4) Personal Statement

A genre-based approach to language learning is most relevant in the New South Wales secondary school mainstream English class. This approach is inherent in the text based nature of the syllabus, and the heavy focus on literary analysis that is required of all students, especially in Stage 6 (Board of Studies, 2007). The NAPLAN examinations (see http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/the-tests.html), are the product of a surge of political interest putting pressure on teachers and students to revisit more traditional forms of grammar instruction (Thwaite, 2015, p. 2). They still reveal, however, a functional approach, by requiring students to write an extended piece in a specific text type for a specific purpose. EAL/D students are not exempt from this.

A challenge with writing a literature review on this topic is the consistent overlapping between the concept of genre in literary studies and the concept of genre in linguistics (Swales, 1990, p.36); which occurs as a daily reality when teaching EAL/D students in mainstream class rooms. An area for future focus is a renewed concentration on the issues of power inherent in the text choices that I and the syllabus prescriptions make for students, in order to challenge and destabilise those imbalances. “By all means, then, let us empower the children in our schools, and let us always start with a principled focus on the fundamental resource they use to live and to learn: their language” (Christie, 2013, P. 20).