Genre and the Language Learning Classroom B. Paltridge University of Michigan Press 2001, 154 pp., US $24.

95 isbn 0 472 08804 1 Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives A. M. Johns (ed.) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 2002, 350 pp., US $32.50 isbn 0 8058 3074 X Regular readers of ELT Journal will be familiar with the issues addressed in these two books, since this journal has identied genre as one of the key concepts in ELT (Allison 1999) and published several articles on genre-based approaches to teaching writing (see Badger and White 2000; Flowerdew 2000; Weber 2001). So it is surprising to nd Ann Johns, editor of Genre in the Classroom, pondering why some of the nest minds in genre theory eschew discussion of the pedagogical implications of their work (p. 237). Fortunately, these nest minds include neither Johns herself nor Brian Paltridge, author of Genre and the Language Learning Classroom: both have impressive genreoriented publications to their names (e.g. Johns 1997; Paltridge 1997). Their latest achievements are two books with remarkably similar titles, but whose aims and target readerships are quite dierent. As bets a volume in a teaching training series, Paltridges compact monograph is 100 pages of comfortably-legible text, supported by a host of charts, diagrams, and examples, while each of the seven chapters ends with a selected reading list and a set of tasks and discussion questions. The introductory chapter demonstrates Paltridges skill at dealing with complicated issues: for example, he wisely considers the benets of genre-based instruction before tackling the thorny problem of dening genre as a concept. Clearly, Paltridge has a knack for rendering accessible the often complex ndings and arguments of genre researchers, as is illustrated by his concise discussion of the relative weight given to textual features (specialized vocabulary or structural elements) and contextual factors (intended audiences or rhetorical situations) in various schemes for classifying genres (pp. 113). While acknowledging that a range of theoretical perspectives on genre exists, he shows that this diversity is a powerful source for generating teaching applications.
426 Reviews

In Chapter 2, Paltridge examines and illustrates how genre can serve as an organizing principle for language-learning programs. He gives clear presentations of the steps in planning a genrebased course, selecting appropriate tasks, and using techniques such as scaolding. Throughout this discussion, and indeed throughout the book, Paltridge emphasizes the integrating function that a focus on genre can serve in teaching. For example, he assists rst-year ESL students to acquire key academic genres through a theme-based course on ESL that includes explicit instruction on both reader expectations and the writing process. He thus integrates elements of the content-, genre-, and process-based approaches, reecting calls for more balanced approaches to the teaching of writing (Raimes 1991). This chapter also reects another important tendency: the growing recognition that no genre is an island, and that the performance of one genre is often dependent on the successful processing of others, which may be written or oral. One of the surprises of this book is the amount of attention it gives to listening and speaking skills. Chapters 3 through 5 examine how various aspects of genre knowledgecontext, discourse, and languagecan be explored in the languagelearning classroom. All of these chapters provide a variety of practical suggestions that focus on both written and oral genres, with a number of activities designed to highlight the dierences or the connections between the two. For example, in his discussion of context-building activities (pp. 4753), Paltridge describes an activity designed to encourage learners to consider cross-cultural dierences in conversation topics, and provides a grid for analysing readings with regards to an authors intended audience and expectations about shared knowledge. By showing us how the scope of genre-based teaching can be broadened to include reading, listening, and speaking, this book fully justies its title of Genre and the Language Learning Classroom. The title of the book is also justied by Paltridges recognition of the limitations of genre-based instruction, and the genuine issues that it raises. In Chapter 7, he examines areas where there is a need for further investigations, emphasizing the need for more and better descriptions of genres in English, and for the identication and description of genres in languages other than English; he also examines the potentially signicant linkages that genre-based instruction has to contrastive rhetoric and corpus studies. Paltridge addresses some of the tough issues, including the ongoing debate over whether

reviews

welcome

genre-based approaches limit learner expression through their uses of model texts and emphases on audience expectations. His treatment of the relationship of genre teaching and critical discourse is typically balanced and concise, and should provide a solid foundation for discussion. This chapter also considers the limitations of the genre approach and the obstacles to applying it another topic that will surely stimulate discussion among teachers who are considering how it may be integrated into their repertoires. Of course, the book is not without its aws: Chapter 6, on Assessment, for example, is both the shortest chapter and, in terms of content, the thinnest. The six principles Paltridge suggests for genre-based assessment are inadequate, since they are mostly banal (learners should know that, at some stage, they will be assessed), or vague (the assessment should be related to the aims and objectives of the program that the students are undertaking) (p. 105); the examples of genre-informed assessment provided are interesting, but more guidance should have been oered for selecting and adapting them to a range of teaching contexts. The volume would also have beneted from a glossary, though Paltridge is generally good at dening specialized terms as he uses them, and the subject index will guide adept readers to the relevant page. Another complaint involves editing glitches: six lines of text (p. 68) nearly match those on p. 8and even repeat the error of attributing the same quotation to Louise instead of Lisa Delpit, while inexplicably providing dierent page references. In fact, both page numbers are wrong, and the quotation does not appear at all in the reprinted source that Paltridge cites (Delpit 1998), but rather in one of Delpits earlier publications (1988). However, these are isolated aws in a book I would recommend not only to teachers and trainers predisposed to genrebased instruction, but also to die-hard processwriting teachers, who may be surprised to nd that Paltridge, along with others (Bamforth 1992/93; Badger and White 2000), endorses the view that genre and process should be complementary, rather than rival approaches. As its subtitle indicates, Genre in the Classroom is an edited collection of essays emphasizing the multiple perspectives that have contributed to the development and vitality of the genre approach. Johnss stated aim is to bring together various understandings of genre and discussions of the ways in which this complex concept has been realized, or critiqued, as teachers attempt to apply it to academic classrooms (p. 12). Not only is the
Reviews

main focus here on university classrooms: it is also exclusively on the teaching of writing. In 300 pp. of dense, but generally well-written text, this volume oers 17 original essays (none of them reprints) that have been thoughtfully grouped into seven sections. Each of the three main perspectives within genre analysis has its own section: The Sydney School consists of chapters by Mary Macken-Horarik and Susan Feez, English for Specic Purposes has chapters by John Swales and Stepanie Lindemann, and Sunny Hyon, and chapters on The New Rhetoric by Christine Adam and Natasha Artemeva, and by Richard Coe. This threefold schema does not seek to provide a comprehensive overview, but rather to illustrate how each perspective has been operationalized in specic settings. The strengths of these contributions are well illustrated by Feezs chapter, which examines heritage and innovation in Australias Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP ). Feez does not simply trace the history of this program, but shows how AMEP teachers have responded to crises in the development of teaching methodologies, and thereby contributed, rstly, to the shaping of a learner-centred, needs-based communicative curriculum and, subsequently, to a genre pedagogy based on systemicfunctional linguistics. As teachers adopt and adapt new methods, they both draw on the existing heritage of ELT and introduce innovations. In her study of AMEP , Feez shows how collaboration between teachers and researchers has led to the ongoing development of genre-based instruction in Australia. The readers of this journal will certainly welcome her conclusion that classroom-based experimentation and reection is driving some of the most interesting theoretical developments in genre today (p. 69). Johnss editorial vision is not conned to these three subdivisions, and she recognizes that the borderlands between the established schools are fertile. The section Related Approaches consists of chapters by Brian Paltridge and John Flowerdew that straddle the systemicfunctional and ESP approaches, and the Bridging Text and Context of chapters by Terence Pang and Betty Samraj, that illustrate ways that the contextual concerns of the New Rhetoric can enrich ESP . In his chapter, Flowerdew provocatively characterizes the theories of the Australian1 school and ESP as linguistic applying theories of functional grammar and discourse and concentrating on the lexicogrammatical and rhetorical realization of the communicative purposes embodied in a genre
427

reviews

welcome

and the New Rhetoric as nonlinguisticfocusing on the purposes and functions of genres and the attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviours of members of the discourse communities within which genres are situated (p. 91). While she rejects the term nonlinguistic in favour of contextuallygrounded, Johns acknowledges that some signicant voices in the contextually-grounded camp are doubtful aboutor even reject outright the notion that genres can be usefully taught (Freedman 1994), and that the linguistic camp is clearly united around the feasibility ofindeed, the need forexplicitly teaching them. Unlike Paltridges book, this volume draws attention to such issues, and examines their implications for classroom practices: Flowerdew, for example, argues that teaching materials for his EFL students must systematically present and practise the structural and linguistic features of targeted genres; moreover, he suggests that a moderately prescriptive pedagogy (p. 102) is suited to the setting he describes. Other contributors to this and the New Rhetoric sections of the book challenge Flowerdews perspective, and will encourage readers to consider the degree to which it is the diering theoretical concerns or classroom settings that have led to the diversity of views on appropriate teaching strategies. Another innovative section, Pedagogical Quandaries, is composed of three chapters that explore problematic aspects of the genre-based teaching of academic writing. Virginia Gule challenges the tendencies towards the codication of the process approach and the product orientation of the genre approach by showing how pre-writing activities can be expanded to take social context into account. Tony Dudley-Evans observes that the classroom genre of the essay lacks the sequential move structure of the academic article, and proposes a course that helps MA students to develop appropriate academic stances for specic readerships; Johns suggests that university students need assistance in overcoming the rigid and limited views about written genres that they bring from previous educational experiences. In her chapter, Johns observes that the inherent tensions between genres as complex abstractions, and as pedagogical devices, may account for the reticence on the part of some genre theorists to discuss the classroom implications of their work and it is to her credit that she has brought some of these nest minds together in this thoughtprovoking volume. The concluding section of the book is unusual, or
428 Reviews

so Johns warns us in the Preface (p. i). It consists of a chapter by William Grabe that argues for the existence of two broad macro-genresthe narrative and the expositoryeach of which emphasize[s] dierent functions and purposes imposes constraints on formal text production [and] oers unique ways to learn (p. 264). Johns tells us that this argument challenges the ideas of the rest of the book, and has invited responses by J. R. Martin, Vijay Bhatia, and Carol Berkenkotter, who are oered as representatives of the main theoretical positions (pp i; 11). This format seems to be at odds with the overall structure of the book, which challenges the usual and limiting portrayal of the genre approach as three discrete schools. But this is not the main problem. Grabes makes his case by surveying several eldsincluding educational literacy, cultural psychology, and cognitive developmentbut he studiously avoids referring to the genre literature itself. There are certainly interesting points here, and the review is undoubtedly competent, but this essay seems out of place, since it almost entirely ignores the arguments presented throughout the rest of the bookas the responses make abundantly, though tactfully, clear. Some innovations are failures, and in my view this one does not achieve the clarifying purpose that Johns apparently intended. This is a pity, since the rest of the book is an integrated compilation of essays that deserves to be read and pondered collectively. For anyone interested in genre and classroom practices, at least one of these two books belongs not only on youror your institutionsshelves, but also on the top of that ever-mounting stack of must reads. Johnss volume is a major contribution to the literature for those already involved in the teaching or researching of academic literacy. Paltridges volume is highly recommended for those who are seeking to expand their teaching repertoires, or are responsible for selecting materials for teacher-training programs. Note 1 Johns insists on using the term Sydney School, even though all of the writers she identies as part of it reject the label, and would seem to prefer a broader term, such as Australian. References Allison, D. 1999. Key concepts in ELT : genre. ELT Journal 53/2: 144. Badger, R. and G. White. 2000. A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal 54/2: 15360.

reviews

welcome

Bamforth, R. 1992/93. Process versus genre: anatomy of a false dichotomy. Prospect 8/12: 8999. Delpit, L. 1988. The silenced dialogue: power and pedagogy in educating other peoples children. Harvard Educational Review 58/3: 28098. Delpit, L. 1998. The politics of teaching literate discourse in V. Zamel and R. Spack (eds.). Negotiating Academic Literacies. Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum. Flowerdew, L. 2000. Using a genre-based framework to teach organizational structure in academic writing. ELT Journal 54/4: 36978. Freedman, A. 1994. Do as I say: the relationship between teaching and learning new genre in A. Freedman and P. Medway (eds.). Genre and the New Rhetoric. London: Taylor and Francis. Johns, A. M. 1997. Text, Role, and Context: developing academic literacies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paltridge, B. 1997. Genre, Frames and Writing in Research Settings. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Raimes, A. 1991. Out of the woods: emerging traditions in the teaching of writing. TESOL Quarterly 25/3: 40730. Weber, J.-J. 2001. A concordance- and genreinformed approach to ESP essay writing. ELT Journal 55/1: 1420. The reviewer Mark Beittel teaches English at the Universities of Trento and Bolzano in northern Italy. He has an MA in Sociology (State University of New York), and is completing a distance MA in Linguistics (TESOL ) at the University of Surrey. His main areas of interest are teaching and assessing EAP writing, and developing classroom and self-access materials for ESP learners. Email: Mark.Beittel@lett.unitn.it

English for Primary Teachers M. Slattery and J. Willis Oxford University Press 2001,148pp., 9.95 isbn 0194375625 This very useful book and cd set is addressed at those who teach English to children whose ages range from 4 to 12, an age group which can be either intensely stressful or immensely rewarding. It can be used for self-study or as part of a training course. While many native teachers will nd English for Primary Teachers interesting, there is no doubt that it will also be a very welcome contribution to the bookshelves of any primary teachers of English who wish to increase the eectiveness of their classroom language. In the same way, it will be particularly useful for non-native teachers and for trainers. This is not just another resource book simply oering practice activities for teaching young learners; instead, each of the ten units considers an aspect of teaching children, andstarting out from a succinct consideration of its methodological underpinningprovides a series of interesting classroom activities to support a coherent programme intended principally to encourage, expand, and enhance the teachers use of English in the classroom when she uses those same activities. The authors (who have taught and trained in many dierent countries) believe that if teachers are condent that their classroom language is eective, and that they have a wide range of potential activities at their disposal, the stress of dealing with young learners can eectively be limited, and teaching itself will become more productive and rewarding as a direct consequence. One specic aim of the authors is to consciously help non-native teachers to gain the condence to use more English in their classes, as well as to provide specic language which is relevant to everyday teaching situations. Another fundamental feature of the book is that a number of native and non-native teachers, drawn from a wide variety of teaching environments, were involved directly in its creation. The teachers whose personal details can be found at the end of the book (p. 143)were asked to contribute by recording their classes and sending the results to the authors, who then designed and wrote the ten units using real language from real lessons (p. vii). The classroom extracts which these teachers provided are samples of good practice with a wide range of activities but, more importantly from the

Reviews

429

reviews

welcome