Teaching and researching genre: 

academic writing in the disciplines

Ken Hyland

The last decade has seen increasing attention given to the notion of genre and its application in language teaching and learning. Essentially, genre is a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situations. Genre-based writing instruction is therefore a response to changing views of language and of learning to write which incorporate an increasing understanding of how language is structured and how it is used in social contexts. Genres are therefore resources for getting things done using language in particular contexts, pointing to the fact that texts are successful only when they employ conventions that other members of the community find familiar and convincing.  This community-based nature of genres means that they are likely to differ across disciplines and this has important consequences for teachers who need to identify the genres students will have to write and then make the key features of these genres explicit to students.  It means that all teachers have to become researchers of the texts they teach.

This presentation brings together research understandings and practical applications of these views by looking at what the approach offers teachers of academic writing. I will focus on what research tells us about writing in academic contexts and, drawing on some of my own research, attempt to highlight something of the disciplinary-specific nature of genres. I will then explore some ways that teachers can bring genre techniques to their writing classes.

Bio

Ken Hyland is Professor of Education and director of the Centre for Academic and Professional Literacies at the Institute of Education. Before arriving in London in 2003, he taught in Asia and Australasia for 26 years.  He has published over 120 articles and 11 books on language education and academic writing, most recently Second Language Writing (CUP, 2003), Genre and second language writing (University of Michigan Press, 2004), Metadiscourse (Continuum, 2005), EAP (Routledge, 2006) and Feedback in second language writing (edited with Fiona Hyland, CUP, 2006).  He is co-editor of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and a keen hiker.

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