Using Genre Models to Improve Process Pedagogy

Hyland, Ken. “Genre-based Pedagogies: A Social Response to Process.” Journal of Second Language Writing 12.1 (2003): 17-29. Print.

Since their development in the 1970s and 1980s, process pedagogies have been central to composition classrooms, especially first-year composition. Many (if not most) composition instructors, myself included, rely on some versions of process theory in their classrooms. Hyland’s article argues that the reliance on process pedagogies may actually be constraining the development of L2 writers. He bases this claim on what he sees as five deficiencies of process-based pedagogies, especially in relation to L2 writers.

• Process pedagogies remove writing tasks from their context and emphasize “the writer as an isolated individual struggling to express personal meanings” (18). Discussing matters of process, he says, may lead us to how writers do what they do, but not why.
• The role of the teacher is less active until the feedback stage. And while teachers may give excellent feedback on rhetorical matters, this suggests to students that these matters are related to revising/editing as opposed to initial construction of a text.
• Process pedagogies teach implicitly and favor those who already understand the conventions of the discourse they are “learning,” typically white, middle-class L1 students.
• Culturally-specific knowledge is valued by process pedagogies, especially that knowledge related to voice, critical thinking, peer review, and notions of plagiarism. Hyland cites Ramanathan and Atkinson regarding these concerns (see my blog posting on their article).
• Focusing on process can isolate students from the social and political power inherent in the discourses they are learning, as process focuses almost solely on the individual’s growth.

What Hyland argues for is a genre-based approach to teaching writing for the benefit of L2 (and really all) students. Such approaches put language use in its social context by examining how discourse communities develop and use genres, exploring their rhetorical features, and analyzing their social and political nature. By considering language in these social contexts, instructors need not eliminate process elements of their pedagogies; rather, Hyland tells us, adding genre-based approaches allow us to provide more realistic writing instruction.

I found Hyland’s arguments about the value of genre-based approaches to writing instruction quite compelling. Genre models rely on scaffolding, the social contexts of writing, and the role of rhetoric—all of which I value in my own classes. I did have two minor quibbles with Hyland. First, I felt some of his characterizations of process pedagogies, while not wholly inaccurate, were perhaps a bit broad. Most process practices, as he explained them, seemed to fall into the individualistic, voice-oriented models, which is maybe a little reductivist. My second concern was that he might have addressed more specifically the significance of genre models for L2 students. This was implied, of course, but some more specific thoughts on this would have solidified his claims all the more. Otherwise, his article helped me think about how I use process in my classroom and how genre theory might make those practices more valuable for my students.