Five Characteristics of Effective, Genre-Based Writing Tasks

Kristin Rock, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA

In the formative period of task-based language teaching (TBLT), Swales (2009) identified a connection among tasks, the development of genre knowledge, and the relevance of genre knowledge to successful participation in a particular discourse community. Byrnes (2014) also suggested a productive association among genre, meaning making, and task-inspired writing, highlighting the language learning potential of socially informed writing tasks. Synthesizing the work of these scholars, I would propose that researchers and practitioners view writing tasks as a means through which second language learners can participate in genre-based discourse communities, thereby providing contextualized opportunities for linguistic development. In other words, through the combination of genre-based approaches to teaching writing and task-based approaches to teaching language, teachers may find a powerful means of promoting second language writing development. With the intent of identifying practical recommendations grounded in this understanding, the current article outlines five features of effective, genre-based writing tasks. These features stipulate that second language writing tasks should be explicit, genuine, recurrent, social, and varied.

Explicit. Language teachers understand the need for accompanying language tasks with appropriate support. A task without instructions is likely insufficient for garnering meaningful learner-learner interaction. For example, simply providing a pair of learners with a series of pictures and asking them to write a story may not be enough to encourage the development of students’ productive language skills. Research spanning multiple fields has contributed to practitioners’ awareness of the role of communicating clearly defined objectives and instructions in promoting on-task behavior. Furthermore, the examination of model texts (Hyland, 2004) and the provision of assessment criteria could help learners succeed on individual writing assignments (Crusan, 2010). In fact, one of the primary advantages of combining task-based approaches and genre-based approaches to teaching writing rests in applying the explicitness of genre-based pedagogies to the creation and execution of true tasks. Essentially, genre-based teaching aims to make explicit for learners the language patterns and structures that render a text recognizable as pertaining to a particular genre (Hyland, 2004). Thus, by presenting explicit goals for a given writing task and clarifying the steps by which learners can reach those targets, teachers can maximize learner involvement in working toward desired pedagogic aims. In sum, effective writing tasks ought to include the provision of clear instructions, the examination of model texts, and the communication of explicit descriptions of the genre under focus.

Genuine. Seeing as a central concern for many TBLT researchers lies in the relatability of pedagogic tasks to situations in which learners may use the target language outside of class, references to the ‘real-world’ and ‘authenticity’ abound. However, discussions concerning the breadth of tasks to which the ‘authentic’ label applies are often fraught with discord. Researchers and practitioners have many reasons for engaging in such discussions, not least of which is the search for a clear definition to guide the selection of appropriate writing tasks. In the midst of an ambiguous understanding of ‘authentic,’ doubts may arise concerning the nature of the criteria that ought to factor into pedagogical decision-making. Given the theoretical subtext surrounding the term ‘authentic,’ the synonym, genuine, might be a more appropriate adjective, whose conceptualization would be best informed by local needs analyses. Thus, a genuine writing task would be context-sensitive and relevant to the genre-based developmental needs of the target population.

Recurrent. To promote the development of second language students’ academic writing, genre-based writing tasks need to be repeated. The repetition of tasks has been thought to prime students for language learning, seeing as the attentional resources necessary to manage the task’s goals and procedures on the first occasion could be redirected toward engaging additional cognitive processes during subsequent iterations (Ziegler, 2016). Hedgcock and Ferris (2009) maintained that engaging in regular, even daily decision-making processes “about what to write (ideas), in what order to present those ideas (rhetoric), and what linguistic or extralinguistic tools to utilize” is likely to play a beneficial role in learners’ linguistic development (p. 215). Pedagogically speaking, recurring tasks are needed to assist learners in gaining mastery over various academic genres. Furthermore, repetitions of genre-based writing tasks are a useful vehicle for observing longitudinal growth in second language writing ability. As Crusan (2010) aptly noted, the writing tasks teachers design should allow for the comparison of early writing samples to writing samples within the same genre produced later in the term. Increasing the field’s understanding of the ways in which learners’ written texts change over time should be of primary interest to applied linguists, and recurring genre-based writing tasks could serve as a mechanism for strengthening that knowledge, and in turn, for informing future educational action.

Social.In spite of the predilection for oral tasks in TBLT research, the written word is still an important means by which people interact both within and across cultures. Writing is a means of communication for various social networking tools, including Twitter and WhatsApp, as well as an effective tool for exchanging ideas in academic and professional contexts. Hyland (2016) noted that writing is rarely an isolated activity, but rather an inherently dialogic action undergone with a potential or specific reader in mind. Sociality serves as a common thread linking diverse definitions of genre, and one aim of genre-based approaches to teaching L2 writing is to highlight the ways in which writers make linguistic choices based on an awareness of their intended audience. Since part of a writer’s work is to balance audience knowledge and expectations alongside a particular message (Hyland, 2004), an effective writing task should reference a specific readership, thereby connecting the activity and the student’s text to a wider discourse community. Weigle (2002) maintained that a distinguishing feature of expert writer texts as opposed to novice writers’ written work is the capacity “to anticipate the audience and shape a message appropriately in the absence of a conversation partner” (p. 18). Thus, writing instructors can help students to consider various reader perspectives, and in turn, to become more skillful writers, by specifying a real or imagined recipient for each new writing task (Crusan, 2010; Hyland, 2004). Writing, on its own, is an intense linguistic activity that acquires social meaning when connected to genre-based approaches to teaching second language writing.

Varied. Scholars have suggested that encounters with diverse genres are important for exposing students to a variety of discourse structures and for advancing their knowledge of different genre conventions. According to Byrnes and Manchón (2014), “writing tasks should be made to encompass the spectrum from informal, short, simple writing tasks to more advanced, cognitively challenging tasks” (p. 8). In spite of these well-founded recommendations, the five-paragraph essay continues to dominate L2 writing classrooms. A few years ago, Leki (2011) distributed a survey to gauge the genre knowledge of 84 international graduate and undergraduate students enrolled at an American university. Whereas almost all of the participants (94%) indicated familiarity with writing emails in English, for the undergraduates, the genres of much of their required coursework were unfamiliar. In addition, Leki reported that “the students seemed to equate essay writing with academic writing in English generally” (p. 95), a finding that should encourage teachers and program developers to consider exposing learners to multiple written genres. Although most of the students in Leki’s study were open to tackling new writing tasks, if learners were introduced to a variety of genres in preparation for college writing, Leki’s findings would not necessarily be echoed in future investigations of university students’ genre knowledge. Without ignoring the function of the five-paragraph essay, an effective curricular sequence could still incorporate writing tasks that engaged learners in composing within different genres.

Importantly, the researchers identified in this article have contributed to the advancement of TBLT and L2 writing, and it is my hope that this consideration of scholarly-based recommendations for the design of writing tasks will continue to inform second language educational praxis and task-based research. Irrespective of the method chosen to analyze L2 written products, the role of the task itself, including its ability to engender a participant’s best performance, should not be underestimated.

References

Byrnes, H. (2014). Theorizing language development at the intersection of ‘task’ and L2 writing: Reconsidering complexity. In H. Byrnes, & R. M. Manchón (Eds.), Task-based language learning—Insights from and for L2 writing (pp. 79–103). John Benjamins.

Byrnes, H., & Manchón, R. M. (2014). Task-based language learning: Insights from and for L2 writing: An Introduction. In H. Byrnes & R. M. Manchón (Eds.), Task-based language learning—Insights from and for L2 writing (pp. 1–23). John Benjamins.

Crusan, D. (2010). Assessment in the second language writing classroom. University of Michigan Press.

Hedgcock, J. S., & Ferris, D. R. (2009). Teaching readers of English: Students, texts, and contexts. Routledge.

Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language writing. University of Michigan Press.

Hyland, K. (2016). Teaching and researching writing. Taylor & Francis.

Leki, I. (2011). Learning to write in a second language: Multilingual graduates and undergraduates expanding genre repertories. In R. M. Manchón (Ed.), Learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language (pp. 85–109). John Benjamins.

Swales, J. M. (2009). The concept of task. In K. Van den Branden, M. Bygate, & J. Norris (Eds.), Task-based language teaching: A reader (pp. 41–55). John Benjamins.

Weigle, S. C. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge University.

Ziegler, N. (2016). Taking technology to task: Technology-mediated TBLT, performance, and production. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 136–163. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190516000039

As an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University, Dr. Kristin Rock studies the ways in which explicit instruction and clearly communicated rubrics can help learners to succeed in acquiring additional languages. In addition to a Ph.D. in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Rock holds a master’s degree in TESOL from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a master’s degree in Spanish from Middlebury College. She also maintains a professional teaching license with the State of Colorado in elementary education, K-12 Spanish, and linguistically diverse education.