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Action, content and identity in applied genre analysis for ESP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2010

John Flowerdew
John Flowerdew*
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kongenjohnf@cityu.edu.hk
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Abstract

Genres are staged, structured, communicative events, motivated by various communicative purposes, and performed by members of specific discourse communities (Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993, 2004; Berkenkotter & Huckin 1995). Since its inception, with the two seminal works on the topic by Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993), genre analysis has taken pride of place in much of the ongoing research in languages for specific purposes (LSP). The goal of much of this research is pedagogic, the understanding being that good genre descriptions can feed into pedagogy in the form of syllabus and materials design. Whereas genre analysis usually focuses on language as action, this paper argues that analysis needs to focus also on content and identity. The discussion sketches out what this might mean in terms of pedagogic application.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 516 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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