1.1 Genre Knowledge
The purpose of genre-based pedagogies is to make novice writers aware of the appropriate knowledge in order to enable learners to use genres effectively to meet communicative purposes in certain social contexts.The term genre knowledge is first used by Berkenkotter and Huckin(1995)to refer to“an individual’s repertoire of situationally appropriate responses to recurrent situations”(p.ix).Apart from form and content,which are the typical focus of genre-based instruction,knowledge of disciplinary culture along with process and discursive practice are also deemed to be important in gaining control over the use of genres(Berkenkotter &Huckin,1995;Bhatia,1999;Hyland,2004;Johns,1997;Tardy,2009).The main components of genre knowledge identified in existing theories are summarized in Table 1.
Form and content are essential components of genre knowledge.Genres typically have their own set of formal features or conventions,which are recognizable to members of the community that the genre is usually associated with(Bhatia,1999).As the surface realization of a genre,form and content knowledge refer to an understanding of the macrostructure(e.g.Introduction-Method-Results-Discussion),the rhetorical move structure,and the sentence-level linguistic features(Johns,1997).The use of register(i.e.field,tenor and mode)is also part of the formal realization(Hyland,2004;Johns,1997).As the most tangible aspect of genre knowledge,form and content have received the most attention from researchers,instructors and learners.However,the appropriateness of form and content is largely determined by the disciplinary culture.As argued below,knowing the surface realization(i.e.form and content)alone is far from enough to be able to produce genre instances acceptable to community audience in the real world.
Table 1 Main components of genre knowledge proposed in previous studies
The knowledge of social context is essential in understanding the complex nature of a genre(Bhatia,2002).Social context,in the case of academic genres,typically refers to the culture of disciplinary communities.Compared with form and content,the culture of a disciplinary community is less tangible and thus more difficult to conceptualize and investigate.Researchers have identified three main aspects of genre knowledge related to disciplinary communities that are helpful for genre learners to achieve effective communication,namely communicative purposes of a genre,audience characteristics and subject-matter knowledge(Berkenkotter &Huckin,1995;Bhatia,1999;Hyland,2004;Johns,1997;Paltridge,2001;Tardy,2009).An understanding of the intended purposes of a genre and the characteristics of audience(e.g.their expectations on“good”writing;the background knowledge of the audience)can help learners to structure their writing rhetorically in order to be more persuasive,and make their writing better received by the community(Berkenkotter &Huckin,1995;Bhatia,1999;Hyland,2004;Tardy,2009).Subject-matter knowledge is especially important for academic genres compared with genres used in daily life in which one’s professional role is less important,such as invitations,thank-you letters and eulogies(Parkinson,2000;Tardy,2009).It not only includes the discipline-specific knowledge which is essential in the production of content,but also information about the research front of a discipline,the popular methodological approaches and current paradigm of a disciplinary(e.g.narrative enquiry vs.experiment)(Berkenkotter &Huckin,1995).Apart from these three aspects,the roles of writers in relation to the structure of a community and the philosophical underpinnings of disciplinary cultures(i.e.epistemology,ideology,and social ontology)have also been suggested as useful aspects of genre knowledge(Berkenkotter &Huckin,1995;Tardy,2009).
The composing process and discursive practice are activities leading to the production of genre instances.Discursive practice refers to the activities directly related to the production of a genre.For example,a research article is written as the end product of a series of research activities,such as searching literature in databases,and conducting empirical investigations(e.g.experiments).Hence,the methodology of empirical investigation and literature search is also an aspect of genre knowledge.Other discursive practice encompasses submitting,examining and oral defending of theses.In addition,discursive practice also includes the production of related genres,such as research proposal,seminar presentation,and grant proposal in the case of theses.Intertextuality,the knowledge of the relation between discursive genres and the target genre,has been included in many genre knowledge theories(Tardy,2009;Bhatia,1999;Johns,1997;Hyland,2004).Hyland(2004)describes the relation between genres and discursive practice as the link between texts and the real-world activities.The process of composition,such as the process of drafting a thesis,seeking comments from supervisors or peers,redrafting until the thesis takes its final form,is intertwined with discursive practice.For example,a researcher may draft the methodology section of an article while carrying out empirical investigation,or redraft the article based on feedback received at seminar presentation.Since the writing process and discursive practice are closely related,the two aspects are grouped together in my genre knowledge model.
Figure 1 illustrates the relation of the three main components of genre knowledge.The form and content of a genre are shaped and determined by disciplinary cultures in the sense that genre exemplars are produced to meet the expectations of a disciplinary community.Process and discursive practice are activities carried out for the purpose of the formal realization of a genre instance.The formal instantiation is the end product of the writing process and discursive practice.
Figure 1 The relation of the three components of genre knowledge
Apart from the three major types of genre knowledge described above,intercultural genre knowledge is also considered to be important.In the era of globalization,writers constantly find themselves writing for international readers.It is especially true for writers working in professional areas,where intercultural communication happens on a more frequent basis.Bhatia(1999)contends that professional writers should have knowledge of genre variation across nations and cultures.The readership of academic writing is becoming more international as well.In addition,with increasing global mobility,there is increasing personnel exchange between academic communities,such as international students and visiting scholars.Studies show that L2 students and academics had trouble acquiring English genre conventions(Belcher,1994;Y.R.Dong,1998;Flowerdew,2007).For pedagogical purposes,Paltridge(2001)proposes that intercultural differences in genre practices should be included in genre-based descriptions.Although the importance of intercultural genre knowledge in successful communication has been acknowledged(Bhatia,1999;Johns,1997;Paltridge,2001;Tardy,2009),there is little discussion on the nature of intercultural genre knowledge,which is not included in most genre knowledge frameworks and thus is usually not integrated into genre-based pedagogies.The present study first proposes a framework of intercultural genre knowledge based on previous genre theories,and then investigates the Introduction and Literature Review of Master’s Theses in Applied Linguistics written by students in China,New Zealand and America based on the framework.