A Genre-based Teaching Approach To The Writing Course For Undergraduates

In the present thesis, the author studies the role of genre in the teaching of writing in the college EFL classroom. The students under the study are the sophomores in Hubei Automotive Industries Institute where the author works, majoring in automotive engineering.First of all, the author analyzes the present situation in the EFL writing classroom. Presently in China, college English teachers often adopt the product-based approach to teach writing. In the writing classroom dominated by this approach, linguistic knowledge is primarily emphasized, with both teachers' and students' attention focused on the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax and cohesive devices. However, this approach has its obvious weak points. Since grammar has a central role, the process skills, such as planning a text are given a relatively small role, and that knowledge and skills that students bring to the classroom are undervalued. This may lead to the result in which the students may be grammatically correct in composing an essay without making any sense in general view. Clearly, this approach cannot work effectively in helping the students develop their writing competence. Still, there is another approach used by some teachers-process approach. Compared with the product approach, this approach put much emphasis on the writing process rather than product. Classrooms dominated by this approach will be like this: The teachers tend to neglect or even abandon grammar. The focus is on quantity rather than quality. The writers are encouraged to write down their ideas in any shape or form without worrying too much about correctness. So here is a contradiction between actual practice and the requirement of the tests and the real writing tasks the students will meet in the future careers. In the tests, the students are required to write articles bothmeaningful and correct in grammar and in the future careers. The students should have the ability to organize the ideas in English in proper forms. Obviously, these two approaches cannot meet the demand of the students. Therefore, a genre-based approach, which emphasizes the schematic structures of different discourses as well as the grammar, should be adopted in order to meet the demand of the students both in the tests and in their future careers.Secondly, the author briefly introduces the theories of genres. When we talk about genre analysis, we cannot avoid the concept of genre. For quite a long time, genre remains a fuzzy concept. Until recently, a lot of research on composition has contributed to a reconception of the rhetorical concept of genre on social lines. Some scholars consider genre as dynamic, participatory, situated social actions which is a recognizable communicative purpose(s) identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional or community in which it regularly occurs. This makes the discourses of the same genre have the same schematic structure and this schematic structure, in turn, affects the content and the style of the discourses. While, the scholars also believe that people can still have their own creativity in making discourse under the basic generic structure.Genre analysis, therefore, aims at the studies of the communicative purposes of a discourse and the language using strategies. By analyzing a genre, we can answer this question: why people tend to use these words and this style rather than others when constructing a certain type of discourse. In analyzing genres, besides from the perspective of linguistics, people also do analysis from the social and psychological perspectives.Thirdly, the author examines the implication of the genre-based teaching approach on teaching writing by illustrating different models provided by different analysts in achieving different teaching purposes in writing course. Presently, there are three schools that have applied genre theories in EFL writing classroom. In the fields of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and EAP (English for Academic Purpose...