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Articles about teaching of writing and reading.

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Articles about teaching of writing and reading.

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Articles about teaching of writing and reading.

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Articles about teaching of writing and reading.

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This article is very interesting because it presents an experience with eighth-grade students at a Brazilian public school, and shows students’ ability to collaboratively read and write poems in English. In order to discuss and reflect on themes such as love and loss a poem was selected from the Indian-born, Canadian poet Rupi Kaur’s book The sun and her flowers (KAUR, 2017). the author presents a theoretical reference on the importance of literary texts for English language teaching and the role of collaboration to provide a theoretical basis for this pedagogical practice.The pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities are then described and the students’ written productions, thus  through these activities, students enhanced their lexical knowledge of the English language and their creativity, and also interacted with their colleagues to reflect on current issues.

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Introduction

Several tragedies occurred in Brazil at the beginning of 2019, such as the collapse of a dam in Brumadinho, a fire at the Flamengo Training Center, a helicopter crash which killed the Brazilian journalist Ricardo Boechat and a shooting at a public school in São Paulo. All these tragedies made us reflect, even if subconsciously, on the ephemerality of life. To begin the school year, I decided to discuss a poem, This is the recipe of life, by the contemporary feminist poet, Rupi Kaur, with my eighth-grade group in a public school in Goiânia, Goiás.

Born in 1992, in Punjabi, India, Rupi Kaur emigrated to Toronto, Canada, when she was only 4 years old. She started her career as a poet on social media, via Instagram and Tumblr. In October 2015, she assembled her compositions and published her first book, Milk and honey (), translated into Brazilian Portuguese as Outros jeitos de usar a boca (). Her second book, The sun and her flowers (), translated in Brazil as O que o sol faz com as flores (), was divided into five parts: wilt, fall, root, grow and bloom, corresponding to the phases of the life cycle of a flower. In it she explores a variety of themes including loss, trauma, healing, femininity, migration and revolution. The poem, This is the recipe of life, selected from this book for reflection with my eighth-grade students was chosen with the intention of discussing and rethinking themes such as love and loss through collaborative practices.

This paper is organized into three parts. The first presents authors who advocate the approach of using literary texts in foreign language classrooms, while the second introduces studies which ground this paper in terms of collaboration and interaction in the language classroom. Then, the pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities undertaken with the students are described and the learners' written productions based on the selected poem are presented, reporting the benefits and challenges faced by the researcher teacher in the collaborative process of reading and writing poems in English at a Brazilian public school.

1. The importance of literary texts in English Language Teaching

Wanderley (2017, p. 185) states that we are facing a "scenario where the surface takes over the worldviews and distances people from empathetic acts". Hence, she advocates reading practices which could help deconstruct this context and enable the individual to look at the other and at themselves in a more empathetic way. I believe that we can approach literary texts to promote such reading practices. Many experts have demonstrated the benefits of using literary texts to promote second language teaching and learning. According to Valdes (2001), literary texts can be used as a tool for discussing cultural aspects because they transmit the culture of the people presented in a particular written text.

, in turn, carried out research with nine senior students majoring in English at a Brazilian university, to investigate their understanding of a metaphorical text in foreign literature. The data showed that even though students faced certain obstacles while reading literary texts in another language, such as the barrier of vocabulary and a distinct structuring of the world, their collaborative work led them to a greater comprehension of English poetry.

According to Brumfit and Carter (1986), students can start inferring meaning as a result of their interaction with literary texts. Among other things, such texts are not written in a simple or conventional way, as the readers are required to be active during the reading process, and look for clues, both within and beyond the text.

In a study on the use of literary texts in English language teaching in Brazil in two different types of school setting, a public school and a language center, Rees, Pereira and Mello (2018) showed that activities based on literary texts enabled students to interact with the languacultures of the texts. These activities also contributed to transforming the English language classroom into a critical intercultural space in which learners recreated their understanding of the target language, by actively working on the construction of knowledge.

Collie and Slater (1990, p. 3) in Literature in the Language Classroom provide ideas, approaches and techniques which have worked in their classrooms based on the use of literary texts. Their book is organized around the following three questions: a) Why is literature profitable to the language learning process? b) What works are appropriate for use in the foreign language classrooms? and c) How can we rethink the way we present and approach literature in order to design a broader range of more engaging activities for our students?

They focus on four aspects to respond to the first question. According to them, literature is profitable because it is valuable authentic material and, provides cultural and language enrichment as well as fostering the personal involvement of the reader (COLLIE; SLATER, 1990, p. 3-5). In response to the second question, they explain that suitability is directly related to a particular group of students, because of their "needs, interests, cultural background and language level" (COLLIE; SLATER, 1990, p. 6). They emphasize the need to select books which are relevant to students' life experiences, emotions or dreams. For the final question, there is no simple answer. In order to rethink how literature can be presented and approached in a more engaging way for students, pair and group work should be encouraged as a means to increasing learners' confidence, and they must be helped to explore their own responses to literature (COLLIE; SLATER, 1990, p. 9). They will, thus, be more engaged in the activities as they begin to feel part of the learning process.

Despite the innumerous benefits accruing from using literary texts to teach and learn a second language, many teachers still do not include them in their practices. They claim that because literary texts are difficult to understand, it would be better not to use them in the classroom. Short and Candlin (1986, p. 91) contend that although teachers often distinguish between language and literature students, for whom "literature is also language", do not.

Thus, it is crucial to emphasize that the focus of literary texts used in a foreign language classroom, and more specifically, in a Brazilian public school, should not be on literary periods, or through difficult structural analyses. Rather, the literary texts should be used as a real sample of language, as a tool which enables learners to reflect on current topics and the languacultures in which they are written.

2. The role of collaboration and interaction in the classroom

Collaborative learning is a constructivist philosophical approach which refers to educational situations in which two or more people learn or try to learn something together and whose emphasis is on the co-construction of knowledge. It assumes that students work together to achieve common goals. Through this interaction, learners share ideas, information and learning strategies (FIGUEIREDO, 2018).

Vygotsky (1998) states that children's cognitive development occurs via interaction with more experienced children or with adults. This cognitive development can be described in terms of real and potential levels. The real level represents the activities children can do by themselves, while the potential level represents those activities which children can perform with the help of another. Vygotsky uses the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to explain the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he/she cannot do without assistance.

The scaffolding metaphor is used in language teaching to describe the assistance given to a child or learner during problem solving tasks. As stated by Figueiredo (2019, p. 48), the help given to a child or learner by an adult or more experienced peer can occur by means of "instruction, patterns to be followed, questions, monitoring". In other words, adults or more experienced peers can assist children or learners to reflect and act while carrying out a task. It should be noted that this help is temporary and that children or learners do not receive it passively as they are actively engaged in this interaction, and pay attention to everything so that they can benefit from it and improve their knowledge.

Although substantial benefits result from the process of getting students to work together, teachers must also consider that certain students do not feel comfortable when working in pairs or in groups. They may prefer to work alone. Thus, teachers must respect students' different learning styles and not oblige them to work in groups (FIGUEIREDO, 2018).

Many experts have analyzed the use of the collaborative approach in the English language classroom. They have discovered that in pairs, students work together and are better able to identify and correct their errors (FIGUEIREDO, 2015). They can help each other with reading comprehension (SABOTA, 2018), the development of communicative strategies (FIGUEREDO, 2018), and strategies to help with writing, such as using the student's mother tongue and dictionaries, private conversation and requests for clarification (WOBETO, 2012).

3. Research methods

This case study was undertaken with a group of thirty eighth-grade students at a Brazilian public school in Goiânia. It was a heterogeneous class of 13- and 14-year-olds, some of whom had an intermediate level of proficiency while others had a basic level. They try to speak English more frequently than in previous years and sometimes even spoke Portuguese in class, as I also did, in order to be understood. As already mentioned, a poem from The sun and her flowers () was selected for reflection on themes such as love and death.

Four research instruments were used for data generation (): a) the teacher's lesson plans describing the pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities undertaken with the students, based on a poem; b) a field journal, used by the researcher teacher to make notes on the students' involvement and participation during the process. Notes were taken in English both during and after classes, in the following manner. When notes were taken during classes, the researcher teacher wrote key words related to a student's participation and their names on the board, and immediately after the class, she wrote the complete sentences into the field journal and also availed of the moment to evaluate their involvement and participation in general; c) students' written production of a poem; and d) students' feelings about reading and writing a poem in English in a collaborative way, written in paragraph form at the end of the case study.

It took four 45-minute classes to generate the data. The first class dealt with the pre-reading activity, while the second dealt with the while-reading. In the third and fourth classes, students produced their poems in pairs and later on wrote a paragraph describing their experience of the activity. The names of the participants presented in this study are fictitious so as to preserve their identity. Each step of the process is now described.

3.1. Pre-reading activities

I prepared a PowerPoint Presentation as a warm-up to start a discussion with students before reading the poem. First, I asked if anybody had heard of Rupi Kaur, but unfortunately, none had ever heard of her. So, I presented some facts about her life, a map of Canada showing where she lives, and the covers of two of her books. We talked about the Brazilian translations of the titles.

Students were impressed by the way the titles of her works were translated into Brazilian Portuguese and mentioned that it is quite common to find in Sessão da Tarde, a Brazilian TV program in which dubbed movies are shown, that the translated movie titles differ greatly from their originals.

After discussing Rupi Kaur's life, I showed them pictures containing vocabulary which, in my experience, they would not have known and would probably have had difficulty in understanding while reading the selected poem. This step could be considered a scaffolding strategy (FIGUEIREDO, 2019), as the pictures were presented to them and they had to discover how to say these words in English. The slides involved these words: recipe, weep (for this slide we discussed the difference between weep and cry), wilt, fall, root and rise.

A retrospective of the beginning of 2019 followed with a focus on images of tragedies which occurred in Brazil such as the collapse of a dam in Brumadinho, the fire at the Flamengo Training Center, the helicopter crash which killed the Brazilian journalist Ricardo Boechat and the shooting in a public school in São Paulo.

The students were asked to answer the following question: How did 2019 start? They used expressions such as "really bad", "evil" and "a lot of deaths", all of which were written on the blackboard. To end this pre-reading section, students also had to orally answer: Did you think about your life and those you love after seeing all these tragic happenings in Brazil? Some of the answers were:

[1] Field Journal - Students' oral participation during the pre-reading activity
Yes, teacher, I got scared and afraid. (Maria)

Yes, because I discovered that life changes easily. (Duda)

Yes, people are getting crazy and I was afraid to come to school. (Ana)

Yes, I felt the horror. (João)

Yes, I noticed that my country is lost. (Daniel)

No, because none of these tragedies occurred in Goiânia and I didn't lose any relatives or friends. (Isa)

As some of these answers present the students' impressions on these tragedies, it is important to mention that the majority of the group felt insecure and afraid and just one student pointed out that she was not afraid because the tragedies did not directly affect her reality. As this pre-reading discussion involved the whole group and all had an opportunity to listen to and give their opinions on the topic, some of her classmates started to question Isa so as to get a better understanding of what she had said. As shown by Wobeto (2012), requesting clarification is a strategy used by students when working collaboratively. The questions they asked Isa included: "Didn't you feel sad after seeing so many deaths?" (Duda, field journal) "Didn't you see on TV that there are many dams with problem in Goiás and that a similar situation may occur here?" (Daniel, field journal). Isa emphasized that she did not feel happy with the situation and since none of her family members died, she was not sad. She also mentioned she was not aware of dam problems in Goiás.

As can be seen, the collaborative debate held at the pre-reading stage enabled students to reflect on the tragedies that occurred in Brazil at the beginning of 2019 and how these tragedies had influenced their lives in the sense of feeling scared and terrified. The debate also enabled one student to become aware of a problem involving our State, one that she had not heard about: the problematic dams in Goiás.

3.2. While-reading

Students were asked to divide into pairs and were given a copy of the poem:

As can be seen, the poem is short, the vocabulary is easily understood by foreign learners of English and it comes with an illustration which helps to better interpret it. Collie and Slater (1990) stress that teachers must be aware of students' needs, interests and language level when selecting an appropriate literary text for a particular group and must help learners to explore their own responses to literature. Considering these tips, the students were given five minutes to read the poem in pairs after which they orally shared their opinions on it. I believe it was during this pair work activity that students started to infer meaning (BRUMFIT; CARTER, 1986), as a result of their interaction with the poem and with their colleagues.

They used various positive adjectives to describe Rupi Kaur's poem such as "wonderful", "amazing", "incredible", and sentences such as "This poem tells everything, it's perfect", "Oh, it touched my heart", and "It is an inspirational poem".

When asked what they could take from it they said:

[2] Field Journal - Students' opinions during the while-reading activity
Sometimes bad things can happen in our lives, but we must be strong enough to keep fighting. (Ricardo)

Bad things do not last forever. (Amanda)

Life is a cycle with bad and good moments. (João)

That we have to go through the bad moments in order to grow up. (Pedro)

In life we must fall, but we should rise and bloom, so we have the opportunity to reap what we planted. (Duda)

I have an ipê and it died two weeks ago. After reading this poem I think that I am going to take care of it, because there's a chance to bloom again. (Roberto)

Everybody referred to the poem in a positive way, as it had something motivational for their lives. Roberto mentioned a positive point when reading the poem. As it talks about the cycle of a plant, it made him think about his own reality and culture and he realized that it was not necessary to dispose of his ipê. He could take care of it, in the hope that it would bloom again soon. The poem contributed here to transforming the English language classroom into a critical intercultural space (REES, PEREIRA; MELLO, 2018), where Roberto was able to recreate his understanding of the target language, actively working on the construction of meaning.

3.3. Post-reading

As a post-reading exercise, students were asked to collaboratively write a poem in pairs, illustrate them and then hand them in to the teacher. At this moment, I encouraged them to use a dictionary and told them that they could ask me if they had any questions.

Isa asked for help at this stage in the activity. She told me that she did not know how to start the activity, as poems "are tough stuff". I tried to motivate her and asked her what specific part of Rupi Kaur's poem she did not understand. She realized that, linguistically speaking, she had understood all of it. Although she understood everything, she stressed that "poems are generally difficult to be grasped, everybody says that". This idea of seeing literature as something inaccessible is also shared by Vinny, a participant in the research carried out by Lago (2016, p. 664), for whom "literature is not for the poor mortals". Coming back to Isa's case, I tried to emphasize to her, that Rupi Kaur's poem proves that not all poems are difficult to understand and that she could choose any topic she liked as a basis for her poem. And besides, she had a classmate as a partner on that journey. She smiled and consented to do the proposed activity.

After handing in their productions, the pairs had to write a paragraph on their feelings about collaboratively reading and writing a poem in English.

3.4. Students' production

Because of the limitation of space in this paper, I selected the production of seven different students for presentation here, or roughly half of the production handed to me. Some of the students' productions showed that they used Rupi Kaur's poem as a guide, and availed of its structure, but they were able to use the language in a creative way and express their feelings in a written genre.

It is important to emphasize that these students are 13 and 14-year-old eighth-graders, and during adolescence a theme, such as love is mainly shown in friendships and dating relationships (VIEJO, ORTEGA-RUIZ; SÁNCHEZ, 2015). Three pairs of students decided to write about love and friendship, probably because it is a common topic of conversation among them, and hence one they are familiar with.

In Figure 2, for instance, they used the same structure as that of Rupi Kaur's poem but changed certain words. They used 'love' and 'shoulder' instead of 'life' and 'arm'. Ana and Bia used the word "wept" which was presented to them in the pre-reading phase. The way they used it showed that they really understood its meaning. That is evidence of how the collaborative discussion held during the pre-reading phase helped them improve their vocabulary. In their paragraph, they mentioned that "we liked the experience of reading Rupi Kaur's poem because it was very interesting and we loved writing a new poem because we expressed everything that we were feeling".

Two pairs decided to write about the same topic, friendship, but their production shows that they have a different view of that topic:

[4] João and Pedro's production
This is the recipe of friendship

To be a good friend

Just know how to listen

And knowing how to speak at the right time

To be friends is to support decisions

And help in diseases

The friend is the one you can

Count on for everything.

[5] Duda and Maria's production
The friendship

Friendship is something very special

Because it is she who makes us better people

Friends are not for just good times

But also for bad times,

They become part of the people

and every moment together is as if we

were with a brother

Cherish your friend because today they are

here beside you tomorrow we do not know.

In Figure 3, João and Pedro tell us about what makes a good friend, things like listening and speaking at the right time, backing decisions and being there so your friend can be present in your life. It is worth highlighting here the students' perfect use of the expression "count on", which had not been studied formally at school. This might be evidence of the benefits of using a dictionary during an activity. Their illustration of the poem shows two boys, which might be themselves, the writers. In their paragraph, in the post-reading exercise, João and Pedro wrote that "our experience with Rupi Kaur and her poem was very good and inspiring. When we made our own poem we felt very happy with the feeling of doing something different but good at the same time".

In Figure 4, despite using the words "it is she who" instead of "it" in "because it is she who makes us better people", one can see their intention to personify friendship, presented in a positive way, as something which constitutes a person's identity. In the pre-reading activity during the debate, Duda mentioned that all these tragedies helped her figure out "that life changes easily". The idea of life's ephemerality is evident in the last stanza of their poem "today they are here beside you tomorrow we do not know". So that clearly shows how the pre-reading activity and the collaborative debate influenced their production.

The girls also used the word "cherish", a word not generally used in day-to-day conversations among students at this level of learning. My classroom experience has shown that they generally tend to use "take care of" instead of "cherish". This probably also shows the influence of dictionary use on their writing and their ability to choose a special new word to suit the particular writing genre they are producing, a poem. In their paragraph, they mentioned: "Rupi Kaur's poem was very interesting and inspirational. The opportunity to write a poem in pairs was very cool because we could discuss our opinions with our friend and express what we were feeling".

In Figure 5, students used rhyming couplets quite a lot in their poems:

As can be seen, the use of quite a lot of rhyming couplets, with endings such as die/pie, you/do/Timbuctu, sun/fun, eat/feet, show that Ricardo and Paulo believe that it was important to use rhyme to write a poem, so they made a lot of effort to use rhyme throughout. They based their poem on an imaginary place, Timbuctu, a nice place that everyone should know. The illustration of their poem truly represents the place and presents some new information about this imaginary place, as it has a king. The last line of the poem, "to remove of the ground your feet" could possibly refer to being in another dimension, forgetting, if only for a while, about all the problems that exist in the world, some of which were discussed in our pre-reading activity. Timbuctu, in this sense, represents not only a place of happiness, but also a place of freedom. In their paragraph, in the post-reading activity, Ricardo and Paulo mentioned that "Rupi's poem made us thought about if you fall and you be sad, you can feel relieved because everything will be better". And about writing a poem in pairs, they said "we liked it a lot because it was very cool to work together".

Duda and Lucas, in turn, preferred to write about the opposite of Rupi Kaur's poem:

[7] Duda and Luca's production
the recipe of death

Once my father told me

that the recipe for death

is no need to cry

No wilt

No one is going to help you

And to die all it takes

is to be alive.

In Figure 6, we see that the theme of this poem could have been influenced by the discussion in the pre-reading activity, in which many Brazilian tragedies, all on the theme "death" were presented.

In Rupi Kaur's poem, the poetic persona starts with a conversation with a mother. Duda and Lucas used the same structure as that of Rupi Kaur's poem but changed the poetic persona, showing their preference for a conversation with their father. In the fourth line, they used the word "wilt", a new word presented during the pre-reading activity. They also signaled life's ephemerality in the sixth and seventh lines when they mentioned that "to die all it takes is to be alive". During the post-reading activity, they wrote that "our experience of reading the poem and writing another one based on Rupi Kaur's poem was good because it was an experience of imagination. Our poem was the reverse form of the original poem. The original talks about life, our poem is about death".

Roberto asked to do this activity alone. As Figueiredo (2018) mentioned, teachers must respect students' different styles of learning and should not oblige them to work in groups, so Roberto was allowed to write the poem by himself. In the post-reading exercise, he stated: "I really enjoyed creating a poem but I preferred to make it by myself because I wanted to talk about some tips that I read on the book Os segredos da mente milionária". The idea of writing the poem by himself can be explained by his difficulty in trying to impose his idea on his classmate.

Roberto wanted to emphasize the importance of self-control in spending money and emphasized his critical point of view in relation to the theme, based on a book he had read earlier. Nowadays, because of the influence of capitalism, people tend to buy much more than they actually need and hope that such things will give them some kind of happiness. For Cole and Ferrarese (2018), capitalism is more than an economic system. They use the words of Marx to define it as a definite mode of life "that shapes our relationships with others, our sense of ourselves and our capacities, practices, and actions in the material world" (COLE; FERRARESE, 2018, p.105).

Daniel and Carol used a title similar to that used by Rupi Kaur but they resignified the whole poem by adding the dimension of how capitalism interferes in the lives of human beings:

Figure 8 shows that the students presented the life dilemmas caused by the influence of capitalism in a philosophical manner. They also used a rhyming couplet with endings cries/dies and a repetition of certain words to reinforce their idea that the poor suffer much more than the famous, in this sense, the rich. They ended their poem with a question which makes us think about who we really need to value in our lives. They draw a Mexican skull to illustrate their poem. This shows an influence or dialogue with another school subject and also their contact with the Spanish language and culture, which in this sense, contributed to enhancing their poem.

In Daniel and Carol's paragraph in the post-reading activity, they stated: "the poem was very nice and we really liked to write a poem in pairs because it was a nice opportunity. We could think about different things".

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READING AND WRITING POEMS IN ENGLISH: COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES AT A BRAZILIAN PUBLIC SCHOOL

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Introduction Several tragedies occurred in Brazil at the beginning of 2019, such as the collapse of a dam in Brumadinho, a fire at the Flamengo Training Center, a helicopter crash which killed the Brazilian journalist Ricardo Boechat and a shooting at a public school in São Paulo.

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Articles about teaching of writing and reading.

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Articles about teaching of writing and reading.

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This paper is a study which demonstrates the value of writing as a social ability and its concretizing through textual genres, which means, a genre-oriented approach in the teaching of writing. Besides that, it is emphasized the use of the technological tools as a way to enrich that kind of teaching. We must say that we gave emphasis in second section of the article to support our research.

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ARTIGOS

A ESCRITA COMO UMA ATIVIDADE SOCIALMENTE RELEVANTE: AMOSTRAS DE ATIVIDADES DA SALA DE AULA DE LÍNGUA INGLESA EM UMA ABORDAGEM BASEADA EM GÊNEROS

WRITING AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: SAMPLE IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES OF A GENRE-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG. Brasil. marisaufmg@gmail.com

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG. Brasil. adornomarciotto@gmail.com

Este trabalho tem por objetivo discutir alguns princípios da abordagem de ensino de línguas baseado em gêneros textuais pela visão da linguística funcional. A relevância do uso de ferramentas tecnológicas para enriquecer o ensino de escrita também é defendida. Para isso, analisamos amostras de atividades de sala de aula, oriundas de dois contextos diferentes: um curso de especialização destinado a professores de inglês em educação continuada e um curso de escrita acadêmica, voltado para alunos da pós-graduação da área de Medicina. Os resultados apontam para a importância de combinar a escrita como processo e a escrita como produto, o que inclui a instrução; a revisão e a reescrita de textos, bem como o scaffolding. Finalmente, defendemos que uma visão funcional da linguagem é importante para sustentar a pedagogia baseada em gêneros, já que ela abre caminho para a análise da língua como uma tarefa socialmente relevante.

This papers aims at discussing some principles of a genre-oriented approach to foreign language teaching from the perspective of Functional Linguistics. We also argue in favor of the relevance of using technological tools to enrich writing pedagogy. To do that, we analyze some sample in-class activities that come from two different educational contexts: a Diploma course intended to English teachers in continuing education and a course on academic writing, designed to medical graduate students. Our findings point to the significance of combining a process and a product-oriented approach to writing, including instruction; text revision and rewriting; and scaffolding. Finally, we make the case that a functional view of language should underpin a genre-oriented pedagogy, as it opens room for analyzing language as a social enterprise.

Keywords: academic writing; functional view of language; English as a foreign language

Palavras-chave: escrita acadêmica; visão funcional da linguagem; inglês como língua estrangeira

INTRODUCTION

In Communicative ELT (English Language Teaching), text genre analysis is essential to uncover the social and the cultural basis of language. The notion of genre has largely drawn the attention of many scholars. It is incontestable that a genre-based approach to teaching greatly improves learners' skills, not only in academic settings, but also in professional scenarios (EGGINS, 2004). A genre-oriented approach to language teaching incorporates an understanding that language is purposeful and that structures emerge from use (HALLIDAY, 2004). Additionally, there is an increasing recognition of the relevance of taking into consideration language varieties, text-types, and text genres while designing reading and writing language programs (THORNE and REINHARDT, 2008).

The fact that English is considered the predominant language for communicating research findings makes it paramount that users of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) develop proficiency in research English across the skills of reading and writing (SWALES and FEAK, 2009; SWALES, 2004). In order to be part of the scientific community, EFL researchers need to understand 'the social processes by which knowledge about reality and the world are made' (PALTRIDGE, 2014, p. 303), that is, they need to be able to understand several genres that are part of academic social practice. Failure to understand written genres as social action may result in instruction that encourages the creation of texts to fit formal requirements, as opposed to the practice of achieving social goals (PALTRIDGE, 2014).

Technology also plays a role in assisting second/foreign language (L2) writing instruction. The Internet, social networks and digital media may provide EFL learners with greater opportunities for meaningful and authentic language use, which are usually interactive, social and multimodal. Learners can interact with other speakers of the language from different parts of the world, write blogs or create webpages and profiles in social networks and produce both written and oral language with a targeted community of speakers in mind (RICHARDS, 2014).

The aim of this paper is to discuss some principles of genre-oriented approaches to language teaching from the perspective of Functional Linguistics. We also highlight the relevance of using technological tools to enrich the teaching of writing. To do that, we present and analyze some sample in-class activities that we believe follow genre-based principles to teaching. These activities come from two different educational contexts: a Diploma Course (CEI FALE UFMG), intended to teachers in continuing education, and course on academic writing, intended to medical graduate students. Before we can present these in-class activities, we will discuss the theoretical foundation that underpins our view of teaching writing in both the general context, as well as in the academic scenario.

1. THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN FUNCTIONALISM AND A GENRE-ORIENTED APPROACH TO TEACHING

Functionalism views language as a means to create and share knowledge. According to Thompson (2014), the functional approach to language is increasingly being recognized as providing a very useful descriptive and interpretive framework for viewing language as a strategic, meaning-making resource. It encompasses the analysis of authentic products of social interaction, within a particular social and cultural context. The author also highlights that, from a functional viewpoint, the term 'function' can be interpreted in at least 3 senses:

- Grammar is designed to explain how language is used.

- Fundamental components of meaning are functional components.

- Each element of language is explained in reference to its function in the global linguistic system.

In this view, grammar meanings are not considered as a collection of rules. They are contextualized and are associated with the practical uses which language is put to. Texts are thus considered authentic products of social interaction, negotiated within a particular cultural and social context. From this perspective, functionalists usually ask questions such as: "How is language structured for use"? According to Thompson (2014), an adequate response to this question may be:

Language is as a system of meanings accompanied by the forms through which those meanings are expressed.

Another important question to be posed by functionalists is "How are texts (and the other linguistic units which make them up, such as sentences or clauses) structured so that meanings can be made? " The answer to this question includes the three key dimensions of the situations impacting genre analysis. According to Halliday (2004), these 3 dimensions are:

a. The register variables of mode (speaking or writing, verbal, non-verbal)

b. Tenor: role relations of power and solidarity speaking to whom (teacher/student)

c. Field: topic or focus of the activity - the theme (weather/family life)

These 3 dimensions are also very relevant because they derive from the 3 meta-functions proposed by (HALLIDAY, 2004), which can be briefly described as:

a. Ideational/experiential (used to tell about subject matter) - refers to the internal or external worlds. Key element in genre analysis: FIELD

b. Interpersonal (used to interact with other people) - expresses the writer's role; the kind of relationship with the reader; and the writer's attitude towards the subject matter. Key element in genre analysis: TENOR

c. Textual (to structure the text) - refers to the way the text is organized as a piece of writing (spoken, written, non-verbal). Key element in genre analysis: MODE

1. Language has a representational function and it is used to encode the personal experience of the world; it conveys a picture of reality. Thus, it allows encoding meanings of experience, which realize the field of discourse (EXPERIENTIAL MEANING).

2. Language has an interpersonal function and it is used to encode interaction and to show how defensible the different propositions are believed to be. Thus, it allows encoding meanings of attitudes, interaction and relationships that realize tenor of discourse (INTERPERSONAL MEANING).

3. Language has a textual function and it is used to organize experiential and interpersonal meanings of text development, which realize mode of discourse. A focus on Theme/Rheme and Given/New Structure is a major feature of this metafunction (TEXTUAL MEANING).

As we can see, the notion of genre is intertwined with a view of language as a purposeful enterprise; as a matter of fact, a functional view of language may be translated into genre-based writing pedagogy. In the next section we will present how the notion of genre can be applied to EFL by discussing writing as a process and product as we outline the tenets of genre-based approach to writing.

2. WRITING AS A PROCESS AND AS A PRODUCT

Writing in a foreign or second language can be approached by two competing, yet not mutually exclusive views: one that emphasizes the product over the process of writing and a second that engages learners in the discovery of ideas by emphasizing the processes of brainstorming, sharing ideas and collaborating in order to produce written texts. On the one hand, learners may benefit from being exposed to the conventions of written discourse by means of studying exemplars of a given genre as well as guidelines on how to construct texts, while risking following imposed models. On the other hand, learners may engage in identifying their own personal writing style and giving their own voice to texts they produce, while not being aware of social written conventions. A combination of both approaches would be ideal, without neglecting the process of writing and relying exclusively on product.

Process writing techniques involve brainstorming, peer and teacher feedback, and the production of several drafts. According to Hyland (2008, p. 100) 'writing is seen as a process through which writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to create meaning'. The flowchart in FIG. 1 illustrates the process:

As the flowchart shows, process writing is a recurrent process, with constant revisions and rewritings, planning and editing in a recursive cycle. EFL teachers need to set pre-writing activities for brainstorming ideas and structure, encourage outlining, provide students with challenging writing tasks, encourage peer correction and give feedback on drafts, and finally provide a final correction (HYLAND, 2008).

According to Paltridge (2014), process writing was thought to not prepare learners to the demands of writing in academic contexts. Indeed, encouraging learners to brainstorm, revise, rewrite and allowing them to create their own writing style was not enough to drive learners to notice the conventions of academic written texts and thus be able to produce texts that would comply with academic conventions. In the 1980's, genre-based pedagogy came into prominence in the United States as a response to the perceived problems of process writing. Schools in Australia also operated similar change in their writing pedagogies.

Genre based teaching (SWALES, 2004; HYLAND, 2007, ) sees text as discourse, or as "the way we use language to communicate, to achieve purposes in particular situations" (HYLAND, 2008, p. 93). It is anchored on the idea that one needs to understand and use language to achieve social purposes in a given context (HYLAND, 2007). As previously mentioned, teaching learners to recognize, analyze and produce written genres will help them participate in academic, occupational and social context in the real world (Hyland, 2007).

A genre-based approach to the teaching of writing should focus on identifying how texts work as communication, 'regarding forms of language as located in social action' (HYLAND, 2008, p. 94). This focus on language forms does not imply a focus on grammar, which is detached from meaning and use, but knowledge of grammar that would allow learners to manipulate language in an effective way. In terms of teaching approach, learners are led to notice, reflect on and use language to produce well-formed and appropriate texts. Hyland (2008) proposes the learning cycle as an approach to teaching writing ( FIG. 2):

The learning cycle assists teachers in planning instruction by approaching learning to write genres as a series of stages. In a nutshell, the stages lead learners into understanding the purposes of genre (the why, who, to whom, what for and when) as well as degrees of formality; analyzing and modelling the stages and key features (including tenses, themes, vocabulary); supporting students in constructing texts; monitoring students while they write their own texts; and finally relating what has been learnt to other contexts and genres, thus highlighting the social use of texts in real communication.

Hinkel (2011) reviewed the research related to writing in EFL, showing that non-native written discourse is fundamentally different from L1, both in terms of its macro properties (discourse structuring and ideational development) and micro features (grammar and vocabulary). The author concluded that limited vocabulary and grammar are recurrent and frequent properties of L2 written texts. In comparison to L1 prose L2 texts exhibit less lexical variety, inconsistent use of verb tenses, more conversational and high frequency words, high rates of incomplete or inaccurate sentences, shorter words, repetition of content words and fewer modifying and descriptive prepositional phrases, as well as a higher rate of misused prepositions, to mention some of the differences. EFL learners' skill in grammar and vocabulary has a direct impact on the quality of L2 formal prose. These areas need to be addressed in the EFL classroom.

It should be highlighted that writing instruction should not only focus on grammar and vocabulary; yet, the development of EFL proficiency is one of the requirements for writing success. Learners also need to develop an awareness of discourse conventions and information flow. As a matter of fact, according to Hinkel (2004), much of the failure of process writing can be attributed to the disproportionate focus on writing with self-revision and editing, which are one of the essential components of good academic writing. The other two components - rhetorical organization and grammatical and lexical accuracy - are usually neglected.

Reppen (2002, p. 321) argues that

An emphasis on a process approach often disregards the importance of written form and, in effect, takes power away from learners, particularly those from different language or culture backgrounds. For the L2 student, many writing conventions will remain a mystery unless teachers are able to bring these forms and patterns of language use to conscious awareness. Emphasizing the process to the exclusion of the product neglects direct instruction in certain text features, yet students are still evaluated by their control of these features (e.g., text organization, sentence structure).

The author then suggests a combination of process writing and activities targeting specific language skills and direct instruction on genre forms. His suggestion is anchored on two concepts: scaffolding and awareness. In the first one, the teacher has a central role in guiding learners to accomplish a goal. He or she needs to provide learners with models to help them accomplish a task until they gain enough control to be autonomous learners. In order to do so, the teacher needs to be familiar with the learning situation, material and specific features associated with the writing students are required to produce. As an example, in addition to guiding students into noticing genre organization, the teacher helped them notice the verbs typically found in texts of different genres. Activities included individual and joint construction of texts, text analysis and content discussion of representative texts. The second concept focuses on raising awareness of the connection between organizing information and text purpose. By becoming aware of why texts display certain organization, learners become able to evaluate their own productions and then peer edit texts in a more effective way (REPPEN, 2002).

It is true that learners are usually assessed on what they produced as writers outside the classroom, not on how they produced texts. By combining process and genre-based instruction, language teachers may provide learners with the tools to enable them to write a variety of genres in real-world contexts.

In the next section, we will discuss and present experiences of genre-based teaching in academic writing. We will also analyze samples of writing activities, developed by English language teachers in the context of a diploma course from a public university in Brazil, that we consider are grounded on a usage-based view of language, and which also regard writing as a process.

3. PROCESS WRITING AND GENRE-BASED SAMPLE ACTIVITIES

In this section we report on an experience of teaching academic writing to graduate students and present and analyze some samples of activities developed to teach writing. The former was implemented as a course offered by the Graduate Program of Tropical Diseases in the first semester of 2016 and the latter were elaborated by English language teachers taking part in a Diploma Course from 2011-2015. Both courses are offered by a public university in Brazil.

3.1. Academic Writing: Abstracts

It is known that writing academically represents a challenge to those researchers who need and want to be part of the international scientific community, especially when English is not their first language. In fact, non-native speakers of English who are not familiar with the genre conventions of research articles have difficulty organizing their ideas when writing. Language can also be an issue (). Linguistic factors include lexical and grammatical errors, clarity and verbosity or repetition.

In order to help Brazilian scholars develop academic writing skills, a course on writing research abstracts was offered by the Graduate Program of Tropical Diseases of a public university in Brazil. Since scholars have their manuscripts rejected mainly due to linguistic and methodological problems (MUNGRA and WEBBER, 2010), the course was conducted by a language professional and two Medicine professors. The interdisciplinary nature of the course provided graduate students with the tools to tap potential problems and difficulties in their written productions, namely the linguistic and methodological factors that account for the rejection of manuscripts.

The course was an attempt to provide Medical graduates with both linguistic and methodological knowledge that would enable them to write their own research abstracts, without resorting to language professionals and/or translators, as evidenced by Iglesias and Batista (2010). Writing in English is also considered an essential skill for Spanish scholars of Medicine, who have difficulty in having their research published in international journals. A recent survey showed that Spanish scholars have received little instruction in academic writing (MARTÍN et al., 2014).

The course, offered in a blended mode, followed a genre-based approach to the writing of abstracts and also incorporated the ideas of process writing (RACELIS and MATSUDA, 2013). Learners were guided through the stages presented in Hyland (2008). The first step was an introduction to the concept of textual genre, functions and types of research abstracts, reasons for the rejection of manuscripts, followed by a presentation and analysis of genre moves (SWALES and FEAK, 2009) based on an abstract corpus created by learners themselves. They were then required to write their first draft of an abstract, that was later revised by peers in terms of rhetorical moves. The next step was to focus on the linguistic features of abstracts, namely verb tense use, linking words and cohesion, and vocabulary. After receiving peer and teacher feedback, learners had to write a second draft, which was submitted for a second revision. This time, teachers and learners jointly revised each text, producing a final and improved version.

The analysis of learners' written production showed that they not only attended to genre conventions but also improved their use of academic vocabulary, clarity and grammatical accuracy. Corpus analysis was an essential component of the course, raising learners' awareness to both genre conventions and linguistic features and also fostering their critical reading of abstract and research reports. In addition, learners improved their content knowledge in terms of research methodology through classroom discussions conducted by the Medicine professors.

3.2. Sample Activity 1

3.3. Sample Activity 2

An approach to writing that raises learners' awareness to genre organization and also provides them with language support can be seen in the activities that target the genre biography. The general topic of the lesson is Activism, leading learners to discuss the issue based on the biographies of activists that fought for social justice. Learners are guided into reading and grammar activities that explore the organizational and linguistic aspects of biographies. It is worth noting that both reading and grammar activities were not simply designed to assist writing but to develop learners reading comprehension skills and raise learners awareness to the use of past tense in biographies, in a contextualized and meaning-oriented context. FIG.6 is one of the reading activities:

The writing task asked learners to choose an activist and write a short biography ( FIG.7). The activity started with a summary what learners may have noticed by reading and analyzing biographies in the previous exercises.

3.4. Sample Activity3

The second example explored the language of advertisements. After using advertisements for reading comprehension activities ( FIG. 8), learners' awareness of the genre was raised through activities that explore the organization, structure and function of ads. FIG. 9 is an example of such activity, in which learners had to choose the correct answer to make true statements.

After that, the grammar activities explored the use of the Imperative mood to give recommendations and persuade the reader in advertisements. The writing task started by asking learners to brainstorm what they consider to be acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in the classroom. After brainstorming, they wrote the ad that should be published online with the help of Glogster (https://www.glogster.com/#travel), an online tool that allows the creation of interactive and multimedia posters. Learners were encouraged to revise their productions with the help of a checklist ( FIG. 10) that did not only consider the linguistic features of an ad, but also its content and features.

3.5. Sample Activity 4

From the perspective of language awareness in relation to text genres, Thorne & Black (2008) have developed a very productive pedagogical framework with supporting materials for teachers to focus on what the authors call 'bridging activities' (THORNE and REINHARDT, 2008, p. 562). These activities involve 'incorporating and analyzing student-selected texts within the advanced foreign language curriculum in order to provide a context-situated teaching practice' (THORNE and REINHARDT, 2008, p. 562). Taken this approach to text genres into account, the following task was prepared by the teachers in the Diploma course in order to raise student's awareness of digital genres intended to serve the purposes of social media tools (in this case What´s App).

The following section briefly discusses the role of technology for language learning and presents some suggestions of tools and resources that can be used in the EFL writing classroom.

4. TECHNOLOGY FOR EFL LEARNING AND THE TEACHING OF WRITING: SOME SUGGESTIONS TO ENRICH WRITING PEDAGOGY

When learners engage in experiences with the language in online environments they are likely to be in contact with comprehensible input and output and interactional processes that may support overall language development, and not only a specific skill. As a matter of fact, online tools and resources provide learners with a variety of written and spoken texts and may have features that support the development of a variety of skills. Social media can also provide learners with rich language experiences. Take the blog, as an example. Students can read blogs and comment on the items they have read, moving from observers to participants. Since blogs encourage feedback from anyone connected to the Internet, they offer literacy practices. Such type of reading and writing facilitates the expression of viewpoints, fosters discussion and cultivates critical thinking. More recently, voice or audio blogs allow users to record video or voice, extending the opportunities for language experiences ().

It is not only Facebook that has been attracting the attention of teachers and researchers interested in capitalizing learners interests and free time activities for the benefit of language learning. It is known that there is a great deal of incidental learning when people engage in online gaming, virtual environments, and fan fiction. ) have showed that such endeavor result in social interaction in which meaning is central, fostering the development of specific language competencies within particular genres. Participation in online gaming, virtual environments and fan fiction can also be integrated with language instruction, since it 'may help to strengthen the ecological linkages between forms of language use and identity dispositions developed within instructed EFL settings and communicative pursuits associated with other life contexts'. In other words, learners may be relating the language they see in the classroom with real communication for social life, thus blurring the boundaries between learner and language user.

Technology means nothing without pedagogy. Garrett (2009) reminds us that the use of technology for language learning is not to be seen as a teaching method, and that studies trying to research its efficacy have missed the point. Efficacy depends on how the teacher approaches technology, that is, how teachers design language activities that will be supported by technology and how integrated it is into the syllabus.

We present a list of links to tools and online resources that can be used to develop learners' writing skills. It is advisable that the teacher experiment with the tool before trying to apply it in the classroom.

In the next section, we will make some final remarks on the potentialities we believe a genre-oriented approach to writing may have in terms of teaching language for real communication.

FINAL REMARKS

Genre-based instruction offers a valuable approach to the teaching of writing, both in English for Specific Contexts and in General English. Learners are assisted in the production of effective and relevant texts that they may need to write in their target contexts, ultimately allowing them to be part of real world communities of language users. As Hyland (2007, p. 151) has put it, 'providing writers with a knowledge of appropriate language forms shifts writing instruction from the implicit and exploratory to a conscious manipulation of language and choice'.

The mere focus on the process of composition, text content and grammar prescriptions is not in itself sufficient to assist EFL users in achieving social purposes in a given communicative context. Nevertheless, the integration of process writing and genre-based pedagogy represents the combination of process and product in writing instruction, with revisions, rewriting and scaffolding as the underlying principles to be followed by the teacher. We also believe that this goal can be more effectively pursued when teachers can rely on practical and ready-to-use technological tools, combined with a theoretical informed view of language as oriented to social use.

At last, this paper attempts to argue in favor of functionalism as a central theoretical framework to genre-oriented approaches to writing, since it opens room for analyzing language as a social enterprise, in addition to a means to generate and share culture and knowledge.

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A ESCRITA COMO UMA ATIVIDADE SOCIALMENTE RELEVANTE: AMOSTRAS DE ATIVIDADES DA SALA DE AULA DE LÍNGUA INGLESA EM UMA ABORDAGEM BASEADA EM GÊNEROS

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ARTIGOS A ESCRITA COMO UMA ATIVIDADE SOCIALMENTE RELEVANTE: AMOSTRAS DE ATIVIDADES DA SALA DE AULA DE LÍNGUA INGLESA EM UMA ABORDAGEM BASEADA EM GÊNEROS WRITING AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: SAMPLE IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES OF A GENRE-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG.

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Video about teaching of writing and reading in a critical perspective.

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Video about teaching of writing and reading in a critical perspective.

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In this video we can discuss a bit about critical thinking, reading and writing. In this video we can see the importance of talk about reading and writing, and their definitions, with the purpose to develop these competencies and undestand them, to notice the benefits of critical thinking that expand our mind and our intellect, through of questions we need to make to ourselves, such as significance, preciosion, relevance etc. Critical thinking, writing and reading are develop with practice.

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We are practically living in a World English, in truth, our moments, action, thoughts, consumptions, daily routine are around the something English. Nowadays we don’t have all structure to say: we are ready to stay face to face with the great Global English Organization to have a global business, a global education, or a global opportunity, like that first world countries. There’s no doubt it will reflect in a next generation, we as future teachers can’t change it but we can do a great difference to improve that through our teaching.

We understand is a dare teaching foreign language in a public system education, but adopt some methods to do it of way pleasant it’s one small step for a man but a giant leap for mankind. To organize learning skills embracing others cultures is to be inserting ourselves in the same worlds of our students, it brings democratic actions and social knowledge, thus, the Brazil has a several cultures get together, it’s common in the classroom.

The reading nowadays is a resistance practicing, and writing is a democracy practice. Reading is a social practice that we have as a need, we made a survey about learning skills and how insert this practice in class. Basing on studies, we pick up approaches that we consider essentials to exercise reading and writing skills following the current situation and the modernity, according Carloto(2013): “When it’s about language teaching-learning, is important emphasis that reading practicing and writing also can be developed with technologies” and it’s about that we’ll discoursing also.

Reading Skills:

·         Reading the news (current events); in this case, we can use the App called Telegram, is a good way to keep reals information and chatting. For example: The New York Times has a link on Telegram to keeping you informed, it sends the news to you in real time.

·         Pages of a book single day; choice some books that you consider “easy-peasy”; for example, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. It has a get-at-able language to try reading a little each day, beyond of be a history known around the world. And consequently;

·         Underline key words and even cross out relevant or not relevant words

Corroborating with Carloto (2013), Carneiro e Oliveira (2017), referencing Hyland (2008) at the second extent of their research, clarify that the teaching of writing need to be conducted to the recognition of the writing processes, as well giving the students possibilities to develop aspects such as "[...] discovery of ideas by emphasizing the processes of brainstorming, sharing ideas and collaborating in order to produce written texts [...]", which means that those processes must help the students to be conscious about their writing and the purpose of writing. The following points can guide that action:

Writing Skills:

·         Prewriting: used to prepare the students to begin the writing process, usually, through tasks; in here occur the mobilizing of the background knowledge

·         Planning: the moment which the ideas about the studied content come from the examples, or the conceptions that were preconceived receive confirmation or undergo changings

·         Drafting: the creation of drafts of ideas to begin the text.

·         Editing: here the ideas are organized and the students give the first corrections in an attempt to construct a good text.

·         Feedback: the moment that the teacher and the students make analyzes of drafts to do more corrections about the writing processes which includes linguistic and content aspects, this process is usually conducted in peer.

·         Revision: here new drafts are made based on the first drafts and the feedbacks to reconstruct the text, or just improving the ideas which already created.

·         Proofreading: the final production takes place here, but this does not mean that the text has finished at this time, but rather the text can be, and is indicated to be, revised and redone as many times as necessary.

Thus, signifying what Carneiro e Oliveira (2017), based on Hyland (2008), explained about process writing “[…] is a recurrent process, with constant revisions and rewritings, planning and editing in a recursive cycle […]”.

So we decide that we future English  as a Foreign Language teacher in order to teach reading and writing skills in Brazilian educational setting, in order to develop student’s ability to collaboratively read and write in English. We would select a short poem like “ This is the recipe of life” written by Rupi Kaur , so firstly a PowerPoint Presentation as a warm-up to start a discussion with students before reading the poem, After discussing author’s life, show pictures containing vocabulary which, they would not have known and would probably have had difficulty in understanding while reading the selected poem. This step could be considered a scaffolding strategy (FIGUEIREDO, 2019), as the pictures were presented to them and they had to discover how to say these words in English. On the While Reading fase, in pairs they would read the poem and share their opinions on it, as a post-reading exercise, students would be asked to collaboratively write a poem in pairs, illustrate them and then hand them in to the teacher, thus the teacher could make a revision and give a feedback to students reconstruct the texts improving ideas which they already created.