/opinion)
• Examination of the features of the text
• Context of its occurrence
• Communicative purpose of the text
• Overall organization of the text
• The register of the text
• Linguistic features of the text
• Salient aspects of coherence and cohesion of the text
• Overall effectiveness of the text

Implications for Teaching

• Challenges faced by second language learners in writing
• Importance of genre analysis in teaching
• Strategies for teaching genre-specific writing
• Benefits of genre-based instruction for students' understanding and improvement in writing skills

Conclusion

• Recap of the significance of genre analysis in language teaching
• The role of genre analysis in helping students understand the structure and purpose of texts

Genre Analysis SLR Essay Example

Introduction

Introduction: As we are language teachers, we are the first ones who need to understand the approach in genre-based writing. Thesis statement: In the following section on this paper, it aims to identify, describe and analyze the features of the given text. The literature review will be discussing the features of genre analysis of the assigned text, and the key terms in connection with genre analysis, like ‘genre’, ‘stages’, and ‘register’. The main body is to identify the genre of the given text, a detailed analysis will be discussed, including the setting, function, structure, contextual factors, vocabulary, and grammatical patterns, the coherence and cohesion, and the overall effectiveness of the text in terms of the above area. Then we will talk about the implications for teaching the genre in an educational context where English is a second language, why do we want to teach the students to understand the genre writing?

Literature review

Evidence & citing: According to Hyland, he stated that genre analysis is a branch of discourse analysis that explores specific uses of language, which is driven by a desire to understand the communicative character of discourse by looking at how individuals use language to engage in particular communicative situations. Genre analysis is to identify the structure of the text in terms of their functional stages or moves, the features that characterize texts and that help realizes their communicative purposes, discover how the genre relates to users’ activities, and explain language choices in terms of social, cultural and psychological contexts. As different text type has different purpose, it can be reflected in the characteristics of the text.

Genre analysis is a tool to help teachers to find the connections between language and types of texts and between forms and functions, enabling us to give students information and activities that raise their awareness of genres and help them to improve their writing. If we can apply the genre analysis on different text types, we can help the students to understand the difference in structure, purpose choice of words, etc. After that, they may try to work on their own writing, hoping that they can improve their writing skills.

Evidence & citing: Swales said that genre is “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes”.To do the genre analysis, we need to break down the text in different component parts that can help to prove the text is in a meaningful message structure that relates to a given context. Stage in the text which means there is a beginning, middle, and end. In linguistics, the register refers to the language style normally associated with a particular genre or a particular social or physical context. Following the Hallidayan approach, the use of language is mainly shaped by three major contextual factors, which are field, tenor, and mode. When the text unity is technically called textuality or coherence. which a sequence of linguistic signs can display a “continuity of senses”. Hyland mentioned that cohesion refers to the explicit formal or lexical links between units of ideas usually within a clause or across two clauses. If the text is cohesive, we are easy to find the connections between parts of the text.

Genre analysis

In this part, we are going to have a full analysis of the given text.

Identification of the genre

Topic sentence: The genre of the assigned text is identified as an opinion, the text type is exposition. A person who wrote this assigned text, “What has Hong Kong done to tackle climate change? Next to nothing” addressed the issue that there should be a change of the attitude of the Hong Kong government toward climate change, there should be a sincere commitment to sustainable development in climate change. There is a number of short paragraphs in the text which make the topic and the message clear with easy understanding.

Examination of the features of the text

This part is about one of the genre approaches in the major field of applied linguistics which is Systemic functional linguistics. According to SFL, a genre is a group of texts which share similar social (communicative purposes). The analysis can show the layout of the text, its formal vocabulary choices, and its long nominal groups allowing us to place the text firmly in an institutional rhetorical context. The exposition which the purpose is to explain some aspects of the world and bring the addressee to share the writer’s point of view.

 Analysis of the text

 Context of its occurrence

The intention of the assigned text is to express the writer’s opinion about his concern on climate change and he thinks that the Hong Kong government did nothing about it. He used a question as the topic to draw people’s attention on the newspaper in Hong Kong.

The communicative purpose of the text

Topic sentence: As the text type is exposition, which to advance or justify an argument or put forward a particular point of view. Evidence & citing: The writer used the introduction to show how the other country contributes to climate change and its economic capability. Then the writer pointed out that Hong Kong is failed to complete any of the four phases of the initiative and its lack of climate ambition by mentioning the cost of investing in clean energy. Commentary: He thought that Hong Kong could be a regional leader in the transition to a sustainable development model.

The overall organization of the text

Topic sentence: We can easily find that the writer writes a topic sentence on each paragraph that shared the same idea on climate change which is the Hong Kong government none enough to avoid the risk of a climate crisis. Also, the stages in the text can be identified clearly. Evidence & citing: In the beginning, the writer stated what the US had done to avoid climate change which is the fact, then in the middle, he addresses the worry that Hong Kong and few countries did anything and talked about what plans have been planned but few actions have been done by the Hong Kong government. Commentary: It gave a lot of information for the reader to be concerned or think of the problem in Hong Kong. At the end, the writer asks for a change in behavior to solve this problem.

The register of the text

Topic sentence: In the register, three major contextual factors, which are field, tenor, and mode. Evidence & citing: For field, which is the subject matter-related content. The content in the assigned text, is the writer thinks that the Hong Kong government did nothing to the climate change. For toner, it refers to the identities of or relations between the participants in a text. The relations of the writer and readers are probably is to the public in Hong Kong or the ones who are concerned about climate change. For mode, it refers to the medium through which communication id conduct. This is obviously is in written form which is more formal.

The linguistic features of the text

Topic sentence: In the text, we can find the writer uses declarative (statement) and interrogatives (questions). Evidence & citing: There are questions in lines 5, 10-12, and lines 33-34. The writer also uses modal verbs and uses much passive voice when describing the actions that Hong Kong or the readers should take. We can find those sentences in lines 6-7, line 35, and line 37. Using passive voice can avoid too much attribution responsibility to the reader.

Inline 25and 29s, which clauses are used. In line 39, the that-clause is used.

The salient aspects of coherence and cohesion of the text

Topic sentence: The writer uses the repeated words of synonyms to show the cohesion in the text. Evidence & citing: These vocabularies share the similar meaning of avoiding, including the word ‘exonerate’ on line 5, ‘impediment’ on line 6, ‘avoid’ on line 8, and ‘prevented’ on line 30.

The word ‘Hong Kong’ and the ‘government’ are repeated quite often in the text and the long noun groups ‘Hong Kong’s Climate Action plan’, ‘Action Plan’, and ‘the plan’ can be found in line 16, 17, 20,23 and 25respectively.

To have a tighter and better organization on the text, repeated sentence structure can be used in the paragraphs. For example, ‘But what about Hong Kong?’ on line 5, ‘But what credibility does…’ on lines 10-11, ‘But it has since…’ on line 13. These sentences can show the chain-like structure that links the sentences within the text.

Evidence & citing: Also, many connective words like ‘as’, and ‘however’ are used in the text. Commentary: These words can show the cause and result relationship clearly to the readers. By using the connection verbs, the organization of this text will be much better.

Commentary: We can find the heavy use of pronouns which is one of the characteristics of genre analysis. Evidence & citing: The pronoun ‘it’ in lines 11,13, 28, 34,37, and 38 is refer to ‘Hong Kong’. ‘we’ on line 10 is refer to the ones who are Hong Kong people and also the Hong Kong government.

Commentary: By using the related lexical items that we mentioned above, these items can link up the sentences, the paragraphs, and the whole piece of text, which enhances the cohesion of the text and show well organization in the text.

The overall effectiveness of the text

Topic sentence: The writer has stated his purpose is to explain some aspect of the world and bring the addressee to share his point of view successfully without any meaningless. Commentary: This can help the reader to follow his ideas or views easily and keep the readers focused on the main idea that is he thinks that the Hong Kong government do not have sustainable development on climate change with the appropriate evidence or support.

Implications

Using the genre approach to teaching writing is being promoted since the mid-1980s. For those who learn English as their second language in the local school, they may think the most difficult part to learn English is in writing so that they do not perform well in this section. It may be because they do not have enough knowledge in genre-specific writing. When they write their work, they may write or think using their mother language. Since that, the grammar, the choice of words, also the structure of the sentences, and the organization do not make any sense. For example, we do not use past tense in Chinese.

Topic sentence: After examining the key features of the assigned text in the above part, it proves that genre analysis is very important and is an important tool for teachers to demonstrate the main features when teaching a specific genre. Evidence & citing: It helps students to express their ideas, attitudes, and experiences easier, and then the readers can also understand the writer’s point of view effectively.

To teach this text type to the students, teachers are advised to remind the student to think widely during planning and teachers should not always focus on their mistakes first by focusing on their ideas. Otherwise, they feel find they are failed to do the writing task and not willing to do it.

Topic sentence: As the students are not familiar with the genre of writing at the beginning, the may have difficulties doing it. So, teachers need to help them to break down the text into smaller components which let the students to see texts as meaningful structures that relate to the purpose of the writing. Evidence & citing: For instance, the sentence structure for this type of genre should be cohesive and clear. The choice of words should be formal. They can find the linking words is being used in the text, and understand the linking work is to make the content more persuasive so as to seek for readers’ agreement on the writer’s points of view.

Commentary: Students will improve their understanding in why and how the texts are produced and used through the study of genre practices when adopting the genre approach. Henry and Roseberry stated that the students’ understanding of both the rhetorical structure and the linguistic features was increased by the genre-based instructions.

Conclusion

Conclusion paragraph: In conclusion, genre analysis is to help teachers to find the connections between language and types of texts and between forms and functions, enabling us to give students information and activities that raise their awareness of genres and help them to improve their writing. If we can help the students to understand the difference in the structure of the sentences and paragraphs, the purpose of writing, the choice of words, etc., then they may have a better idea and know the framework on the writing.

References

1. Curriculum Development Council. (2017). English language education: Key learning area curriculum guide (primary 1 – secondary 6). Hong Kong, HKSAR: Government Logistics Department. Retrieved https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/kla/eng-edu/Curriculum%20Document/ELE%20KLACG_2017.pdf
2. Henry, A., & Roseberry, R. L. (1998). An evaluation of a genre-based approach to the teaching of EAP/ESP writing. TESOL Quarterly, 32(1), 147-156.
3. Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language writing. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.
4. Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, 148–164.
5. Lee, I. (1998). Enhancing ESL students’ awareness of coherence-creating mechanisms in writing. TESL Canada Journal, 15(2), 36–49.
6. Nunan, D. (1993). Introducing discourse analysis. London, UK: Penguin.
7. Painter, C. (2001). Understanding genre and register: Implications for language teaching. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing English in a global context (pp. 167–180). London, UK: Routledge.
8. Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis. London, UK: Continuum.