7. Practical application of genre analysis in the classroom You are now going to carry out your own genre analysis of a set of texts of your choice. Step 1: Choose a set of texts (between 3 and 5) of your choice (preferably ones that you could use with your students). All of the texts need to relate to the same genre and be on the same topic. Or choose 3-5 journal articles which relate to a specific discipline and topic from Google Scholar: · http://scholar.google.co.uk/ Alternatively, you could examine 3-5 newspaper articles from: · http://www.theguardian.com/uk (broadsheet) · http://www.mirror.co.uk/ (tabloid) Again these need to be on the same topic. Step 2: Deconstruct the genre Having seen how genres are unpacked using different strategies, I would like you deconstruct your texts to find out their most salient features. Think about: 1. Context 2. Structure 3. Language · Can you think of any other areas you can/should explore? Before you begin to deconstruct the genre: · Discuss how you are going to work out the key features. · Can you use any of the materials that have already been given to you? · Can you use AntConc? How? For what? I would recommend you also make a discipline-specific word list with 10-20 of the most frequent words. Do you remember how to do this? If not, look back at 6. Creating a discipline-specific wordlist. Remember to use the AWL highlighter to remove any words that belong to the AWL: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm Step 3: Deconstructing the genre (Exercises for students) Having deconstructed the genre yourself, can you think of any exercises you could create for your students to make them consciously aware of the salient features of your genre/text type? Discuss with a partner. Prepare to give a short presentation about your findings and any advice you can give to your colleagues Step 4: Reconstructing the genre What exercises could you carry out with your students to help them reconstruct the genre and gain ownership of it? Step 5: Reformulation Reformulation is one of the strategies you could use at the ‘reconstruction’ phase. It can help students clearly identify the similarities and differences in their own writing. Although reformulation is traditionally carried out with the reformulators being native speakers, today you are going to be the reformulators. You will be given a short text which has been written by an international student. You are the reformulator. As the reformulator, you should read the guidelines below and re-write the student text according to the guidelines. Reformulation Guidelines What is reformulation? Reformulation is a mistake correction technique used on the output (more typically written) of language learners. The technique requires the students to reflect on their own writing and ‘notice the gap’ between their current written output and that of a native speaker. This technique aims to help students develop their writing (in this case) or speaking skills. Your role Your role in this task is to be the reformulator. Reformulation Guidelines As the reformulator, you are required to: 1. Read the non-native speaker’s writing 2. Ensure you have understood the message and ideas of the writer and then 3. Rewrite it in a way which is more natural to a native speaker. It is important that you: a) preserve the student’s original ideas and that you do not add any of your own b) do not completely change the order of sentences and paragraphs unless the structure needs to be revised. Reformulation in practice In order for you to see how your reformulated writing is going to aid learners, please read the steps below which explain how this technique is typically used in the classroom. Step 1: The students complete the first draft of an essay. Step 2: This first draft is given to the reformulator who reformulates what they have written according to the Reformulation Guidelines. Step 3: The teacher in the next class distributes a non-native version of the text together with the reformulated version (the version you have written). The students note down the similarities and differences between the two versions and discuss as a class. The students also discuss the reasons for the similarities and differences and the overall effect of the changes. Step 4: Taking into account the class discussion, the students then re-write their first draft. Step 5: The teacher then gives them very brief and generic feedback on the final draft. Step 6: Once the students have read their feedback, the students will be given a model response to the essay title so they can compare it to their own. Texts to reformulate The following paragraphs are main-body paragraphs which have been extracted from undergraduate and postgraduate essays. Before you begin to reformulate a paragraph, discuss: · How is a main body paragraph typically structured? · What problems do students have with main body paragraphs? Considering the structure and typical issues, reformulate one of the paragraphs below. Text 1 There are two factors affecting the country, on the one hand, the decrease of birth rate and the other hand the high life expectation. People having less babies and individuals living longer than they should. A Population with more ageing people means that there will be more expenses going toward pensions and health care. As the countries’ populations’ age, working class working adult will have to pay more tax because more money will be taken from their salary and be transferred to the elderly people. For example according to my research i was able to know that the public pension spending in Japan will have to increase from 8.7% of GDP to 14.3% in 2030 and to 20.2% in 2050. Jackson, R. and Howe, N., (2008). Text 2 As mentioned before, the liberalisation of tariffs as a result of the World Trade Organization (WTO), had a powerful effect on the development of countries; standards of life changed, and the free market economy educated the population into changing their lifestyles. Nowadays, people live better lives with an abundance of choice and information. Jackson, R et al (2008) mentions that today elderly people account for 16 percent of the total population, and it is forecasted to reach 35 percent by 2050 (p.4). This benefits the life expectancy of countries, and inspiring a wealthy economy and prosperity of an educated population. Usually, the mortality rate is low in developed countries in comparison to developing or 'third world' countries because, amongst other factors, the government invests a larger amount of money in education. As a result, the growing number of professionals in developed countries could be said to create ageism, as “Many more women have been becoming more highly educated and taking paid jobs” (Jackson, R et all, 2008, p.4). Text 3 But according to Jackson (2002) the greatest impact is in terms of financial cost. In Europe for instance the benefits are high and people retire fairly early. Jackson says that The European Commission (EC) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and development (OECD) estimate that spending on pensions and health benefits for the elderly in a classic developed country will increase from 11 to 18 % of the GDP during the next fifty years. The pay as you go system, used by developed countries to support retirees is no longer efficient. The number of young people was much higher than the number of retired people, and therefore it was affordable to pay retirees with the contributions of the workforce. Jackson (2002, p 44) says that “there will be just two working ageing adults for every elder in the developed world”. Text 4 Jackson, R. et al (2002:44) illustrate that the demographic transformation model are caused from two aspects, the low birth rate and the longevity in the developed world. ʺWomen find it hard to combine family and career. They often comprise by having just one childʺ (Jackson et al, 2002:47). Therefore, the fewer babies are due to the preferences of women to get married at an older age, because they want to study further and establish their career, before having children. In Britain, the percentage of older people is higher than the percentage of younger people. Also, the world is moving into a new age, with new technology that gives a longer duration of life. This new technology offers more medicine[DEL: s :DEL] for better health (Jackson et al, 2008:4). As a result, the levels of independence of old people and the induction of women in jobs, has also contributed majorly to this growing ageing population (Jackson, 2002:47). Text 5 Ecotourism has a strong impact on the environment. The only source of income for local communities before ecotourism was to remove natural resources which will lead to serious damage in the environment. Moreover, conservation of the environment: it will help in protecting the environment from toxic and left overs. (chaynee, 2005). On the other hand, ecotourism can be very harmful to environment due to huge number of tourists and the fossil fuel they left over from their transportation. In addition, the traditional economic practices have a negative influence on the environment. For example: the lack of water is happening because the community must give water to the tourists for their food and staying. This practice will make the planters unable to use the fields. Also, the woodcarving industry is reducing the local resources (York, 2005). Some of the vital problems in ecotourism are that there are no sufficient studies on how the ecotourism industry will affect the local communities and the environment. And that will lead to distraction in the activities for local people that they were used to do. (York, 2005). Text 6 Text 7