Some Reflections

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Heidi ByrnesGeorgetown University

byrnesh@georgetown.edu

http://www1.georgetown.edu/departments/german/faculty/byrnes

AATK June 28, 2008

Genre, Cultural Literacy, and Curriculum Building:

2J

The privilegeof the

non-cognate(less commonly taught )

languages

Positioning the presentation

Enrichingprogrammatic/curricular thinking

3J

The challengesof the

non-cognate

languages

Positioning the presentation

•Program configuration•Curriculum building•Learning goals•Materials development•Teacher education and

availability

4J

The opportunitiesof the

non-cognate

languages

Positioning the presentation

The professional context•The National Standards (K-16)•The MLA report (Higher education)

The “on-the-ground” context•More advanced courses•Minors, majors•Interdisciplinary “studies” programs•Graduate programs (linked to

professional programs)•Materials and course development•Content-based instruction•Heritage learners•Study abroad

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The possibility of creating a

• genre-based, integrated, articulated curriculum that

• through its pedagogies, fosters the simultaneous development of

• language and cultural knowledge to

• upper levels of ability.

What is the nature of those opportunities (and challenges)?

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What is the value of language education in a global world?

The value of

language education

Meeting the challenge of fostering

Translingual and transcultural competenceLinking language and

content learning:The language‐based nature of knowing

Creating a context for acquiring advanced levels of ability:

Adopting an encompassing vision of the role of language in human lives:

Instrumental, aesthetic, ethical, moral, private, public

Linking L1 and L2 knowledge … and

back: the reflective

multicompetent Language user

FosteringL2 learning

and academic achievement

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… of any phenomenon depends critically on our conception of this phenomenon. Unless we can base language teaching and learning on a richly revealing comprehensive account of what kind of phenomenon language is, we are not in a position to answer the many questions that arise in educational contexts.

Matthiessen, 2006, p. 31

Our approach to the teaching …

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Our approach to the phenomenon language

• Language forms are associated with particular social contexts

• Language construes a particular social context • Language is about meaning making

• Language is a social semiotic system

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Our approach to the phenomenon language

•Learning a language islearning how to mean diverse registers and genres

• Learning through the language isexpanding one’s repertoire of registers and genres

•Learning about a language isbecoming a socioculturally competent, metalinguistically aware user of the language•

Language as “substance”

Language as “instrument”

Language as “object”

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• Relatively stable thematic, compositional and stylistic type of utterance, embodying an aspect of cultural rationality (Bakhtin) [weather report, fairy tale, letter of inquiry, journalistic report, job application]

• Linguistically realized activity types which comprise much of culture• Verbal strategies that accomplish social purposes of many kinds (Martin, 1985)• A language-based theory of culture that interprets culture as a system of social processes recognized in terms of distinctive stages (Rothery, 1989)

Exploring the construct of genre

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• StagedMore than one phase of meaning to work through

• Goal orientedUnfolding phases toward meeting linguistic/cultural

expectations

• Social activityOccur in social settings and are interactively

undertaken (covertly/overtly)

Genres as staged social activity types

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If we have access to the context, we can predict the text (genre)

If we have access to the text (genre), we can infer the context from it

Social/cultural context as the rationale for the prediction of typical patterns of behavior

(Hasan, 1996, p. 42-43)

Genres in a functional theory of language:

The relationship between text and context

The challenge …

… is to relate sociocultural context and the “content” that is likely to be enacted to its particular wording in language, that is, we need rich accounts of semantics and lexicogrammar.

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GENRES The genres of education‐Pedagogical genres‐ Academic genres

Blurred genrese.g., infomercials

The genres of literature,e.g., Novel, ballad, short

story, sonnet, drama

Genres of the disciplines

andprofessions

Meeting the challenge with genres

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•The centrality of curriculum

“Curriculum” is NOT a single course but an articulated sequence of courses

The issue is fostering development over time

• The nature of curriculumCurriculum as intention (often prescriptive)Curriculum as (current) reality (by “default”)Curriculum as proposal by informed practitioners

The challenge of curriculum (= selection and sequencing) and articulation

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•Mikhail Bakhtin

From the

• overt dialogicality of conversation to the • covert dialogiality of

• the language system (synchronic, diachronic)• the intratextual aspects of coherence and

cohesion• intertextual reference (intertextuality)

Some approaches to curricular sequencing

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•James Gee

From the

• primary discourses of familiarity to the

• secondary discourses of public life and institutions.

Some approaches to curricular sequencing

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• M. A. K. Halliday

Developmental continua:

• From oral language to written language• “choreographic”: expansion of the clausal system syntactic complexity• “crystalline”: information density within the clause lexical density

• From congruent to noncongruent/synoptic semiosis (“ways of making meaning”)

Some approaches to curricular sequencing

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Congruent semiosis (“from within”)

The way we “normally” understand the worldReality understood in terms of actors, actions, circumstances

Focus on function, process, and flow

Non-congruent (synoptic) semiosis (“from outside”)

The way we come to understand the world: the role of educationReality understood in terms of the “thinginess” of the world

Focus on abstractions, concepts, categories, taxonomies

Some approaches to curricular sequencing

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Congruent semiosis

We hope that peace will be restored soon.

Hypotactic relationship in one complex clause

Non-congruent semiosis

(Our) hope for an early restoration of peace

Single noun phrase

… continues to be dashed.

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The challenge of a genre-based pedagogy

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An integrated approach that links

•A genre-based task with its

•typical/appropriate/likely content with its

•typical/appropriate/likely language forms

at the• level of obligatory (and optional) genre “moves”• (complex) sentence level• lexicogrammatical level of clause and phrase

Considering a genre-based pedagogy:A language-based functional approach

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A “close-up” pedagogical example: The “moves” of the story genre

Obligatory moves – optional moves – recursive moves

Abstract – Orientation

– Complication – Evaluation

- Resolution- Coda

Labov and Waletzky, 1997 (1966)

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A curricular example: The continuum of the genres of history

(Coffin, 2006)

•Recording genresAutobiographical recountBiographical recountHistorical recountHistorical account

•Explaining genresFactorial explanationConsequential explanation

•Arguing genresExposition (arguing for a particular interpretation)Discussion (considering different interpretations before reaching a

conclusion)Challenge (arguing against a particular interpretation)

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A closer look at the recording genres:(Coffin, 2006, p. 64)

GENRE SOCIAL PURPOSE

STAGES KEY LANGUAGE

FEATURES

Autobio-graphical recount

to retell theevents of your own life

Orientation,Record of

events

Specific participants,Authorial “I”

Language of time

Biographicalrecount

to retell the events of a person’s life

Orientation,Record of events,(Evaluation of person)

Specific participants,More specialized lexis

Language of time

Historical recount

to retell events in the past

Background,Record of events, (Deduction)

Generic participants, Specialized lexis

Language of time

Historicalaccount

to account for why things happened in a particular sequence

Background,Account of Events,(Deduction)

Generic andAbstract participants, Specialized lexis,Nominalizations

Language of time and cause and effect

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Positioning our work

Higher education imperatives

Overcoming the divide between “content-indifferent” language teaching and “language-indifferent” content teaching

Moving from (oral) communicative competence toward “multiple literacies “

Linking language and content throughout a curricular sequence from undergraduate through graduate education

Connecting language studies to the educational goals of the university

Educational goal: Language-based translingual and transcultural competence

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Positioning our work

Teaching and learning imperativesDeveloping a shared professional discourse

Sharing a discourse between teachers and learners: meta-awareness of the nature of adult instructed language learning asmeaning-making in situated language use

Linking L1 and L2 literacy and emergent multiple literacies

Highlighting the centrality of narrative

Educational approach:Meaning-making as choices toward the creation of a competent “non-native” voice and identity –creating “third spaces”

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Positioning our work

Assessment imperatives •Integrating content learning and language learning: Language is the primary evidence for judging what a person has learned.

•Diagnostic tools for establishing learners’ location on the cline from a particular text (genre) to the language system

•Placement testing•End of curricular level outcomes statement•Minors/majors/end of program•

•Determining learning goals and outcomesAssessing them in appropriate waysRecognizing institution-specific characteristics and educational niches

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Developing new narratives

The current quest for accountability creates a precious opportunity for educators to tell the full range of stories about learning and teaching. Counting and recounting can only be pursued together. Counting without narrative is meaningless. Narrative without counting is suspicious. We now have the opportunity to employ the many indicators of learning that we can count for the most important stories we have to tell. (Shulman, 2007, p. 25)

Thank you!byrnesh@georgetown.edu

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References

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Byrnes, H. (2008). Assessing content and language. E. Shohamy (Ed.), Language testing and assessment (Vol. 7, pp. 37‐52). Berlin: Springer‐Kluwer Academic Publishers.

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Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2006). Educating for advanced foreign language capacities: exploring the meaning‐making resources of languages systemic‐functionally. H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky (pp. 31‐57). London: Continuum.

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