Genre in Three Traditions:

Implications for ESL

SUNNY HYON
California State University, San Bernardino

Within the last two decades, a number of researchers have been

interested in genre as a tool for developing L1 and L2 instruction. Both
genre and genre-based pedagogy, however, have been conceived of in
distinct ways by researchers in different scholarly traditions and in
different parts of the world, making the genre literature a complicated
body of scholarship to understand. The purpose of this article is to
provide a map of current genre theories and teaching applications in
three research areas where genre scholarship has taken significantly
different paths: (a) English for specific purposes (ESP), (b) North
American New Rhetoric studies, and (c) Australian systemic functional
linguistics. The article compares definitions and analyses of genres
within these three traditions and examines their contexts, goals, and
instructional frameworks for genre-based pedagogy. The investigation
reveals that ESP and Australian genre research provides ESL instructors
with insights into the linguistic features of written texts as well as useful
guidelines for presenting these features in classrooms. New Rhetoric
scholarship, on the other hand, offers language teachers fuller perspec-
tives on the institutional contexts around academic and professional
genres and the functions genres serve within these settings.

n the past 15 years, the concept of genre has been the focus of a wave
I of studies in a number of fields concerned with L1 and L2 teaching.
Traditionally a literary construct, genre has become a popular framework
for analyzing the form and function of nonliterary discourse, such as the
research article, as well as a tool for developing educational practices in
fields such as rhetoric, composition studies, professional writing, linguis-
tics, and English for specific purposes (ESP). Candlin (1993) has
marveled at the recent sweeping interest in genre across disciplines:
What is it about the term and the area of study it represents that attracts
such attention? . . . Clearly, a concept that has found its time (p. ix).
Similarly, Freedman and Medway (1994b) observe that in composition
studies, the word genre is on everyones lips, from researchers and
scholars to curriculum planners and teachers (p. 1).

TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 30, No. 4, Winter 1996 693

 The growing force of the genre movement in L1 and L2 teaching
circles in various parts of the world is reflected in a recent proliferation
of genre conferences, including Australias Working With Genre series
(1989, 1991, 1993) and North Americas Rethinking Genre colloquium
(Ottawa, 1992). The movement has also sparked substantial debate,
particularly in Australia, where genre-based education has come under
attack from process writing proponents (see the debates in Martin,
Christie, & Rothery, 1987; Reid, 1987; Sawyer&Watson, 1987; Threadgold,
1988), although similar controversies have begun to take off in North
America as well (Fahnestock, 1993; Freedman, 1993, 1994; Williams &
Colomb, 1993).
Because of its fast-growing, controversial nature, genre scholarship
has been a complicated movement to understand in a number of
respects. It has been referred to as a movement which . . . has the
positive potential to mean many things to many people (Cope &
Kalantzis, 1993a, p. 2). It has also been on a fast track of change, with
conference titles such as Rethinking Genre (Ottawa, 1992) and Strictly
Genre? (Sydney, 1993) reflecting the dynamism of the field.
To understand all of the currents in this new area of study as well as
their implications for L1 and L2 teaching requires a close examination of
the various approaches to genre, particularly in three research traditions
where genre scholarship has been most fully developed and where its
theory and pedagogical applications have taken significantly different
paths. These three focal areas are (a) ESP, (b) North American New
Rhetoric studies, and (c) Australian systemic functional linguistics. To
date, few comparisons have been conducted of these genre worlds.
Although Freedman and Medway (1994d) have recently contrasted the
stances of North American [New Rhetoric] scholars and Sydney School
genre educationalists (p. 10), a number of features of the New Rhetoric,
Australian, and ESP approaches to genre and genre-based pedagogy
remain to be investigated.
The purpose of this article is to provide a guide to current genre
theories and genre-based teaching applications in these three research
traditions and to explore their effectiveness for ESL reading and writing
instruction. The comparison is based on an examination of genre
scholarship and interviews conducted with researchers in the field. The
article begins by examining the definitions of genres and approaches to
text analysis central to ESP, New Rhetoric, and Australian systemic
functional research. I then examine the contexts and goals of genre-
based pedagogy within these research areas and explore the types of
instructional guidelines developed for implementing these applications
and the degrees to which they have affected educational sectors. I note
how forums of genre research as well as researchers beliefs about the
usefulness of explicit teaching have shaped the types of genre-based

694 TESOL QUARTERLY

applications proposed. The article concludes by discussing the useful-
ness of various genre theories and pedagogical applications for L2
teaching contexts and raising several questions about the nature of
genre-based instruction within the ESL curriculum.

GENRE THEORY AND ANALYSIS

ESP Analyses

Researchers in ESP have been interested in genre as a tool for

analyzing and teaching the spoken and written language required of
nonnative speakers in academic and professional settings (Bhatia, 1993;
Flowerdew, 1993; Gosden, 1992; Hopkins & Dudley-Evans, 1988; Love,
1991; Nwogu, 1991; Swales, 1990a; Thompson, 1994; Weissberg, 1993).
Scholars in this field have framed genres as oral and written text types
defined by their formal properties as well as by their communicative
purposes within social contexts. Swales (1981, 1986, 1990a), whose
research has been seminal in shaping genre theory in ESP, describes
genres as communicative events that are characterized both by their
communicative purposes and by various patterns of structure, style,
content and intended audience (1990a, p. 58). The concern for both
social function and form is echoed in other ESP definitions of genre
(Bhatia, 1993; Flowerdew, 1993; Hopkins& Dudley-Evans, 1988; Thomp-
son, 1994 Weissberg, 1993).
In their analyses of texts, however, many ESP scholars have paid
particular attention to detailing the formal characteristics of genres
while focusing less on the specialized functions of texts and their
surrounding social contexts. A number of researchers, for example, have
used structural move analyses to describe global organizational patterns in
genres such as experimental research articles (Swales, 1981, 1990a),
master of science dissertations (Hopkins & Dudley-Evans, 1988), medical
abstracts (Salager-Meyer, 1990), popularized medical research reports
(Nwogu, 1991), business letters (Bhatia, 1993), and university lectures
(Thompson, 1994). Others have looked at sentence-level grammatical
features, such as verb tense, hedges, and passive voice, in these text types
(Hanania & Akhtar, 1985; Salager-Meyer, 1994; Swales, 1990a; Tarone,
Dwyer, Gillette, & Icke, 1981).

New Rhetoric Studies

Research emerging from what have come to be known as New Rhetoric

studies (Coe, 1994a; Freedman & Medway, 1994a) reflects a somewhat
different approach to conceptualizing and analyzing genre than that

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 695

found in ESP. New Rhetoric research describes a body of North Americ-
an scholarship from a variety of disciplines concerned with L1 teaching,
including rhetoric, composition studies, and professional writing. Genre
scholars in these areas have differed from those in ESP as they have
focused more on the situational contexts in which genres occur than on
their forms and have placed special emphases on the social purposes, or
actions, that these genres fulfill within these situations (Bazerman, 1988,
1994; Campbell & Jamieson, 1978; Coe, 1994a; Devitt, 1993; Freedman&
Medway, 1994d; Miller, 1984, 1994; Schryer, 1993, 1994; Slevin, 1988;
Smart, 1993; Van Nostrand, 1994; Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). Millers
article Genre as Social Action (1984) has been seminal in shaping New
Rhetoric genre theory within L1 disciplines. In it, Miller argues, a
rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered not on the
substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to
accomplish (p. 151 ).
In line with their focus on the functional and contextual aspects of
genres, a number of scholars in New Rhetoric fields have used ethno-
graphic rather than linguistic methods for analyzing texts, offering thick
descriptions of academic and professional contexts surrounding genres
and the actions texts perform within these situations (Bazerman, 1988;
Devitt, 1991; Schryer, 1993, 1994; Smart, 1992, 1993). Schryer (1993), for
example, in her discussion of the problem-solving veterinary medical
record genre, includes a verbal map of the college setting in which it is
used: After walking through the oldest section of the complex, the
visitor descends the stairs and walks through a series of tunnels to arrive
at the Clinical Studies area (p. 202). She used a variety of ethnographic
techniques, including participant observation, interviews, and document
collection, to investigate the purposes of the record within the medical
college and the attitudes of clinicians and researchers toward this genre.
Others have adopted ethnographic approaches to study genres in
scientific research communities (Bazerman, 1988), tax accounting firms
(Devitt, 1991), and bank offices (Smart, 1992, 1993).

Australian Genre Theories

Although Australian genre theories have developed during roughly

the same period as those of ESP and New Rhetoric studies, they have
evolved mainly independently of both traditions. Australian approaches
to genre have been centered within a larger theory of language known as
systemic functional linguistics, developed by British-born scholar Michael
Halliday, who founded the University of Sydneys linguistics department
in 1975 and has since greatly influenced language theory and education
in Australia. Broadly speaking, systemic functional linguistics is con-
cerned with the relationship between language and its functions in social

696 TESOL QUARTERLY

settings. The forms of language are said to be shaped by key features of
the surrounding social context, defined by Halliday as field (the activity
going on), tenor (the relationships between participants) and mode (the
channel of communication) (Halliday, 1978; Halliday & Hasan, 1989;
Hammond, Burns, Joyce, Brosnan, & Gerot, 1992). These three ele-
ments together determine the register of language (Halliday, 1978;
Halliday & Hasan, 1989).
Although register rather than genre has been Hallidays central
construct for analyzing language, some of his Australian students, most
notably Jim Martin, have developed theories of genre within a systemic
functional framework. Reflecting Hallidays concern for linking form,
function, and social context, Martin and his systemic colleagues have
defined genres as staged, goal-oriented social processes, structural forms that
cultures use in certain contexts to achieve various purposes (Martin,
Christie, & Rothery, 1987). In analyzing these social processes, Australian
genre scholars have differed from both ESP and New Rhetoric research-
ers in their focus on primary and secondary school genres and nonpro-
fessional workplace texts rather than on university and professional
writing (Callaghan, Knapp, & Noble, 1993; Christie, 1991; Hammond,
1987; Joyce, 1992; Martin, 1989.1 Their analyses have resembled those of
many ESP researchers, however, in their attention to the linguistic
features characteristic of various genres. Freedman and Medway (1994d)
note that this concern with text form distinguishes the Australian work
from the sociocontextual genre descriptions in New Rhetoric: There is
far greater emphasis by the Sydney School scholars on explicating
textual features, using Hallidayan schemes of linguistic analysis (p. 9).
These schemes have focused on both global text structure and sentence-
level register features, associated with field, tenor, and mode (Christie,
1991; Hammond, 1987; Hammond, Burns, et al., 1992; Literacy and
Education Research Network [LERN], 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d;
Martin, 1991; Martin, 1993a; Martin & Rothery, 1980).
ESP, New Rhetoric, and systemic functional scholarship thus embrace
unique approaches to defining and analyzing spoken and written genres.
These different theoretical perspectives are reflected in the genre-based
teaching applications developed within each of the three research areas.

CONTEXTS AND GOALS OF GENRE-BASED PEDAGOGY

Genre-based pedagogy, in all its forms, involves some kind of class-

room consideration of genres and the contexts in which they are found.

1 A few North American researchers have focused on genre-based pedagogy for primary and
secondary school settings (Grabe & Gilbert, 1992; Lemke, 1988).

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 697

In the three traditions discussed in this article, such pedagogy has
generally focused on written texts and been directed at writing class-
rooms, although some ESP researchers have recently discussed genre-
based applications for ESL oral communication (Dudley-Evans, 1994;
Thompson, 1994; Weissberg, 1993). Beyond these fundamentals, how-
ever, researchers in ESP, New Rhetoric, and Australian systemic func-
tional linguistics have developed genre-based pedagogy in different
directions and with different goals and educational sites in mind.

Contexts

ESP: EAP and EPC Classes

In ESP, researchers have focused on the implications of genre theory

and analysis for English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for
professional communication (EPC) classrooms. SchoIars working in
these contexts have proposed that genre-based applications can help
nonnative speakers of English master the functions and linguistic
conventions of texts that they need to read and write in their disciplines
and professions (Bhatia, 1993; Flowerdew, 1993; Swales, 1990a).
As might be expected from their formal text analyses, many ESP
researchers particularly emphasize the teaching of genre structures and
grammatical features. Researchers examining scientific genres, for ex-
ample, have suggested that their analyses offer pedagogically useful
information for helping students control the organizational and stylistic
features of these texts (Gosden, 1992; Love, 1991; Salager-Meyer, 1994;
Swales, 1981, 1990a). In his early work in ESP, Swales (1981) suggested
that one of his aims was to help students follow the linguistic conventions
of the research article introduction in their own texts. In this way, he saw
himself as a prescriptive teacher . . . requiring my students to demon-
strate to my satisfaction that they can communicate effectively within the
confines and constraints of the models I have constructed (p. 88).

New Rhetoric: University and Professions

By contrast, New Rhetoric researchers, in line with their theoretical

focus on sociocontextual aspects of genres, have predictably been less
concerned with the potential of genre theory for teaching text form and
more with its role in helping university students and novice professionals
understand the social functions or actions of genres and the contexts in
which these genres are used (Bazerman, 1988; Devitt, 1993; Freedman &
Medway, 1994b; Miller, 1994). Miller suggests that concern with genre
function should be central to writing instruction, arguing that the

698 TESOL QUARTERLY

failure to understand genre as social action afflicts the typical first-year
college writing program in the United States; it turns what should be a
practical art of achieving social ends into a productive art of making texts
that fit certain formal requirements (p. 67). Similarly, Bazerman, an
expert in scientific rhetoric, suggests that the goal of writing pedagogy
should not be just to give students the formal trappings of the genres
they need to work in but to enhance students understanding of all of
the life embodied in texts (p. 320). He argues that knowledge of social
contexts surrounding texts is essential for helping writers select rhetoric
that is appropriate for their situations: The more you understand the
fundamental assumptions and aims of the community, the better able
you will be . . . to evaluate whether the rhetorical habits you and your
colleagues bring to the task are appropriate and effective (p. 323).
Freedman and Medway also contend that in learning a genre, what has
to be attended to . . . are features of the situation . . . . Knowing the gross
surface features is the easy part, and insufficient on its own (pp. 111 2).
Indeed, the work of New Rhetoric scholars has begun to influence
ESP genre theory and practice (Bhatia, 1993; Johns, 1993a; Swales,
1990a,1993). Both Bhatia and Swales discuss the research of Carolyn
Miller and attend to contextual and functional issues in their definitions
of texts and aims for genre-based pedagogy.

Australia: Primary, Secondary, and Adult Education

In Australia, the contexts as well as some of the goals for genre-based

instruction have differed from those of both ESP and New Rhetoric.
Although some systemic pedagogical efforts have been directed toward
tertiary education (Drury & Webb, 1991), genre-based applications have
been centered mainly in child and adolescent contextsprimary and
secondary schoolsand more recently in adult migrant English educa-
tion and workplace training programs. Genre-based instruction began as
an educational experiment (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a, p. 1) in Sydney
schools as researchers examined the types of writing primary school
students were producing in progressive, process writing classrooms
(Martin, 1989, 1991). Out of a concern that students were not being
prepared to write a range of text types, genre experts began to develop a
new approach to literacy education. In the late 1980s, a number of
researchers (including Mike Callaghan, Bill Cope, Anne Cranny-Francis,
Mary Kalantzis, Peter Knapp, Gunther Kress, Mary Macken, Robyn
Mamouney, Jim Martin, Joan Rothery, and Diana Slade) founded the
Literacy and Education Research Network (LERN) (Cope, Kalantzis,
Kress, & Martin, 1993, p. 239), which was committed to developing an
instructional approach that would help students master a variety of

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 699

 school genres, including those linked to what Martin (1989) has called
factual writing such as reports, procedures, expositions, and explanations.
Since these school initiatives, a number of Australian adult sectors
have also developed genre-based applications. Hammond, Wickert,
Burns, Joyce, and Miller (1992) report that 42% of the adult language
and literacy experts they surveyed cited the genre based approach and
systemic linguistics, from which the notion of genre derives, as informing
their organisations views of literacy (p. 60). One adult sector that has
adopted a genre-based orientation is the New South Wales Adult Migrant
English Service (NSW AMES), an organization that provides a variety of
government-supported English courses to newly arrived migrants from
non-English-speaking backgrounds. This state AMES operates under the
national Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), the largest govern-
ment-funded language teaching program in the world, serving approxi-
mately 42,000 students each year (Strong & Candlin, 1993; Helen Joyce
and Susan Hood, personal communication, December 1994). The AMES
has also aligned its genre-based curriculum with competency-based
workplace training initiatives recently instituted by the Australian federal
government to enhance the competitiveness of Australian industries
(Feez & Joyce, 1995; National Training Board, 1992). The central
curriculum document of the AMES says it responds to the National
Training Reform Agenda (Hagan et al., p. 8) and has been linked to the
enhancement of labour market productivity of migrants from non-
English speaking backgrounds (Strong & Candlin, 1993, p. i).

Goals

Helping Students Succeed

The aims of genre-based pedagogy in these different Australian

contexts have been similar to those of both ESP and New Rhetoric in
their overarching concern with helping students become more success-
ful readers and writers of academic and workplace texts. Callaghan
(1991) contends that the goal of systemic functional grammar and
genre-based teaching for primary and secondary schools is to help
students participate effectively in the school curriculum and the broader
community (p. 72). In achieving this goal, Australian researchers
acknowledge the importance of teaching the social functions and
contexts of texts described in Martin, Christie, and Rotherys (1987)
definition of genres as staged, goal oriented social processes (Callaghan,
Knapp, & Noble, 1993; Hammond, 1987; Kress, 1993). Hammond
observes that what such [genre-based] programs have in common is,
first of all, an emphasis on the function and meaning of language in
context (p. 172).

700 TESOL QUARTERLY

 However, as in ESP, emphasis has also been placed on teaching
students the formal, staged qualities of genres so that they can recognize
these features in the texts that they read and use them in the texts that
they write (Christie, 1991, 1992; Hagan et al., 1993; Hammond, 1987;
LERN, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d). Hammond asserts that part of
genre-based instruction involves classroom discussion of text structure,
of how to best begin and end [a text], of what to put in the middle, of
how best to organize information (p. 173). Similarly, Hagan et al.
contend that it is essential to make the structures and features of the
text explicit. Mastery of text types does not develop naturally and we
need to intervene by introducing models and analysing them (p. 11).

Empowering Students

The Australian concern for teaching the discourse conventions of

school and workplace genres is often framed in ideological terms, with
genre-based instruction described as a tool for empowering students with
linguistic resources for social success (Christie, 1989, 1991; Cope &
Kalantzis, 1993a; Knapp, 1991; Kress, 1993; Martin, 1993b). Certain
genres have been argued to offer their users access to . . . certain realms
of social influence and power (Cope & Kalantzis, p. 7; see also Christie,
1991 ). Some of the target populations that Australian researchers have
attempted to reach with powerful school genres, such as report and
exposition, have been those from minority and other nonmainstream
groups who have had less exposure to such texts than mainstream
students have (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a; Hammond, 1987). Sydneys
Metropolitan East Disadvantaged Schools, central to the initial genre
efforts, have approximately 90% of their students from non-English
speaking backgrounds and the highest number of Aboriginal students of
any region in this state (Knapp, p. 46).2
In the adult sector, some of the new migrants served by the AMES as
well as other workplace training programs are also those from limited
educational and non-English-speaking backgrounds (Hagan et al., 1993;
Kalantzis & Solomon, 1993). In its concern for giving various learner
groups access to linguistic and social resources, Kress (1993) argues,
genre work [in Australia] has been both a pedagogical and political
project (p. 28). Similarly, Christie (1991 ) proposes that teaching
students about genres and language in general is an ideological matter
of social justice, insisting that as long as we leave matters of language use
available to some and not to others, then we maintain a society which
permits and perpetuates injustice of many kinds (p. 83).

2 Statistics given as current in Knapp (1992).

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 701

 New Rhetoric genre studies have not been as ideologically charged in
their discussions of genre-based teaching. Freedman and Medway ( 1994d)
observe that this liberationist stance has been absent along with the
vocabulary of power and domination (p. 10). The lack of political edge
here can be attributed at least in part to the fact that many of the learner
groups in focus are mainstream undergraduate and graduate students
and professionals (Bazerman, 1988; Freedman, 1994; Killingsworth &
Gilbertson, 1992; Schryer, 1993, 1994; Smart, 1992, 1993), who are not
likely to be perceived as needing the same degree of empowering as
some of the key Australian populations.
The absence of strong ideological language in ESP genre work may be
due to similar reasons. Although ESP applications aim to help nonnative
speakers acquire the genres of English-speaking discourse communities,
these learners may not always be viewed as needing empowerment and
liberation perhaps because, as Johns (1993b) observes, they are often
graduate students and others representing the educational and eco-
nomic elite of the world (p. 85).

INSTRUCTIONAL FRAMEWORKS

In converting their pedagogical goals into action, ESP, New Rhetoric,

and Australian genre scholars have varied in the amount and types of
guidelines developed for bringing genre into language classrooms.

The ESP Framework

In ESP, many researchers have presented their descriptions of genres

as useful discourse models for ESP writing instructors but have not
detailed instructional methodologies for presenting this content in the
classroom (Gosden, 1992; Hanania & Akhtar, 1985; Hopkins & Dudley-
Evans, 1988; Love, 1991; Nwogu, 1991; Tarone et al., 1981). Hopkins and
Dudley-Evans, for example, offer their analysis of cyclical move patterns
in scientific masters dissertations as a teaching/learning resource (p.
120) for ESP classrooms but do not describe how to convert this model
into materials and tasks, saying only, We regard it as self-evident that the
description and classification of genres and subgenres will be of value to
teachers and learners (p. 119).
Some ESP genre specialists, however, have been more explicit about
teaching applications (Bhatia, 1993; Flowerdew, 1993; Swales, 1990a;
Weissberg & Buker, 1990). Swales (1990a), for example, discusses class-
room tasks used in his Dissertation, Thesis, and Prospectus Writing class
to help nonnative speakers become better writers of the genre of request
letters to academics. He also suggests activities for teaching the structure

702 TESOL QUARTERLY

of research article introductions, including marking up texts with
colored pens and reconstructing the proper order of a jumbled intro-
duction (Swales, 1981, 1990a). More recently, Swales and Feaks (1994)
textbook Academic Writing for Graduate Students provides models of
rhetorical forms, such as problem-solution and data commentary, as well
as language analysis tasks aimed at helping nonnative-speaking graduate
students master these discourse conventions in their own writing.
In the Asian ESP world, Bhatia (1993) has converted his analyses of
business and scientific genres into a set of self-access English for business
and technology (EBT) materials for several polytechnic universities in
Singapore. Developed by Bhatia and other EBT specialists, this two-
volume set of materials provides students with models of genres such as
the sales promotion letter, business memo, job application, and lab
report as well as a set of worksheets for identifying the language
strategies in these genres and for constructing business and scientific
texts using these strategies. Flowerdew (1993) also describes activities he
uses to raise students genre awareness in EPC courses at the City
Polytechnic of Hong Kong. Arguing that there is no way to predict the
wide range of possible genres students of English for Professional
Communication will need to participate in (p. 309), he proposes that
students be trained in the techniques of text analysis that they can use to
identify the discourse conventions of new genres outside of the class-
room. Such techniques include flow chart analyses of genre structure,
gap filling of structural slots, and concordancing of verb forms found
in genres such as the sales letter (Flowerdew, 1993, pp. 310312).

The New Rhetoric Framework

In contrast to the applied focus of some of this ESP work, New

Rhetoric literature has generally lacked explicit instructional frameworks
for teaching students about the language features and functions of
academic and professional genres. As Freedman and Medway (1994d)
note, Direct translations into teaching are almost entirely absent (p.
10). Like some in ESP, New Rhetoric scholars have focused on providing
descriptions of genres and their contexts and left it up to readers to infer
their own teaching applications (Bazerman, 1988; Giltrow, 1994; Miller,
1984, 1994; Par & Smart, 1994; Schryer, 1993; Van Nostrand, 1994; Yates
& Orlikowski, 1992). Only in the last paragraph of her article Genre as
Social Action, for example, does Miller (1984) state that such a theory
has implications . . . for rhetorical education (p. 165).
The recent work of a few L1 scholars, however, has reflected a greater
focus on applications. Freedman and Medways Learning and Teaching
Genre ( 1994c) is the first collection of research to consider how New
Rhetoric genre theory, with its emphasis on text context and function,

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 703

can inform L1 composition instruction. In this volume, Coe ( 1994b)
describes classroom procedures for raising university students awareness
of the social contexts that shape their writing. At the top of each
assignment, he asks students to specify the features of the rhetorical
situation, including the purpose of the text, the audience of the text, and
the circumstances of the writing. He then assesses the students text
based on how well it responds to this context. Also in the Freedman and
Medway volume, Bialostosky (1994) describes how he focuses students
attention on everyday speech genres, such as apologies, in teaching
poetry in undergraduate literature courses.

The Australian Framework

In contrast with the relatively few discussions of classroom methodol-

ogy in New Rhetoric, the Australian systemic functional literature has
promoted several instructional frameworks for implementing genre-
based pedagogy (Cope et al., 1993; Hammond, Burns, et al., 1992; Joyce,
1992; LERN, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d). In the schools, the LERN
project has worked with Sydneys Disadvantaged Schools Program to
develop the most widely recognized Australian model for genre instruc-
tion (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a; Cope et al., 1993; LERN, 1990a). This
model maps out a teaching-learning cycle . . . in the figure of a wheel
(Cope & Kalantzis, p. 10). Shown in Figure 1, the teaching-learning cycle
outlines the process of genre instruction in three phases: modeling, joint
negotiation of text, and independent construction of text.
As described in the figure, the modelling phase involves teacher-led
presentation of text type(s) and their various features, including what
the texts are for (functions), how the information in the [texts] is
organised (schematic structure) and aspects of the way the text speaks
(lexico-grammatical features) (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a, p. 10).3 Phase 2
of the cycle, the joint negotiation phase, involves a negotiating process
between the teacher and the class in which the teacher . . . acts as a
scribe for the class group and shapes the students contributions into a
text which approximates to the genre under focus (LERN, 1990a, p.
11). The rationale for the close guidance of the teacher in both the
modelling and joint construction stages is that language acquisition . . .
is really highly interventionist (Callaghan, Knapp, & Noble, 1993, p.
181; see also Martin, 1986). In the next stage, students are given an
opportunity to construct an instance of the genre on their own. The

3 Callaghan, Knapp, & Noble (1993) note that the social context of a genre is also modeled.
This context can be specific to an educational setting or subject or a wider social activity
(p. 181). For example, one teacher they observed linked the explanation genre to the topic of
the greenhouse effect (pp. 183188).

704 TESOL QUARTERLY

 FIGURE 1
The Teaching and Learning Cycle

Note. From Teaching Factual Writing: A Genre-Based Approach. Report of the Disadvantaged
Schools Program Literacy Project (p. 39), by M. Callaghan and J. Rothery, 1988, Sydney,
Australia Metropolitan East Disadvantaged Schools Program. Copyright 1988 by
Metropolitan East Disadvantaged Schools Program. Reprinted with permission.

cycle is meant to be used flexibly, with teachers encouraged to enter and

reenter into the cycle in a way that best meets students needs
(Callaghan, Knapp, & Noble, p. 182). Some adult language and literacy
researchers have used a revised version of the LERN cycle with an
additional segment called building knowledge of the field, which aims to
develop students knowledge of the social context and content topic of
the genre at hand (Hammond, Burns, et al., 1992; Joyce, 1992).
Researchers in the Australian adult ESL sector have also developed a

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 705

model for genre-based curricula within a competency framework pro-
moted by national workplace training reforms (Hagan et al., 1993;
National Training Board, 1992). The NSW AMESs Certificate in Spoken
and Written English outlines specific English language competency areas
for migrant English programs in terms of genres (Hagan et al.). As
shown in Figure 2, one of the competencies in the vocational English
strand is described as the ability to write a procedural text. The elements
of this competency are defined as the essential linguistic features of the
text (Hagen et al., p. 69), including purpose, schematic structure,
vocabulary, and grammatical forms. For each genre competency, the
Certificate describes a set of performance criteria indicating students
mastery of the text elements as well as sample texts and tasks for assessing
learner facility with the genre.

Reasons for Differences in

Instructional Frameworks

The differences in the attention given to genre-based instructional

methodology in ESP, New Rhetoric, and Australian systemic functional
linguistics can be attributed to several factors, including the publication
forums and consumers of these different bodies of research as well as
researchers beliefs about the efficacy of explicit genre teaching for
language classrooms.

Different Audiences

In ESP, a significant amount of work on genre has been published in

research journals such as English for Specific Purposes (Gosden, 1992;
Hanania & Akhtar, 1985; Hopkins & Dudley-Evans, 1988; Love, 1991,
1993; Nwogu, 1991; Salager-Meyer, 1994; Tarone et al., 1981; Thompson,
1994; Weissberg, 1993) and Text (Salager-Meyer, 1990), which are geared
toward academic readers with a strong interest in discourse analysis.
Similarly, New Rhetoric work on genre has been published in scholarly
journals such as College Composition and Communication (Devitt, 1993),
Quarterly Journal of Speech (Miller, 1984), and Written Communication
(Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1993; Schryer, 1993) as well as books directed
at academic audiences (Bazerman, 1988; Freedman & Medway, 1994a,
1994c; Killingsworth & Gilbertson, 1992). The scholarly nature of these
publications and their readers helps account for the focus of much ESP
and New Rhetoric research on genre theory and text analyses rather
than on programmatic teaching models and materials.
Although it shares some of the types of research forums and audiences
of ESP and New Rhetoric work, Australian genre literature has been
aimed at different consumers as well, leading to a greater emphasis on

706 TESOL QUARTERLY

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 707
instructional frameworks. Audiences for Australian genre work have
included academic readers of such journals as Australian Review of Applied
Linguistics (Hammond, 1987) and Annual Review of Applied Linguistics
(Christie, 1992; Martin, 1993b) as well as a number of books discussing
genre theory, the history of the genre movement, and systemic func-
tional linguistics (Christie, 1990; Cope & Kalantzis, 1993b; Halliday &
Martin, 1993). Outside of these forums, however, Australian genre
scholarship also reflects a strong partnership with schoolteachers and
adult language and literacy instructors, some of whom work outside of
academic research networks. The connection with these audiences has
led to the development of pedagogical models, like the LERN teaching-
learning cycle, and other classroom materials that meet the pragmatic
concerns of teachers interested in applying genre in the classroom
(Christie at al., 1990; Knapp, 1992; LERN, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d;
Literacy and Learning Program, 1992). LERN, for example, has created
a four-volume set of teacher guidebooks for implementing a genre-based
approach in primary schools. Book 1 of the series gives examples of
student texts illustrating several school genres, presents the teaching-
learning cycle, and suggests links between genres and curriculum areas.
Books 2 and 3 offer sample lessons (at each stage of the cycle) for
teaching factual and story genres, and Book 4 describes key systemic
functional concepts and gives accounts of teachers experiences with the
LERN materials. Knapps (1992) teacher guidebook also provides de-
scriptions of school genres and guidance for lesson planning.
In the adult ESL sector, Hammond, Burns, et al. (1992) have created
a genre-based handbook (English for Social Purposes) for teachers work-
ing in the context of adult ESL and adult literacy education (p. vi). This
book presents the teaching-learning cycle and outlines sample lessons in
terms of goals, objectives, and specific classroom tasks for teaching such
genres as recipes, letters of complaint, and requests for service. Manuals
have also been developed for teachers in adult migrant English and
workplace training programs (Hagan et al., 1993; Joyce, 1992). Note that
the practitioner audience of Australian genre work has consisted mainly
of Australian teachers, as many of these materials are difficult to access
outside of the country.

Different Beliefs About Effectiveness

Across the three genre schools, the differences in energy given to

pedagogical applications are also linked to researchers beliefs about the
usefulness of explicit genre instruction for language learning. In New
Rhetoric fields, a number of researchers have expressed doubts over
whether classroom instruction about genres can actually help students
become better writers and readers of texts (Berkenkotter & Huckin,

708 TESOL QUARTERLY

1993; Dias, 1994; Freedman, 1993, 1994; Freedman & Medway, 1994b,
1994d). Berkenkotter and Huckin, for example, have argued that genre
knowledge and its use in social contexts is not explicitly taught but is
acquired through enculturation as apprentices become socialized to the
ways of speaking [or writing] in particular disciplinary communities (p.
482). Similarly, Dias suggests that induction into the genres of ones field
is not primarily a matter of being taught the conventions of those
genres (p. 195) but rather a matter of becoming a member of the
community that uses them.
In a recent debate with Williams and Colomb (1993) and Fahnestock
(1993), Freedman (1993) proposes that explicit genre teaching has only
restricted value in improving students writing. She argues that, although
such teaching may be useful for some students whose learning style is
appropriate, it is generally unnecessary (p. 245) and can even be
dangerous if the instructor has inaccurate knowledge of the target
genres. Much of genre knowledge, she contends, can be acquired tacitly
as students are exposed to genres in their course readings and given
contexts that lead them to write in appropriate text types.
Reservations like Freedmans (1993) explain the shying away of some
New Rhetoric scholars from genre-based instructional models like the
Australian teaching-learning cycle. In fact, Freedman (1994) says that
she is deeply concerned lest precisely such teaching become attractive
in North American jurisdictions (p. 192). As alternatives to explicit
instruction, she and other New Rhetoric scholars encourage teachers to
expose students to a variety of academic genres in their readings and
provide assignments and class discussions that naturally motivate stu-
dents to respond in certain genres (Dias, 1994; Freedman, 1994; Hunt,
1994). Dias, for example, argues that in his graduate seminar class,
responsive writing and peer-group discussions about course readings
induct students into disciplinary genres without explicit instructor
modeling of text features.
ESP and Australian genre scholars have not shared these concerns
about explicit teaching and have thus been more invested in construct-
ing models and materials for teaching genres. The development of the
LERN teaching-learning cycle in Australia, in fact, emerged as a reaction
against certain process writing pedagogues that reemphasize direct
instruction about text form (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a; Cope et al., 1993).
Systemic functional researchers have criticized the inattention of these
process approaches to explicitly teaching about language structures and
functions, arguing that if students are left to work out for themselves
how language works . . . then a number of students are likely to fail
(Hammond, 1987, p. 176; see also Reid, 1987, for an overview of the
genre vs. process debate).

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 709

SCOPE OF IMPLEMENTATION

Across the three genre schools, applications of genre research,

whether or not they have been realized in explicit teaching, have
differed in the degrees to which they have affected classrooms. In New
Rhetoric work, it is in fact difficult to measure the ways in which genre
scholarship has affected classroom practices, not only because of the
paucity of genre-based instructional guidelines but also because applica-
tions have been reported on a case-by-case basis rather than in terms of
larger initiatives affecting multiple classrooms (Coe, 1994b; Dias, 1994;
Hunt, 1994; Miller, 1994, Smart, 1993). Miller, for example, refers to how
her work organizes much of my teaching (p. 67) without indicating its
influence on larger curricula. Similarly, in professional writing, Smart
focuses on his own uses of genre in training writers at the Bank of
Canada.
In ESP, although some research has also concentrated on how genre-
based pedagogy plays out in individual classrooms (Flowerdew, 1993;
Swales, 1990a) or has made general recommendations without discuss-
ing actual curriculum projects (Gosden, 1992; Hopkins & Dudley-Evans,
1988; Nwogu, 1991; Weissberg, 1993), other work indicates broader
implementation. Bhatias (1993) EBT materials, for example, are used in
courses at two polytechnic universities in Singapore. Swales and Feaks
(1994) rhetorically oriented Academic Writing for Graduate Students has
also recently been adopted by several EAP programs (John Swales,
personal communication, May 1996).
Of the three schools discussed in this article, however, the educational
impact of genre is most readily measured in Australian systemic func-
tional contexts, where genre-based pedagogy has influenced entire state
educational systems. In New South Wales, for example, the four LERN
volumes (1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d) were developed to support the
Writing K12 syllabus of the New South Wales Department of School
Education (Cope et al., 1993; LERN, 1990a). In addition, the efforts of
systemic functional scholars working with instructors to bring genres into
their lesson plans have facilitated the implementation of genre in
schools (Cope et al., 1993; Martin, 1989; Rothery, 1989).
In-service teacher training has also introduced genre-based pedagogy
and systemic functional linguistics to a number of Australian adult ESL
and adult literacy programs. McCormack (1990), for example, states that
at his institutionFootscray College of Technical and Further Education
(TAFE),4 the staff. . . hired a university lecturer for a week to take us
through Hallidays latest book (p. 7). Curriculum certification processes
in the adult sector have also encouraged the use of genre applications.
4
TAFE is a major government-funded provider of adult occupational training.

710 TESOL QUARTERLY

The AMES, for example, has a policy specifying that, to be accredited, a
course must adhere to the text-based approach outlined in its Certificate
curriculum (Helen Joyce & Susan Hood, personal communication, May
1993).
Genre-based pedagogy in Australia has raised the concerns of some
North American scholars, who are wary of the explicit style of teaching
promoted by the Sydney School (Freedman, 1994). However, whether
one would fear or welcome Australian-style genre education, there are
several reasons why it has not had (and is not likely to have) the same
degree of impact in North America.
1. As discussed earlier, the broad implementation of genre-based
pedagogy in Australia is attributed in part to the stronger partner-
ship between genre researchers and school and adult education
instructors than that found in North American New Rhetoric or ESP
genre circles.
2. Australia has only 6% of the population of North America (18
million vs. 293 million), making it easier for researchers to reach
significant portions of the educational community.
3. Genre proponents in Australia have operated within national work-
place training and migrant English programs, such as the AMEP,
which has enabled them to effect far-reaching changes in these
educational contexts (Hagan et al., 1993; Joyce, 1992). Genre
researchers have also occupied positions of leadership in school
systems. In 1988, Mary Macken, one of LERNs founding members,
was appointed to the Directorate of Studies for the New South Wales
Department of Education (Cope et al., 1993). North American ESP
and New Rhetoric genre scholars, in contrast, have had fewer
opportunities to influence curricular policy on state and national
levels because of differences in governmental and educational
structures.
4. Australian genre scholars form a more unified group than North
American researchers do, enabling them to make a stronger impact
on educational arenas. Unlike North American scholars, who come
from a broad base of disciplines with unique pedagogical concerns,
Australian genre researchers have shared a background in Hallidayan
systemic functional linguistics and have worked together on peda-
gogical projects, like LERN, from the start of the genre movement.
This unity has allowed them to present a mobilized front in various
sectors.
Note, however, that as the genre movement has evolved in Australia,
some members of LERN and others connected to the systemic functional
school have disagreed with certain principles of Martin-style, genre-based

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 711

pedagogy (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a; Luke, in press). These dissenters
have been concerned that the LERN teaching-learning cycle, with its
focus on modeling and subsequent construction of mainstream texts,
represents transmission pedagogy that presents texts such as report
and exposition uncritically and excludes other, nonmainstream genres
that might be culturally important in students lives (Cope & Kalantzis,
1993a, p. 15). Cope and Kalantzis, two of the original LERN members,
advocate a more critical approach to genre teaching, one that leads
students to challenge principles found in some mainstream texts.
According to Cope et al. (1993), Cope and Kalantzis have proposed the
need to make the learning of different genres not a matter of duplica-
tion of a standard form, but mastery of a tool which encourages
development and change (even disruption) rather than simply repro-
duction (p. 245).5

IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL

The different approaches to genre theory, analysis, and pedagogy in

ESP, New Rhetoric, and Australian systemic functional linguistics hold a
number of insights for ESL instruction. Below I discuss the contributions
of these different approaches, concentrating on their relevance for
university and professional English instruction.

Linking Form and Function

The ESP and Australian definitions of genres as structured, communi-

cative events and as staged, social processes, respectively, are useful for
sensitizing ESL instructors to links between formal and functional
properties of texts that they teach in the classroom. Bhatia (1993)
suggests that it is important for writing teachers to connect these two
elements in order to help students understand how and why linguistic
conventions are used for particular rhetorical effects. The descriptions of
genre microstructure and grammatical features in ESP and systemic
functional research also provide important information about the lin-
guistic features of various text types that ESL instructors can convey to
their students. The ESP and Australian genre schools have offered less
detailed descriptions, however, of the contexts in which different genres
are used and the specialized purposes of texts within these situations.

5 Appropriately entitled Strictly Genre?, the 1993 LERN Working with Genre confer-
ence was devoted significantly to discussions about the role of critical literacy in the teaching of
genres (Cazden, 1993; Cazden, Cranny-Francis, Knapp, Kress, & Martin, 1993).

712 TESOL QUARTERLY

 New Rhetoric scholarship, on the other hand, with its focus on genre
as social action, draws special attention to the functions of genres and
their institutional settings. The ethnographic descriptions of genres in
scientific communities (Bazerman, 1988), medical colleges (Schryer,
1993, 1994), and financial institutions (Smart, 1992, 1993) provide the
field of ESL with rich perspectives on what actions genres perform in
various communities and how these groups come to value certain text
types. Language instructors can use these insights in planning classroom
discussions and other tasks that help students recognize the purposes of
genres in their own disciplines and professions and the relationships
between these functions and the larger goals and activities of their
communities.

Converting Theory Into Practice

Scholars in the three genre schools also offer useful perspectives on

converting genre theory and analysis into classroom practice. In ESP, the
language analysis tasks outlined by Bhatia (1993), Flowerdew (1993),
Swales (1990a), Swales and Feak (1994), and Weissberg and Buker
(1990) illustrate activities for helping students gain awareness of the
communicative purposes and linguistic features of texts that they need to
read and write in their disciplines and professions. Although many of the
Australian genre applications have been geared toward school and adult
literacy curricula, some of their frameworks and materials are germane
to academic and professional English instruction as well. The LERN
teaching-learning cycle, for example, provides language instructors with
a schema for sequencing tasks leading students to write in various genres
on their own. Teacher resource books developed for adult language and
literacy instructors also offer a number of suggestions for how to teach
genres at different phases of this cycle (Hammond, Burns, et al., 1992;
Joyce, 1992).
Out of the New Rhetoric tradition, direct teaching applications of
genre have been fewer, although the recent work of some composition
scholars, such as Coe ( 1994b), describes helpful tasks for sensitizing
students to the influence of rhetorical contexts on genres that they write.
With respect to some New Rhetoric doubts about the effectiveness of
explicit genre teaching (Berkenkotter & Huckin 1993; Dias, 1994;
Freedman, 1993, 1994), much L2 research suggests that such skepticism
is unwarranted for ESL instruction. A body of schema research on L2
reading, for example, indicates that explicit training in rhetorical
structure significantly improves L2 reading comprehension (Carrell,
1985; Davis, Lange, & Samuels, 1988). Benefits of rhetorical instruction
have also been reported for ESL writing development (Swales, 1990b).

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 713

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION

The work on genre and genre-based pedagogy by ESP, New Rhetoric,

and Australian systemic functional scholars thus offers a number of
insights for L2 teaching. ESL researchers and teachers can gain from
ESP and Australian analyses of genre forms as well as from New Rhetoric
descriptions of the functions and contexts of genres in academic and
professional discourse communities. In addition, the pedagogical mate-
rials developed in the ESP and Australian schools provide teachers with
instructional frameworks and activities for presenting genres in class-
rooms. In creating improved pedagogical applications for genre, the
field of ESL could also benefit from further investigation of questions
not yet fully addressed by current genre studies. I outline three such
questions below and, although I direct their implications toward univer-
sity ESL instruction, they could be discussed with respect to other
teaching contexts as well.

1. What are the effects of genre-based pedagogy on

ESL students reading and writing skills?

Although much research, particularly in ESP and Australian systemic

functional linguistics, has discussed how genre can be used as a peda-
gogical tool, little work has actually investigated the impact of genre-
based pedagogy in the classroom. In her critique of the Sydney School
movement (as well as certain trends in North American writing instruc-
tion), Freedman (1994) urges educators to resist the impulse to teach
genres without first asking what grounds we have for believing that such
explication will in fact enhance their learning (p. 193). In responding
to such a challenge, ESL researchers can conduct controlled teaching
experiments on the effects of genre training on nonnative students
reading and writing abilities as well as case studies tracking individual
students progress through genre-based courses.
In studies of ESL reading development, Hewings and Henderson
(1987) and Hyon (1995) both report positive effects of genre instruction
on students understanding of text structure and overall reading effec-
tiveness, although Hyon observes that such teaching may be limited in
developing certain types of knowledge important for reading compre-
hension. Additional studies are needed on the impact of genre-based
teaching on both ESL reading and ESL writing development.

714 TESOL QUARTERLY

2. At what level of specificity are genres best presented
in the language classroom?

In both ESP and New Rhetoric, the texts types central to genre theory
and pedagogy have been fairly specialized, with scholars focusing on
such texts as the experimental research article (Bazerman, 1988; Gosden,
1992; Swales, 1990a), the sales promotion letter (Bhatia, 1993), and the
banks system-evaluation report (Smart, 1992). The genres defined as
elemental in the Australian school (AMES, 1992), on the other hand, have
reflected much broader categories such as procedure, report, explanation,
discussion, exposition, recount, and narrative (LERN, 1990a Martin, 1989;
Cope et al., 1993). Hermine Scheeres, an Australian researcher involved
in teacher training, believes that these broader genre categories are
useful for adult language classrooms because they allow learners to see
connections between these genres and many texts (personal communi-
cation, May 1993). Widdowson (1993) has also cautioned that instruc-
tion in specialized genres may not provide nonnative speakers with
transferable language knowledge. Bhatia (1993), however, argues in
favor of specific genre description and teaching, observing that in
language teaching for specific purposes, it is more realistic, and often
desirable, to find pedagogically useful form-function correlations within,
rather than across, specific genres (p. 11). As these discussions indicate,
further research on genre-based pedagogy for ESL will need to address
the levels of generality at which genres are most usefully identified
during teaching (Allison, 1994, p. 702).

3. How critical should genre-based pedagogy be

of the genres it teaches?

In Australia, there has been a movement among some genre research-

ers to push for more critical pedagogy that reconstructs and challenges
mainstream texts that students are required to read and write in
educational contexts (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993a; Cranny-Francis, 1993;
Gilbert, 1994). In New Rhetoric studies, there are also signs that a more
reflexive and critical turn is in the making (Freedman & Medway,
1994d, p. 15; see also Coe, 1994a; Schryer, 1994). Freedman and Medway
note that there are a number of ways, we might hypothesize, in which
genres can have ethical and political implications (p. 12). They chal-
lenge future genre studies to consider the potential of some mainstream
genres to marginalize certain groups: What, for instance, about the
exclusiveness of academic genres? What about the arguably gendered nature
of scientific discourse? (p. 11).

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 715

 To date, little attention has been given to the ideological dimensions
of genre in the ESL classroom. ESP researchers have generally adopted a
pragmatic and uncritical approach to analyzing and teaching academic
and professional texts, which has recently been the focus of some
criticism (Benesch, 1993). Although not specifically addressing genre
research, Benesch argues that the focus of EAP on mainstream academic
literacy reflects an accommodationist ideology that aims to assimilate
ESL students uncritically into academic life and U.S. society (p. 714).
She calls on EAP to adopt instead a pedagogy of critical academic ESL
(p. 715) that encourages resistance to academic practices that limit the
full social participation of ESL students. In responding to such a
challenge, ESL genre researchers can consider the place, if any, of a
critical, ideological approach in the teaching of academic and profes-
sional texts, including the types and levels of classrooms in which such an
approach is most usefully introduced.
These three questions canvas some of the issues left open for future
ESL research on genre. For now, the comparison of ESP, New Rhetoric,
and Australian systemic functional approaches reveals ways that genre
theory and pedagogy have responded to the interests of different
scholars, teaching contexts, and learner populations. The field looks to
the next wave of genre studies to continue to expand the understanding
of this dynamic area of inquiry.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to John Swales, Ron Chen, Betty Samraj, and the anonymous TESOL
Quarterly reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also
thank Brigid Ballard, Anne Burns, Helen Drury, Sandra Gollin, Sue Hood, Helen
Joyce, Hermine Scheeres, Patricia Ward, and Carolyn Webb for their help through-
out this project.

THE AUTHOR
Sunny Hyon received her PhD in linguistics from the University of Michigan and is
Assistant Professor in the English Department at California State University, San
Bernardino. Her research interests include genre theory and pedagogy and ESL
reading instruction.

REFERENCES

Adult Migrant Education Service. (1992). Literacy for further studies: Project report.
Queensland, Australia Author.

716 TESOL QUARTERLY

Allison, D. (1994). Genre analysis in LSP teaching: Where are we? In M. Brekke,
O. Anderson, T. Daal, & J. Myking (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th European Symposium
on LSP: Applications and implications of current LSP research (Vol. 2, pp. 698705).
Bergen, Norway: Fagbokforlagit.
Bazerman, C. (1988). Shaping written knowledge: The genre and actiuity of the experimental
article in science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Bazerman, C. (1994). Systems of genres and the enactment of social intentions. In A.
Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 79101). London:
Taylor & Francis.
Benesch, S. (1993). ESL, ideology, and the politics of pragmatism. TESOL Quarterly,
27, 705-717,
Berkenkotter, C., & Huckin, T. N. (1993). Rethinking genre from a sociocognitive
perspective. Written Communication, 4, 475-509.
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London:
Longman.
Bialostosky, D. (1994). From discourse in life to discourse in art. Teaching poems as
Bakhtinian speech genres. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Teaching and
learning genre (pp. 105114). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Callaghan, M. (1991). Genre, register and functional grammar: Making meaning
explicit for students. In Working with genre: Papers from the 1989 LERN conference(pp.
6772). Leichhardt, Australia: Common Ground.
Callaghan, M., Knapp, P., & Noble, G. (1993). Genre in practice. In B. Cope &
M. Kalantzis (Eds.), The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp.
179202). Bristol, PA Falmer Press.
Campbell, K. K., & Jamieson, K. H. (1978). Form and genre in rhetorical criticism:
An introduction. In K. K. Campbell & K. H. Jamieson (Eds.),Form and genre:
Shaping rhetorical action (pp. 932). Falls Church, VA: Speech Communication
Association.
Candlin, C. N. (1993). General editors preface. In V. K. Bhatia, Analysing genre:
Language use in professional settings(pp. ixxi). London: Longman.
Carrell, P. L. (1985). Facilitating ESL reading by teaching text structure. TESOL
Quarterly, 19, 727-752.
Cazden, C. (1993, May). A report on reports. Paper presented at the LERN Conference,
Working with Genre III, Sydney, Australia.
Cazden, C., Cranny-Francis, A., Knapp, P., Kress, G., & Martin, J. (1993, May). Genre
and critical literacy. Panel presented at the LERN conference, Working with Genre
III, Sydney, Australia.
Christie, F. (1989). Language education (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Christie, F. (Ed.). (1990). Literacy for a changing world. Melbourne: Australian Council
for Educational Research.
Christie, F. (1991). Genres as social processes. In Working with genre: Papers from the
1989 LERN conference (pp. 7388). Leichhardt, Australia: Common Ground.
Christie, F. (1992). Literacy in Australia. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 12, 142-
155.
Christie, F., Gray, B., Gray, P., Macken, M., Martin, J. R., & Rothery, J. (1990).
Language: A resource for meaning. Exploring reports (Teachers Book, Levels 1-4).
Sydney, Australia: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Coe, R. M. (1994a). An arousing and fulfillment of desires: The rhetoric of genre
in the process eraand beyond. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and
the new rhetoric (pp. 181-190). London: Taylor & Francis.
Coe, R. M. (1994b). Teaching genre as process. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.),
Learning and teaching genre (pp. 157169). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 717

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (1993a). Introduction: How a genre approach to literacy
can transform the way writing is taught. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds.), The
powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp. 1-21). Bristol, PA: Falmer
Press.
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (Eds.). (1993b). The powers of literacy: A genre approach to
teaching writing. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.
Cope, B., Kalantzis, M., Kress, G., & Martin, J. (1993). Bibliographical essay:
Developing the theory and practice of genre-based literacy. In B. Cope &
M. Kalantzis (Eds.), The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp.
231-247). Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.
Cranny-Francis, A. (1993). Gender and genre: Feminist subversion of genre fiction
and its implications for critical literacy. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds. ), The
powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp. 90-115). Bristol, PA:
Falmer Press
Davis, J. N., Lange, D. L., & Samuels, S.J. (1988). Effects of text structure instruction
on foreign language readers recall of a scientific journal article. Journal of Reading
Behavior, 20, 203214.
Devitt, A. J. (1991). Intertextuality in tax accounting: Generic, referential, and
functional. In C. Bazerman & J. Paradis (Eds.), Textual dynamics of the professions
(pp. 336-357). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Devitt, A. J. (1993). Generalizing about genre: New conceptions of an old concept.
College Composition and Communication, 44, 573-586.
Dias, P. (1994). Initiating students into the genres of discipline-based reading and
writing. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Learning and teaching genre (pp. 193-
206). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Drury, H., & Webb, C. (1991). Literacy at tertiary level: Making explicit the writing
requirements of a new culture. In F. Christie (Ed.), Literacy in social processes: Papers
from the inaugural Australian Systemic Linguistics Conference (pp. 214-227). Geelong,
Australia: Deakin University.
Dudley-Evans, T. (1994). Variations in the discourse patterns favoured by different
disciplines and their pedagogical implications. In J. Flowerdew (Ed.), Academic
listening: Research perspectives (pp. 146158). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Fahnestock, J. (1993). Genre and rhetorical craft. Research in the Teaching of English,
27, 265-271.
Feez, S., & Joyce, H. (1995). Systemic functional grammar meets competency-based
training in NSW AMES. Interchange, 27, 1115.
Flowerdew, J. (1993). An educational, or process, approach to the teaching of
professional genres. ELT Journal, 47, 305-316.
Freedman, A. (1993). Show and tell? The role of explicit teaching in the learning of
new genres. Research in the Teaching of English, 27, 222251.
Freedman, A. (1994). Do as I say: The relationship between teaching and learning
new genres. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp.
191210). London: Taylor & Francis.
Freedman, A., & Medway, P. (Eds.). (1994a). Genre and the new rhetoric. London:
Taylor & Francis.
Freedman, A., & Medway, P. (1994b). Introduction: New views of genre and their
implications for education. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Learning and
teaching genre (pp. 1-22). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Freedman, A., & Medway, P. (Eds.). (1994c). Learning and teaching genre. Portsmouth,
NH: Boynton/Cook.
Freedman, A., & Medway, P. (1994d). Locating genre studies: Antecedents and

718 TESOL QUARTERLY

.
 prospects. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 1-
20). London: Taylor & Francis.
Gilbert, P. (1994). Stoning the romance: Girls as resistant readers and writers. In
A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Learning and teaching genre (pp. 173-191).
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Giltrow, J. (1994). Genre and the pragmatic concept of background knowledge. In
A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 155-178).
London: Taylor & Francis.
Gosden, H. (1992). Discourse functions of marked theme in scientific research
articles. English for Specific Purposes, 11, 207-224.
Grabe, W., & Gilbert, R. (1992, March). The importance of genre in elementary student
writing. Paper presented at the American Association of Applied Linguistics
conference, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Hagan, P., Hood, S., Jackson, E., Jones, M., Joyce, H., & Manidis, M. (1993).
Certificates in spoken and written English (2nd ed.). Sydney, Australia New South
Wales Adult Migrant English Service & National Centre for English Language
Teaching and Research.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language
and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1989). Language, context, and text: Aspects of language
in a social-semiotic perspective (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Martin, J. R. (1993). Writing science: Literacy and discursive power.
Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.
Hammond, J. (1987). An overview of the genre-based approach to the teaching of
writing in Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 10, 163-181.
Hammond, J., Burns, A., Joyce, H., Brosnan, D., & Gerot, L. (1992). English for social
purposes: A handbook for teachers of adult literacy. Sydney, Australia: National Center
for English Language Teaching and Research.
Hammond, J., Wickert, R., Burns, A., Joyce, H., & Miller, A. (1992). The pedagogical
relations between adult ESL and adult literacy. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Hanania, E. A. S., & Akhtar, K. (1985). Verb form and rhetorical function in science
writing: A study of MS theses in biology, chemistry and physics. English for Specific
Purposes, 4, 4958.
Hewings, A., & Henderson, W. (1987). A link between genre and schemata: A case
study of economics text. University of Birmingham English Language Research Journal,
1, 156-175.
Hopkins, A., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1988). A genre-based investigation of the discus-
sion sections in articles and dissertations. English for Specific Purposes, 7, 113121.
Hunt, R. (1994). Speech genres, writing genres, school genres, and computer genres.
In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Learning and teaching genre (pp. 243-262).
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Hyon, S. (1995). A genre-based approach to ESL reading: Implications for North America and
Australia. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Johns, A. M. (1993a). ESP around the world: A perspective from the United States.
Les Cahiers de lAPLUT, 13, 7-15.
Johns, A.M. (1993b). Too much on our plates: A response to Terry Santos Ideology
in Composition: L1 and ESL. Journal of Second Language Writing, 2,8388.
Joyce, H. (1992). Workplace texts in the language classroom. Sydney, Australia: New South
Wales Adult Migrant English Service.
Kalantzis, M., & Solomon, N. (1993, May). Language and literacy: The restructured
workplace. Paper presented at the LERN Conference, Working with Genre III,
Sydney, Australia.

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 719

Killingsworth, M. J., & Gilbertson, M. K. (1992).Signs, genres and communities in
technical communication.Amityville, NY: Baywood.
Knapp, P. (1991). A context for genre theory. In Working with genre: Papers from the
1989 LERN conference (pp. 4548). Leichhardt, Australia: Common Ground.
Knapp, P. (1992). Metwest literacy and learning program: Resource book. North Paramatta,
Australia: New South Wales Department of School Education, Literacy and
Learning Program, Metropolitan West Region.
Kress, G. (1993). Genre as a social process. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds. ), The
powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp. 22-37). Bristol, PA: Falmer
Press.
Lemke, J. L. (1988). Genres, semantics, and classroom education.Linguistics and
Education, 1, 8189.
Literacy and Education Research Network. (1990a). A genre-based approach to teaching
writing, years 36: Book 1. Introduction. Annandale, Australia: Common Ground.
Literacy and Education Research Network. (1990b). A genre-based approach to teaching
uniting, years 36: Book 2. Factual writing. Annandale, Australia: Common Ground.
Literacy and Education Research Network. (1990c). A genre-based approach to teaching
writing, years 36: Book 3. Writing stories. Annandale, Australia: Common Ground.
Literacy and Education Research Network. (1990d). A genre-based approach to teaching
writing, years 36: Book 4. Theory and practice. Annandale, Australia: Common
Ground.
Literacy and Learning Program. (1992). Genre and grammar: Resource materials.
Sydney, Australia New South Wales Department of School Education, Metropoli-
tan West Region.
Love, A. M. (1991). Process and product in geology: An investigation of some
discourse features of two introductory textbooks. English for Specific Purposes, 10,
89-109.
Love, A. (1993). Lexico-grammatical features of geology textbooks: Process and
product revisited. English for Specific Purposes, 12, 197-218.
Luke, A. (in press). Genres of power? Literacy education and the production of
capital. In R. Hasan and G. Williams (Eds.), Literacy in society. London: Longman.
Martin, J. R. (1986). Intervening in the process of writing development. In C. Painter
& J. R. Martin (Eds.), Writing to mean: Teaching genres across the curriculum
(Occasional Paper 9, pp. 11-43), Bundoora, Australia: Applied Linguistics Asso-
ciation of Australia.
Martin, J. R. (1989). Factual writing: Exploring and challenging social reality. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. R. (1991). Types of writing in infants and primary schools. In Working with
genre: Papers from the 1989 LERN conference (pp. 3344). Leichhardt, Australia:
Common Ground.
Martin, J. R. (1993a). A contextual theory of language. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis
(Eds.), The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing (pp. 116-136).
Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.
Martin, J. R. (1993b). Genre and literacyModeling context in educational linguis-
tics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 141172.
Martinj J. R., Christie, F., & Rothety, J. (1987). Social processes in education: A reply
to Sawyer and Watson (and others). In I. Reid (Ed.), The place of genre in learning:
Current debates (pp. 4657). Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press.
Martin, J. R., & Rothery, J. (1980). Writing project report, Number 1 (Working Papers in
Linguistics). Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney.
McCormack, R. (1990). Genre and process. ALBSU: Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit
Newsletter, no. 37, 67.
Miller, C. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70, 151167.

720 TESOL QUARTERLY

Miller, C. R. (1994). Rhetorical community: The cultural basis of genre. In A. Freedman
& P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 6778). London: Taylor &
Francis.
National Training Board. (1992). National competency standards: Policy and guidelines
(2nd ed.). Canberra, Australia: Author.
Nwogu, K. N. (1991). Structure of science popularizations: A genre analysis approach
to the schema of popularized medical texts. English for Specific Purposes, 10, 111
123.
Par, A., & Smart, G. (1994). Observing genres in action: Towards a research
methodology. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp.
146154). London: Taylor & Francis.
Reid, I. (1987). A generic frame for debates about genre. In L Reid (Ed.), The place
of genre in learning: Current debates (pp. 18). Geelong, Australia: Deakin University,
Centre for Studies in Literacy Education.
Rothery, J. (1989). Learning about language. In R. Hasan & J. R. Martin (Eds.),
Language development: Learning language, learning culture (pp. 199-256). Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
Salager-Meyer, F. (1990). Discoursal flaws in medical English abstracts: A genre
analysis per research- and text-type. Text, 10, 365384.
Salager-Meyer, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical
English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 13, 149-170.
Sawyer, W., & Watson, K. (1987). Questions of genre. In I. Reid (Ed.), The place of
genre in learning: Current debates (pp. 4657). Geelong, Australia: Deakin University,
Centre for Studies in Literary Education.
Schryer, C. F. (1993). Records as genre. Written Communication, 10, 200-234.
Schryer, C. F. (1994). The lab vs. the clinic: Sites of competing genres. In
A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 105-124).
London: Taylor & Francis.
Slevin, J. F. (1988). Genre theory, academic discourse and writing within the
disciplines. In L. Z. Smith (Ed.), Audits of meaning: A festschrift in honor of Ann E.
Berthoff (pp. 3-16). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Smart, G. (1992). Exploring the social dimension of a workplace genre, and the
implications for teaching. Carleton Papers in Applied Language Studies, 9, 3340.
Smart, G. (1993). Genre as community invention: A central banks response to its
executives expectations as readers. In R. Spilka (Ed.), Writing in the workplace: New
research perspectives (pp. 124-140). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Strong, R., & Candlin, C. (1993). Foreword. In P. Hagan, S. Hood, E. Jackson,
M. Jones, H. Joyce, & M. Manidis, Certificate in spoken and written English (2nd ed.).
Sydney, Australia: New South Wales Adult Migrant English Service & National
Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.
Swales, J. M. (1981). Aspects of article introductions (Aston ESP Research Report 1).
Birmingham, England: University of Aston in Birmingham, Language Studies
Unit.
Swales, J. M. (1986). A genre-based approach to language across the curriculum. In
M. L. Tickoo (Ed.), Language across the curriculum (pp. 1022). Singapore:
Regional English Language Center.
Swales, J. M. (1990a). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. M. (1990b). Non-native speaker graduate engineering students and their
introductions: Global coherence and local management. In U. Connor & A. M.
Johns (Eds.), Coherence: Research and pedagogical perspectives (pp. 187-207). Alexan-
dria, VA: TESOL.

GENRE IN THREE TRADITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL 721

Swales, J. M. (1993). Genre and engagement. Revue Belge de Philologie et dHistoire, 71,
687-698.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. ( 1.994). Academic writing for graduate students: A course for
non-native speakers of English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Tarone, E., Dwyer, S., Gillette, S., & Icke, V. (1981). On the use of the passive in two
astrophysics journal papers. The ESP Journal, 1, 123136.
Thompson, S. (1994). Frameworks and contexts: A genre-based approach to analysing
lecture introductions. English for Specific Purposes, 13, 171186.
Threadgold, T. (1988). The genre debate [Review of the book The place of genre in
learning: Current debates]. Southern Review, 21, 315-330.
Van Nostrand, A. D. (1994). A genre map of R&D knowledge production for the US
Department of Defense. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new
rhetoric (pp. 133145). London: Taylor & Francis.
Weissberg, B. (1993). The graduate seminar: Another research-process genre. English
for Specific Purposes, 12, 23-35.
Weissberg, R., & Buker, S. (1990). Writing up research: Experimental report writing for
students of English. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Regents.
Widdowson, H. G. (1993). The relevant conditions of language use and learning. In
M. Krueger & F. Ryan (Eds.), Language and content: Discipline and content-based
approaches to language study (pp. 27-36). Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
Williams, J. M., & Colomb, G. G. (1993). The case for explicit teaching: Why what you
dont know wont help you. Research in the Teaching of English, 27, 252264.
Yates, J., & Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). Genres of organizational communication: A
structurational approach to studying communication and media.Academy of
Management Review, 17, 299-326.

722 TESOL QUARTERLY