This collection examines academic genres - types of writing produced by students in secondary school and college - from the perspective of genre as social action. Such a perspective expands the understanding of what students do when they learn new school genres, of what teachers and institutions do to enhance and constrain such learning, and of what all this signifies for conceptions of writing pedagogy. The book begins with an overview of the reconception of genre study. The essays that follow have an interest in genre, particularly those that appear in educational settings as instances of either student reading or writing. Common motifs recur throughout: questions are raised concerning learning and teaching new genres, the ideological power of genres read and written, and the power of the teacher, curriculum planner, or student to invent new genres or to resist and subvert those that exist. Throughout, the contributors give detailed accounts of successful classroom practices. Learning and Teaching Genre brings recent developments in research and thinking about written genres to the attention of high school and college teachers, and illustrates how that work can effectively inform classroom practice.

This book offers a comprehensive perspective on metalinguistic knowledge and processes, and presents a coherent argument for building an element of language awareness into the language curriculum at all educational levels. It offers a balanced perspective on first and second language acquisition, classroom talk, language use in the multicultural work place, translation, Esperanto, whole language, historical perspectives, critical pedagogy, the education of language teachers, the teaching of grammar, phonology, and writing.

This handbook deals with all aspects of contemporary language teaching and its history. Produced for language teaching professionals, it is also useful as a reference work for academic studies at postgraduate level.

Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, BUILDING GENRE KNOWLEDGE provides a unique look into the processes of building genre knowledge while offering a dynamic theory of those processes that is inclusive of both monolingual and multilingual writers—a necessary move in today’s linguistically diverse classrooms. It will therefore be of great interest to researchers and practitioners in both first and second language writing studies.

Presents the major theoretical approaches to genre in applied linguistics, ESL/EFL pedagogies, rhetoric, and composition studies throughout the world; describes how research and pedagogy relate to each of these perspectives; discusses applications.

The last 25 years have witnessed extraordinary growth in the academic specialization variously described as composition studies or rhetoric and composition. What was noticeable about the field in its infancy was a preoccupation with practice, a lack of emphasis on theory, and an exclusive reliance on the writing process. As its disciplinary status has grown, the field has become far more theoretical. Composition studies has expanded its focus, reconceptualized the writing process, and embraced a wide range of critical perspectives. The result of this change is that terms such as poststructuralism, social construction, gender, and genre, which were largely unknown in 1965, now dominate discussion. This reference book is a guide to the multiplicity of theories that have emerged to form the disciplinary foundation of composition studies. The volume consists of 66 entries, each of which is written by an expert contributor and focuses on a particular theory or group of theories. While the entries show how various individuals have contributed to theoretical movements, very few concentrate on the work of a single theorist. Each entry first provides a critical summary of a particular theory or group of theories, including key elements, basic concepts and claims, and information about seminal or particularly influential works. It then reviews the theory's critical reception in composition studies and discusses its significance in the field. The bibliography at the end of each entry lists primary texts and major scholarship related to the theory and provides additional suggestions for further reading. The volume closes with a selected bibliography of important works.

Genre is a key means by which we categorize the many forms of literature and culture. But it is also much more than that: in talk and writing, in music and images, in film and television, genres actively generate and shape our knowledge of the world. Understanding genre as a dynamic process rather than a set of stable rules, this book explores: the relation of simple to complex genres the history of literary genre in theory the generic organisation of implied meanings the structuring of interpretation by genre the uses of genre in teaching. John Frow’s lucid exploration of this fascinating concept will be essential reading for students of literary and cultural studies.