Gebhard, Meg, and Ruth Harman. "Reconsidering Genre Theory in K-12 Schools: A Response to School Reforms in the United States." Journal of Second Language Writing (2010): 45-55. Web.
The article investigates how genre theory can be used with English Language Learners (ELLs) in K-12 public schools. It explains the legislation in literacy in K-12 public schools and how genre-based curriculum can positively affect the literacy rate in the US. Methods and techniques in teaching are also explained in terms of critical use of genre-based pedagogy.
Ultimately, the researchers who wrote “Reconsidering Genre Theory in K-12 Schools: A Response to School Reforms in the United States,” believe that there are three components to analyzing and supporting literacy practices with English learners in public schools. The first key ingredient is more detailed linguistic analysis of these students by using the “Hallidayan” concept. The “Hallidayan” framework involves genre theory as a base in defining language and to build off of this definition in further research concerning literacy in English learners in K-12 public schools.
The second facet is to analyze the texts to find out how much students and teachers actually know about genre theory and how they engage it in practice in K-12 public schools in the United States. The perspectives that the researches encourage using are “English for Specific Purposes” (ESP) and “Systemic Functional Linguistics” (SFL). ESP focuses on analyzing professional and graduate school texts, while SFL analyzes texts used in primary and secondary schools as well as in immigrant education programs.
The third area of advocation in their investigation is using methods involving active participants of local professionals for collecting data and analysis of that data. They authors refer to these research methods as “sustained professional development”. They base this work off of NLS which defines genre in broader terms than ESP and SFL. NLS, or “New Literacy Studies,” situates genre theory in coherence with social action and literary texts used in everyday situations. In other words, while ESP and SFL focus on texts in the contexts of specific genres or education levels, NLS focuses on analyzing texts in multiple genres, especially subjects in authority and power and creating meaning and identity.
In conclusion, Meg Gebhard and Ruth Harman advocate using the traditional three perspectives on genre-based literacy education for English Language Learners. These three methods of analysis are: the Hallidayan conceptual framework, “English for Specific Purposes” and “Systemic Functional Linguistics,” and “New Literacy Studies”. Each contribute useful tools to base research off of in the study of genre-based literacy studies.
