GENRES IN ENGLISH COURSE BOOKS: TEACHING WORDS AND IMAGES

Why are genres important for learners?

Exposure to genres through teaching material help learners to build knowledge of linguistic features. Students gain a solid awareness of language and they will be successful in communicating in everyday situations.

Working with genres

EFL (English as a foreign language) course book contains several genres such as letters, advertisements, postcards, articles, Internet pages, some in written form and others are images.

letters

advertisements

postcards

articles

Internet pages

images

The visuality in course books has become more and more appealing in recent course books. According to Terry Royce “learners need to develop a multimodal communicative competence” (2002).

Genre knowledge

The genre knowledge needs to be part of teaching and learning a second language because communication happens through genres.

Knowing a genre is being able to:

Recognize one;Understand one;

Contextualize one andProduce one.

Genres can serve as a secondary support for teaching and learning or as a direct relation to a language topic.

Class topicReports

News

Letters

Songs

Exposure based on the Text book

UNDERSTANDING COURSE BOOKS

Good course books must contain as much genres as possible; variety of genres makes the students feel closer to the language.

However we must notice that course books themselves are also a genre.

According to Davies, “The textbook is seen as an element that is integrated into the process of education, and it is identified as a genre that functions communicatively as a source of instruction and information about how people do things in a society.”

Course books assures that learning actually happens in school and they also teach the knowledge that is necessary for the student's participation in society.

It is important to notice how often cultural aspects happen in course books. The aim is to make students learn about the whole cultural process involved in this learning activity.

In an ELT (English Language Teaching) course book, what needs to be learned about language is organized and sequenced in the book. Everything is arranged and illustrated in a series of sub-genres.

But it is not all about communicating...

Schneuwly and Dolz have similar viewpoint about this topic. They both believe genres are not just way of communicating but also object of teaching and learning.

And also, classroom materials do not prepare students for social activity outside the classroom. Classroom activities can be unrelated to “real life” practices.

A MULTIMODAL APPROACH USING EFL COURSE BOOKS

Multimodal awareness is more important in contemporary society and it is one of the competences that need to be mastered.

And more...

Images need to be related to written text. Learners need to understand the intentions that inform visual representations and meanings in course books images.

The Genres of advertising and tourist guidebooks

Why are ads often used in language teaching materials?

They are appealing, motivating for students and can lead a reflection on consumer habits.

Contemporary languageCultural information

Visual presentation of contexts Brevity

Listening and discussion activities about ads

Focus on knowledge of visuals as social practice, not just as language learning tools.How to use it:

Indicate that learners are positioned as users of ads.

Explore the genre by asking students to consider the force of ads from a critical

perspective.

Activities using the tourist guidebook genre

Images only complement the verbal text (are not referred to in any of the items in the activities).Questions (focused on genre contrasts of the developed texts) draw attention to differences in:

Purpose Audience

Genre expectations Language structure

Lexical choices

Invitation to Genre knowledge

Recognition Understanding of genre structure

Understanding of linguistic featuresAwareness of the context of each genreLearning the meaning of a used image is

unexplored

What is the challenge of teaching English language?

Identify the teacher’s role in the transfer of pedagogical genre knowledge to social and professional knowledge of genres.

Reference

HEMAIS, B. Genres in English language course books: teaching words and images. In: GONÇALVES, G. R. et al. New challenges in language and literature. Belo Horizonte: FALE, 2009. p. 67-79.

Group 2

• Clarice Batista• Juliana Guerra• Rosana Soares• Sabrina Cotta