Genre-Based Approach

The Genre-Based Approach (GBA) to language and literacy teaching was developed primarily by the "Sydney School" in Australia during the 1980s-90s, led by J.R. Martin, Joan Rothery, and Frances Christie, drawing on M.A.K. Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Genre is defined as a "staged, goal-oriented social process," a recognisable text type shaped by its social purpose (e.g., recount, explanation, argument, report).

The Teaching-Learning Cycle

The pedagogical backbone of GBA is the Teaching-Learning Cycle (TLC), which exists in two canonical forms. Callaghan and Rothery (1988), reporting from the Sydney DSP Literacy Project, set out a three-stage cycle:

1. Modelling (Deconstruction): Teacher and learners analyse a model text — its social purpose, staged schematic structure, and signature linguistic features (register, cohesive devices, grammatical patterns typical of the genre).
2. Joint Construction: Teacher and class collaboratively compose a new text in the target genre, with the teacher scribing and eliciting to make rhetorical and linguistic choices explicit.
3. Independent Construction: Learners produce their own text with decreasing teacher support.

Hammond, Burns, Joyce, Brosnan and Gerot (1992), in English for Social Purposes: A Handbook for Teachers of Adult Literacy (NCELTR, Sydney), adapted the cycle for TESOL in the Australian Adult Migrant English Program and added an upfront stage, giving the four-part TESOL version now standard in L2 settings:

1. Building Knowledge of the Field (BKoF) — develop topic/content knowledge and register before the genre is introduced, on the argument that adult L2 learners often lack the field knowledge L1 students take for granted, and genre work without it fails.
2. Modelling of Text (MoT)
3. Joint Construction of Text (JCoT)
4. Independent Construction of Text (ICoT)

Rothery (1994, 1996) later refined the original cycle along similar lines, and the four-stage TESOL version is the one written into Indonesia's national English curriculum and most contemporary L2 writing pedagogy. The cycle's scaffolding logic is explicitly Vygotskyan: support is heavy at MoT, handed over at JCoT, and released at ICoT.

Why It Matters

The Sydney School developed GBA specifically to address educational inequality. Research showed that disadvantaged and L2 learners often lacked implicit knowledge of the genres valued in schooling and assessment. Making genre conventions explicit, rather than hoping learners would absorb them, was a deliberate equity strategy.

Influence

GBA has shaped EAP, IELTS writing instruction, and L2 writing pedagogy globally. It contrasts with Process Writing by insisting that what is written (genre knowledge) matters as much as how it is written (composing processes).

References

• Callaghan, M. & Rothery, J. (1988). Teaching Factual Writing: A Genre-Based Approach. Report of the DSP Literacy Project, Metropolitan East Region. Sydney: Metropolitan East DSP.
• Hammond, J., Burns, A., Joyce, H., Brosnan, D. & Gerot, L. (1992). English for Social Purposes: A Handbook for Teachers of Adult Literacy. Sydney: NCELTR, Macquarie University.
• Martin, J. R. & Rose, D. (2008). Genres and Institutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School. London: Continuum.
• Rothery, J. (1994). Exploring Literacy in School English (Write It Right Resources for Literacy and Learning). Sydney: Metropolitan East DSP.
• Rothery, J. (1996). Making changes: Developing an educational linguistics. In R. Hasan & G. Williams (Eds.), Literacy in Society (pp. 86–123). London: Longman.