Analysing-genre-Language-use-in-professional-settings

2024年2月8日发(作者：)

Pergamon

English for S~,cific Purposes, Vol. 14, No. 3. pp. 257 265. 1995

Ek~vier ~ience Ltd. Printed in the USA.

Reviews

ANALYSING GENRE: LANGUAGE USE IN PROFESSIONAL

SETTINGS. Vijay K. Bhatia. London: Longman, 1993, vii + 246pp.

Reviewed by Helen Drury

Analysing Genre

is a timely and welcome addition to the literature on genre

analysis in ESP. As Candlin points out in his editor's preface,

genre

can mean

many things to many people, not least applied linguists, language teachers, and

students. Increasingly used in a variety of teaching and research settings, it is

a slippery word to define, a "word with a sting in its tail" (p. ix) as Candlin

terms it enormously helpful as a concept for explaining why texts are the

way they are but also problematic in both its meaning and application. Thus

Bhatia's is an important contribution to the clarification of the concept of genre,

the methodology of genre analysis, and its applications, especially in the field

of ESP. His book will prove especially useful for practitioners in both teaching

and research settings as it not only provides a clear, step-by-step approach to

undertaking genre analysis but also supports this approach with detailed expla-

nation and exemplification of a number of professional and academic genres.

Analyshzg Genre

is divided into three parts: the first provides theoretical

background; the second and by far the longest part- explains how genre

analysis works in different academic and professional settings; and the third

exemplifies the application of genre analysis in both language teaching and

language reform.

Part 1 begins with an historical explanation of the development of genre-

analytic approaches to the description of texts. Bhatia sees this as a movement

from purely descriptive approaches in discourse analysis to explanatory

approaches which he terms

lhick desoqptions

of language in use. This thick

description of a text or its genre analysis relies on contributions from a number

of disciplines, each of which is outlined in turn. Although Bhatia's definition of

non-fictional genre follows that of Swales (p. 13), he also distances himself #om

Swales in emphasizing what he calls the psychological aspects of genre descrip-

tion. According to Bhatia, psychology contributes to the structure of a genre at

two levels. At a more macro-level, genres can be differentiated from each other

or from sub-genres of the same genre by the

discriminative stralegies

which

members of a discourse community typically ch(x)se to achieve a particular

communicative purpose. These strategies are reflected in the typical regulari-

ties of organization in the genre or its

cognitive move structure. Non-disc~qnd-

natit,e slralegies,

in contrast, operate at a more micro-level in text. They do not

change the overall communicative purpose of the genre and so do not change

257

258 Reviews

the genre itself. They reflect the range of rhetorical strategies open to an

individual writer for fulfilling the requirements of the communicative intention

of the move, which in turn reflects the communicative purl~)se of the genre.

Bhatia admits that there are difficulties in applying these concepts to all genres,

as well as in using them to clearly distinguish between genres and sub-genres.

In addition, there seems to be an essential contradiction in attributing these

move structures to psychology since they are not only "the property of the

genre" (p. 32) that is, part of the individual text itself but also because

they reflect "accumulated and conventionalized social knowledge" (p. 21), i.e.,

socio-cultural factors.

Whether such move structures are essentially motivated by psychological

factors or socio-cultural factors remains open to debate; however, the attempt

to describe a text as a genre made up of a series of stages or moves whose

linguistic and discoursal features can be explained in terms of communicative

purpose is of great value in both pedagogical and research settings. A clear

seven-part, step-by-step account of how one might go about this is given at the

end of the first part of the bcx)k. One of those steps is of course linguistic analy-

sis, which Bhatia rightly emphasizes as of great interest to language teachers

and students, tle proposes three levels of linguistic analysis: (1) identifying

predominant features of the lexico-grammar; (2) describing

text-patterninll or

form-function correlations; and (3) determining cognitive move structures.

Although each level is explained and illustrated, the interconnections between

the levels are not well described and this could pose problems for language

teachers and students when analysing genres.

The most valuable parts of the book, namely the second and third parts,

contain a rich fund of examples of how to analyse genres and how to use genre

analysis in teaching or language reform situations. The inclusion of examples

goes some way towards clarifying the steps in genre analysis described above,

including linguistic analysis.

In Part 2, Bhatia uses the overriding notion of communicative purpose as a

means of identifying and differentiating among genres. For example, he argues

that job applications and sales promotion letters are both promotional genres

since they share the .same communicative purpose as reflected in their move

structure, especially in the move he identifies as self-appraisal in job applica-

tions and product detailing in sales promotion letlers. On the other hand,

abstracts and research article introductions are different genres serving differ-

ent communicative purposes. In discussing the move structure of research

article introductions, Bhatia seems to favour Swales' earlier four-move model

rather than his more recent three-move (CARS) model. Although Bhatia admits

that there are problems in move identification in some genre examples because

of a lack of clear form-function correlation, he advises clarifying the criteria

for move identification rather than combining moves. The last chapter in this

part of the book provides an extremely valuable description of legal genre

analysis, long an area of expertise for the author.

Part 3, the last part of the book, addresses the issue of application from the

perspective of the language teacher and language reformer. A genre-based

Reviews 259

approach to all areas of the ESP curriculum is proposed, including grammati-

cal content, subject matter, tasks, materials development, and assessment. The

variation in the functional role of the nominal group in different genres is

provided as an illustration of teaching about grammar in the context of genre.

Newspaper genres are described as an example of a rich resource for classroom

activities which will enable students to learn about differences between genres

and their linguistic realisations. Intertextuality among legal genres is used to

illustrate the importance of setting appropriate tasks in the ESP classroom--

an activity which allows students to make meaningful connections between

genres and real-world professional practice. Genre-based self-study materials

for business and technology (exemplified by the UNDP Government of

Singapore self-access project) are also described. Finally, a strong case is made

for genre-based assessment, an approach which would necessarily employ

authentic materials.

One of the most interesting areas discussed by Bhatia in this third section

is the issue of cross-cultural variation in genres and how it can be analysed

and used, particularly in the teaching of ESP. He identifies two trends in the

production of non-literary genres by bilinguals creativity and orthodoxy.

Despite the changes in genres that these trends bring about, he concludes that,

in general, academic and professional genres do not seem to vary systemati-

cally across cultures. However, he adw)cates more research in this area, as well

as the need for increased sensitivity on the part of researchers and teachers to

cross-cultural genre variation, especially that found in professional genres.

In discussing language reform and especially the reform of legal genres,

Bhatia points out the essential conflict that exists between the communicative

purposes of legal documents produced for the legal profession and those

produced for the general public. As a possible solution to this conflict he

proposes the

easification

of legal documents so that they maintain their generic

integrity but are made accessible to a wider readership.

Any b(×)k on genre and genre analysis must be selective and Bhatia's is no

exception. Its wide coverage of academic and professional genres necessarily

means that details of analysis are occasionally left out or not made explicit.

This could be a problem for practitkmers faced with a sample of authentic texts

to analyse where there does not seem to be a straightfl~rward pattern of moves

--a not uncommon situation. Therefore,

Analysing Genre

could usefully be

read in conjunction with other recent work on genre analysis, particularly in

educational settings. The work of Jim Martin and his colleagues in the fields

of both first and second language education in Australia immediately comes to

mind (e.g., Callaghan & Rothery 1988; Martin 1992: Eggins 1994). Although

Bhatia's perspective on genre is largely based in the tradition of Swales, and

Martin's in a systemic-functional theory of language, it seems that these two

approaches can complement each other, especially when seen from the point of

view of the practising ESP teacher/researcher.

Systemic functional linguistics provides a comprehensive theory of how

language works to make meaning within a socio-cultural context. The strength

of this model is that it can provide a way of linking the levels of linguistic

260 Reviews

analysis identified in Bhatia's approach not only to each other but also to the

socio-cultural context. Although it has been argued that systemic-functional

linguistic analysis is complex and difficult for students and teachers alike, the

model has been made accessible to practitioners and students, as attested to in

a number of recent publications (e.g., Eggins 1994). It seems that with both

Bhatia's approach and that of Martin and his colleagues to call on and

especially in combination a firm basis for genre analysis and its application

now exists.

REFERENCES

Callaghan, M., and Rothery, J. (1988)

Teaching Factual Writing.

Sydney:

Di~dvantaged Schools Program Resource Productions (DSP).

Eggins, S. (1994).

An introduction to systemic functional linguistics.

London:

Pinter.

Martin, J. (1992).

English text.

Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Helen

Drury is a lecturer in the Learning Assistance Centre, Sydney

University. She has recently been working in the for Overseas Students

Unit, Birmingham University on an academic exchange. Her research interests

include genre analysis, academic writing (especially in the biological sciences),

and medical students' oral English.

ENGLISH

FOR SOCIAL PURPOSES. A HANDBOOK FOR TEACH-

ERS

OF ADULT LITERACY. Jenny Hammond, Anne Burns, Helen Joyce,

Daphne Brosnan, and Linda Gerot with Nicky Solomon and Sue Hood. Sydney:

National Centre for English l,anguage Teaching and Research, Macquarie

University, 1992, 96 pp. (available from NCELTR, Teaching and Research,

Macquarie University, Sydney NSW 2109, Australia)

TEACHING ESL LITERACY TO ADULTS: A GUIDE FOR ADULT

LITERACY TEACHERS. Judy Colman and Jill Schiffmann. Armidale, NSW:

Language Training Centre, University of New England, 1993, 118 pp. (available

from Language Training Centre, University of New England, Armidale NSW

2351, Australia)

Reviewed by Brian Paltridge

These two volumes fl)cus on second language literacy development for adult

learners of English living in Australia. Both books are also, in various ways,

based on the systemic-functional approach to genre analysis which has gained

such prominence in second language teaching and learning in Australia in