CONTRIBUTIONS OF GENRE ANALYSIS TO ESP

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GENRE ANALYSIS TO ESP

INTRODUCTION

This academic writing is regarding genre analysis and its main aim is to show how it has contributed to the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching. In order to talk about genre analysis, first of all I will provide the meaning of the term genre because it is quite confusing, as the definitions we are given in the dictionaries and the way we use it nowadays do not always agree. Then, I will explain what genre analysis is so as to establish a relationship with ESP. Finally, I will conclude the academic writing summarising the most important points and explaining my viewpoint.

KEY CONCEPTS FOR GENRE ANALYSIS

Genre defined

After having searched for its meaning in many dictionaries, specifically in the Cambridge dictionary, Oxford dictionary and Merrian-Webster’s dictionary, I have realised that genre is defined similarly in the three of them, being the definition given by the latter the richest as far as meaning. It is glossed as “a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content”. However, nowadays genre is often used to refer to any kind of discourse, for instance with research articles, so the use of it is much wider than the definitions we are given in the dictionaries, that is to say, we expand its meaning.

In addition, I have to say that in recent years, as Swales (1990) explains, the term genre is also associated with a formulaic way of constructing particular texts, as if it was a mechanism. Swales, after having analysed what different scholars from different fields say about genre, gives a definition which is the most suitable among all the ones I have read until now from my viewpoint.

A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale for the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style. Communicative purpose is both a privileged criterion and one that operates to keep the scope of a genre as here conceived narrowly focused on comparable rhetorical action. In addition to purpose, exemplar of a genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content and intended audience. If all high probability expectations are realized, the exemplar will be viewed as prototypical by the parent discourse community. The genre names inherited and produced by discourse communities and imported by others constitute valuable ethnographic communication, but typically need further validation. Swales (1990)

Genre Analysis defined

Hyland (2004) explains that genre analysis is a branch of text analysis that in order to understand the communicative character of discourse, looks at how individuals use language to engage in particular communicative situations. Although there are different ways to approach genre analysis, all genre analysts see language as a key feature of writing and as the way we create social contexts. Furthermore, all approaches want to explain how language and contexts are linked and they also want to offer teachers useful ways of handling conventionalized aspects of texts. Therefore, it helps teachers to uncover connections between language and types of texts and between forms and functions in order to offer information and activities that raise the students’ awareness of genres and make them better writers. It is mostly relevant for ESP classrooms, because genre theory was primarily concerned in its early form with the application of genre analysis to develop pedagogical solutions in this style of teaching. The teaching of ESP is part of English Language Teaching (ELT), but it has developed its own procedures, materials and teaching methodology, because it focuses only on learners whose main aim is learning English for an educational or professional purpose other than just learning the language system. ESP seeks its justification on how well it prepares learners to fulfil the purposes required of them.

ESP has in its history adopted other approaches to text analysis as well, for example the register analysis associated with the identification of key grammatical elements of scientific communication or the rhetorical analysis, which have also found particular characteristics of ESP texts. However, the findings of genre analysis do not only bring the insights of these earlier approaches to text analysis, but also a greater sophistication in the examination of the writers’ purpose, because genres are much more than texts and as Swales (1990) mentions, focusing exclusively on the printed page does not tell us why genres acquire certain features and not others. Consequently, genre analysts examine texts, interview the members who routinely use the genre and observe the ways texts are used, in order to discover how private intentions have public face. Its interest in discourse community and how the expectations and conventions of different discourse communities form the texts that they use has placed ESP research in a position where it can make a meaningful contribution to discussion of how ideas are disseminated and facts created in communities. That is why for more than thirty years now it is still considered perhaps the most popular and useful tool to analyse academic and professional genres for ESP applications.

GENRE AS PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE IN ESP

As Hyland (2004) explains, genre is really interesting for ESP researchers because it is a tool for understanding and teaching the different kinds of writing required of non-native English speakers in academic and professional contexts. ESP learners need to be able to write competently in several genres in order to have access to career opportunities. Consequently, researchers investigate the different meanings and structures of texts, the demands placed by academic or workplace contexts on communicative behaviours, and the pedagogic practices by which these behaviours can be developed. Therefore, it addresses a cross-cultural and L2 dimension of writing instruction.

ESP theorist generally see genre as a class of structured communicative events employed by specific discourse communities whose members share broad social purposes (Swales, 1990). These purposes are the rationale of a genre and help to shape the ways it is structured and the

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