TKT: KAL Part 4 Discourse: genre –trainer’s notes

Description
This activity explores different genres of spoken and written English, and the specific features of each genre.
Participants work with texts from a range of genres to increase their understanding of these features and
their ability to define them. There is a sample TKT: KAL task.

Time required: 45 minutes

Materials  Participant’s Worksheet 1 (one copy for each participant)
required:
 Participant’s Worksheet 2 (one copy for each participant)
 Sample Task (one copy for each participant)

Aims:  to introduce the different spoken and written genres, and their
features
 to increase awareness of the different genre features
 to practise recognising features of genres in texts
 to practise a sample task

Procedure
1. Brainstorm with participants all the kinds of genres (both spoken and written) that they know. Write
them up on the board as they say them.
2. Elicit what differences there are between any of the different genres on the board, encouraging them
to think about differences between format, register, function, grammatical and lexical complexity, style
etc. Don’t expect or require very exact answers at this stage.
3. Give out Participant’s Worksheets 1 and 2. Participants work in small groups (of 3 or 4) to firstly
identify the genre of each text on Participant’s Worksheet 1 and then to answer and discuss the
questions on Participant’s Worksheet 2, referring to the same texts. Monitor and feed back as
necessary (see Key below). As you go through the answers, you may want to check that the
participants understand the notion of ‘register’ and what makes a text formal, informal or neutral.
Identification of register can appear as an item in TKT: KAL tasks.
4. Refer participants to Exercise 2 on Participant’s Worksheet 2. They should work in pairs to think of
examples of contrasting genres for each of the genre features listed. When they have finished, they
should compare their examples with another pair. Feed back any areas of discussion (see Key
below).
5. Put participants into at least three teams. Each team should think of four different spoken or written
genres and identify their features. The teams then take it in turns to read out the features of one
genre. The first team to guess the genre gets a point. Continue until all the genres have been read
out. The winner is the team with most points.

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 6. Give out the Sample Task. Participants complete the task individually in no more than 7 minutes
(candidates have an average of 1 minute per question in the TKT: KAL exam). Check answers (see
Key below). Alternatively, participants can complete the sample task at home.
7. With the whole group, discuss the following questions:
• How might knowledge of genres help the teacher in the classroom? (A teacher with a
knowledge of genres will be better able to point out genre features to learners. Knowledge of
genre features helps learners to read and listen more easily with text that follow a more fixed
format. It will also help learners with their writing, particularly register, layout, structure,
function/ purpose of text.)
• Would it be useful or not to teach learners the terms used for genres used in this
session? (There is no correct answer to this: teachers may have different and valid
arguments either way, according to the context in which they teach.)

Additional information
Knowledge of aspects of genres, such as those focussed on in this activity, are regularly tested in TKT: KAL.
This is done mainly by asking candidates to identify a range of features in texts, as in the sample task.

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TKT: KAL Part 4 Discourse: genre – answer keys

Key to Participant’s Worksheet 1

A newspaper article E encyclopaedia/ reference book/ website
B review F dictionary
C legal contract G spoken informal conversation
D note

Key to Participant’s Worksheet 2

Exercise 1
1) What makes these genres different from one another? List the features.
Register, grammatical complexity, spoken or written , amount of explicitness or ellipsis, layout,
structuring of information, amount of specific vocabulary, function of texts
2) How do you know what genre something belongs to?
Because of your accumulated experience of these genres/ your expectations and because particular
genres have relatively fixed features
3) What spoken genres can you think of?
Conversation, announcements, news, lectures, talks, advertisements, plays, requests, complaints,
etc.
4) List the features that make spoken genres different from one another.
Number of speakers; degree of complexity of grammar and vocabulary, how much speakers interrupt
one another; amount of topic change; length; visibility of speaker; accents, register, etc.
5) Are spoken genres always different to written genres?
They often are but some written and spoken genres are very similar e.g. informal emails or notes
usually have many features of spoken language; prepared talks or speeches often have many
features of written language.
6) Do genres always have the same fixed features?
They tend to be quite constant but many writers play with introducing unusual genre features.

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Exercise 2
Possible answers

Genre 1 Genre 2

a) degree of formality of language contract note

b) recognised development/ structure essay conversation

c) degree of consistency of topics article informal email

d) amount of ellipsis formal minutes informal

conversation

e) specificity of layouts formal letter informal letter

f) degree of explicitness of language contract note

g) amount of personalisation report personal email

h) degree of specificity of kinds of review informal

information given conversation

i) degree of specificity of text functions advertisement informal email

j) number of speakers speech group conversation

k) amount of interactivity talking to yourself conversation

l) amount of background noise announcement speech/lecture

m) degree of complexity of language contract text message

Key to Sample Task

1H 2B 3A 4F 5G 6C 7D

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TKT: KAL Part 4 Discourse: genre – Participant’s Worksheet 1

What genres are each of these text extracts?

This Saturday saw a rare chance for a

handful of Druid visitors to walk B
amongst the ruins of Stonehenge in
I usually use Boots No 7 products
Salisbury, Wiltshire.
and although it will remove eye
Starting at sunrise Saturday 20 March, shadow it doesn't do anything for
the opening of the site marked the mascara. I tried new mascara
celebration of the vernal, or spring, yesterday - but that is another
equinox. review as will be the eye liner, it
Stone circles have been at the centre of was a brilliant turquoise colour, a
Druid traditions and customs for gift in a bag of goodies, and both
hundreds of years, with Stonehenge stayed on all day.
acting as the focal point for many
celebrations. From:
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Boots_No_7_Cleanse_Care_Eye_Make_Up_
(Text originally from
Remover__6681202
http://news.uk.msn.com/advertorials/Panasonic/
spring-equinox-deepzoom.aspx)

C
CONDITIONS
1. Conditions of Premises – The landlord shall keep the premises in a good state of repair and fit
for habitation during the tenancy and shall comply with any statutory enactment or law respecting
standards of health, safety or housing.
(section 76(I)(a))
2A. Services – Where the landlord provides a service or facility to the tenant that is reasonably
related to the tenant’s continued use and enjoyment of the premises such as, but not as to restrict
the generality of the foregoing, heat, water, electric power, has, appliances, garbage collection,
sewers or elevators, the landlords shall not discontinue providing that service.
(section 76(I)(c))
2B. Good Behaviour – A tenant shall conduct him/herself in such a manner as not to interfere
with the possession or occupancy of other tenants. (section 76(2)(b))
from http://www.community.gov.yk.ca/pdf/sampleformtenancyagreement.pdf

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use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions
 D

Back by 10
Key behind door- no
food
F
things that you throw away because
they are no longer useful, such as
E old food, paper or plastic used for
In linguistics, a discourse marker is a wrapping things, and empty
word or phrase that is relatively syntax- containers
independent, does not have a particular The council is encouraging people to
grammatical function, does not change the recycle their household rubbish.
meaning of the utterance, and has a
The streets were littered with
somewhat empty meaning.[1] Examples of
rubbish.
discourse markers include the particles
"oh", "well", "now", "then", "you know", and Synonyms or related words for this
"I mean", and the connectives "so", meaning of rubbish: e-waste, litter,
"because", "and", "but", and "or".[2] remains, waste, debris... more
Collocations: rubbish
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_marker ▪ clear, collect, dump, recycle, remove,
throw out
(from
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/br
itish/rubbish.)

G
Mum: 10 o’clock.
Son: Up soon.
Mum: Your room’s a mess.
Son: Give me till 11.
Mum: Up to you.
Son: Can I have a coffee?

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TKT: KAL Part 4 Discourse: genre – Participant’s Worksheet 2

Exercise 1
Answer these questions about the texts on Participant’s Worksheet 1.
1) What makes these genres different from one another? List the features.

2) How do you know what genre something belongs to?

3) What spoken genres can you think of?

4) List the features that make spoken genres different from one another.

5) Are spoken genres always different to written genres?

6) Do genres always have the same fixed features?

Exercise 2
Think of two contrasting genres for each of the following genre features. The first one is done as an example.

Genre 1 Genre 2

a) degree of formality of language contract note

b) recognised development/ structure

c) degree of consistency of topics

d) amount of ellipsis

e) specificity of layouts

f) degree of explicitness of language

g) amount of personalisation

h) degree of specificity of kinds of

information given

i) degree of specificity of text functions

j) number of speakers

k) amount of interactivity

l) amount of background noise

m) degree of complexity of language

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TKT: KAL Part 4 Discourse: genre – Sample Task

For questions 1-7, read the email and match the underlined parts with the features of the genre, informal
emails, that they contain listed A-H.
There is one extra option which you do not need to use.
Features
A Colloquial vocabulary
B Little sentence linking
C Use of abbreviations
D Sudden topic changes
E Substitution
F Grammatically inaccurate language
G Ellipsis
H Shared knowledge not made explicit

Informal Email

(1) I still haven't booked as I haven't heard from the club yet and had forgotten about it. I hope there’s still a
room (2)_- and a cheap one - money is tight!
(3) Freaking out with too much to do and not enough time to do it all. Missing you all and wondering why I
need to work so hard. Ran away to London for (4) 3 days last week with friend Jan – (5) fun - except it was
freezing and we had snow! (6) Send me some sun asap, will you?

Oh dear - bad day so think I'll go to bed so tomorrow will be better. (7) Tom’s fine.

Love to both and see you in 6 weeks

Suzi

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Acknowledgements
Cambridge ESOL is grateful to the following for copyright permission:
Wikipedia
Linguistics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_marker)

Every effort has been made to identify the copyright owners for material used, but it is not always possible to identify the
source or contact the copyright holders. In such cases, Cambridge ESOL would welcome information from the copyright
owners.

© UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom
use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms and Conditions