Genre is a French word means ‘kind’ or ‘sort, also from Latin – genus – means a loose set of criteria for a category of composition ; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance.
Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries. It is sometimes confined to art and culture, literature particularly. In genre, works are recognized as either reflecting on or participating in the conventions of genre. It is important to note that genres are not fixed. They change over time, reflecting changes in society.
Analyzing genre means looking for the common patterns of grammar usage, key vocabulary, and text structure in particular text types.
In other words, using genre as a starting point in curriculum design by listing genre necessary for student understanding within a context – typical in content – based curricula – allows teacher to :
- a. Collect real samples of appropriate texts
- b. Design activities to foster understanding of the genre
- c. Draw attention to key vocabulary and grammatical structures associated with that genre
- d. Demonstrate to the students how these interact with the who, what, where, when, how, and why of the text in terms of situation and context, allowing relationship between culture and language to be directly addressed.
A genre based course is, essentially, an outcome – based course, with the aim being explicit student awareness of and proficiency in the target genres. Thus, it allows teacher to focus on both form and meaning, as well as how meanings are made.
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