Style and genre in the English language syllabus

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Style and genre in the English language syllabus

• Hilde Hasselgård

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Abstract of talk

• The new English syllabus has an increased
  emphasis on the learners ability to distinguish
  between formal and informal language use and to
  adapt their own usage and their texts to
  different genres and media. Through text examples
  I will illustrate some linguistic features of
  formal and informal English and personal and
  impersonal style and relate these to genre.

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From the general Objectives of the subject

• To succeed in a world where English is used for
  international interpersonal communication, it is
  necessary to master the English language. Thus we
  need to develop our vocabulary and our skills in
  using the systems of the English language its
  phonology, grammar and text structuring. We need
  these skills to listen, speak, read and write,
  and to adapt our language to an ever increasing
  number of topics, areas of interest and
  communication situations. We must be able to
  distinguish between spoken and written styles and
  informal and formal styles. Moreover, when using
  the language in communication, we must also be
  able to take cultural norms and conventions into
  consideration.

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Communication I

• The main area of communication focuses on using
  the English language to communicate.
  Communication is achieved through listening,
  reading, writing, prepared oral production and
  spontaneous oral interaction, including the use
  of appropriate communication strategies. It also
  includes participation in various social arenas,
  where it is important to train to master an
  increasing number of genres and forms of
  expression. Good communication requires knowledge
  and skills in using vocabulary and idiomatic
  structures, pronunciation, intonation, spelling,
  grammar and syntax of sentences and texts.

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Communication II

• New media and the development of a linguistic
  repertoire across subjects and topics are an
  important part of this main area. Knowing how to
  be polite and taking social conventions into
  consideration in any number of linguistic
  situations are also important skills to master.
  This goes hand in hand with adapting the language
  to the recipient and the situation, including
  distinguishing between formal and informal,
  written and spoken registers.

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Programfag

• VG1, Internasjonal engelsk bevissthet om
  språklige virkemidler i ulike sjangrer.
  Tilpassing av språkbruk i ulike sosiale,
  kulturelle og faglige situasjoner står sentralt i
  hovedområdet.
• VG2, Samfunnsfaglig engelsk bruk av språklige
  virkemidler i ulike typer tekster. Tilpassing
  av språkbruk til ulike sosiale, kulturelle og
  samfunnsfaglige sammenhenger inngår i
  hovedområdet.
• VG2, Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur bruk
  av språklige virkemidler og stilistiske trekk i
  litterære tekster. Tilpassing av språkbruk til
  ulike sosiale og faglige situasjoner knyttet til
  litteratur og kultur står sentralt i
  hovedområdet.

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Some findings from learner language research

• Advanced Scandinavian learners of English tend to
• Write in a relatively informal style,
  irrespective of genre
• Use of contracted forms
• Informal sentence connectors (and, but, so, then)
• Use of approximators (and so on, kind of)
• Underuse of non-finite clauses
• Incomplete sentences

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they also tend to

• Write in an involved, interactive style
• First and second person pronouns
• Questions and imperatives
• Explicit expression of personal opinions
  (subjective stance) I think, I guess, I feel
• Conversational discourse markers well, you
  know
• Mix styles i.e. show a lack of style / genre
  awareness

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Some conversational features in Norwegian
learner writing
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The use of subjective stance markers of the type
I think (per 10,000 words)
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A text example from NICLE

• Essay question
• Some people say that in our modern world,
  dominated by science, technology and
  industrialisation, there is no longer a place for
  dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
• Extract from the end of an essay on handout.

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Informal features

• Things have changed. Having the girl, or boy,
  and a job isn't enough anymore. We want more now,
  don't we? Instead of 'going steady' with the love
  of our lives, we like to stay single and free
  agents, don't we? Then we'll have more time to
  spend on ourselves and we don't have to worry
  about the other person, children etc. Instead of
  faithfully working at the same place for year
  after year it's better to change jobs biennially,
  isn't it? Because if you stay in the same place
  for a long time you'll lower your chances for
  self-realization, right?
• I'm not meaning to be reactionary about
  anything. Actually, you know, I'm not a
  reactionary kind of a (modern) man. But I
  honestly think that we tend to accept this 'life
  in the fast lane' kind of development without
  giving it any greater reflection.

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Interactive features

• Things have changed. Having the girl, or boy,
  and a job isn't enough anymore. We want more now,
  don't we? Instead of 'going steady' with the love
  of our lives, we like to stay single and free
  agents, don't we? Then we'll have more time to
  spend on ourselves and we don't have to worry
  about the other person, children etc. Instead of
  faithfully working at the same place for year
  after year it's better to change jobs biennially,
  isn't it? Because if you stay in the same place
  for a long time you'll lower your chances for
  self-realization, right?
• I'm not meaning to be reactionary about
  anything. Actually, you know, I'm not a
  reactionary kind of a (modern) man. But I
  honestly think that we tend to accept this 'life
  in the fast lane' kind of development without
  giving it any greater reflection.

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Mixing of styles

• Formal features
• Use of non-finite participle clauses
• Noun phrases with generic reference the average
  modern man
• Nominalization self-realization, development,
  reflection, impersonality, industrialization,
  commercialization
• Some formal vocabulary biennially (bianually),
  self-realization, reactionary, reflection,
  opening remarks

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A model for register analysis Hallidays
concepts of field, tenor and mode

• Field refers to the field of discourse, what
  kind of social action is actually happening, what
  the participants are engaged in.
• Tenor refers to the tenor of the discourse, who
  the participants are, the roles they are adopting
  at any point, what their social relationships are
  to each other.
• Mode refers to the mode of discourse, the kind
  of role the language is playing, its function in
  the particular context, the channel used (spoken
  or written or some combination of the two) and
  also the rhetorical mode what is being
  achieved by the text in terms of such categories
  as persuasive, expository, didactic and the
  like.

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A simplified model Questions to ask before
preparing a text

• What is the text going to be about?
• Who are we speaking/writing to?
• How well do we know them?
• How old are they?
• Do they have the same social/professional status
  as ourselves?
• Are they familiar with the topic?
• Is the discourse private or public?
• What is the purpose of the text? (Do we want to
  make social contact, argue a case, sell
  something, apologize, describe something, tell a
  story, issue a warning or something else?)
• Does the text need to fit into a particular
  format?

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What is genre (register)?

• Genres different configurations of field, tenor
  and mode (Halliday)
• Registers are varieties of language that are
  associated with different circumstances and
  purposes (Biber et al)
• Some variables spoken/written, interactiveness
  and real-time production, shared situation, main
  communicative purpose, audience)
• The context of language use, the purpose of the
  speaker or writer, the subject matter of what is
  being said or written these are some of the
  other factors which influence the form language
  takes. (Chafe Danielewicz 1987 84)
• (The term genre is often used about outward
  criteria, and register for linguistic
  characteristics)

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Chafe Danielewicz 1987 A study of four
different genres of English conversations,
lectures, letters, academic papers

• Some main findings re. vocabulary
• Speakers tend to operate with a narrower range of
  lexical choices than writers.
• Speakers also tend to use more approximators,
  such as sort of, kind of, like instead of
  looking for a more precise word. (lectures and
  conversations did not differ much from each
  other, but both differed from writing.)
• Writing is typically more explicit than speech
  full noun phrases rather than pronouns
• Speakers and writers do not choose from the same
  supply of vocabulary (i.e. colloquial vocabulary
  tends not to be chosen by writers, while literary
  vocabulary tends not to be chosen in spontaneous
  speech)

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Some findings re. grammar and syntax

• Written clauses tend to be longer than spoken
  clauses
• Information density is higher in writing than in
  speech
• Prepositional phrases as noun modifiers,
  nominalizations and attributive adjectives are
  more frequent in writing.
• lectures and letters are rather similar as
  regards the frequency of these features, while
  conversation has very little and academic papers
  very much of them.
• Conjoined phrases are more frequent in writing
  (she tried to help the children focus and
  structure their discourse)
• Participles (as adjectives or as verb in
  non-finite clauses) are more frequent in writing.

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More findings re. grammar and syntax

• Co-ordination (of main clauses) is more frequent
  in speech (particularly conversation)
• Subordination (complex sentences) is more
  frequent in writing.
• Features of involvement and interaction belong to
  spoken particularly dialogic genres (e.g.
  responses and you know, use of first and second
  person pronouns).
• Abstract subjects and passive constructions were
  more frequent in the two academic genres, less
  frequent in letters and conversation (formality
  level independent of the speech/writing dimension)

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Conversation about cooking

• Ann It's lovely Joyce it's really nice
• Joyce Mm
• Ann do it with mince meat and it's cheap and erm,
  but my, erm lt..gt chopped onions, I can't, I'm
  allergic to mushrooms, it's nice with mushrooms
  in, if you like mushrooms
• Joyce Oh yeah
• Ann erm chop my oni-- onio-- onions er onions up
  and erm, what do they call it? ltpausegt It's sort
  of like cucumber
• Joyce lt--gt Oh er lt--gt
• Ann lt--gt green stuff lt--gt not ltunclear gt
• Alec courgettes
• Ann Yeah, courgettes lt--gt do a little brown
  frying lt--gt
• Joyce lt--gt Yeah, yeah lt--gt yeah
• Ann and then cut some bacon up, put that in
  saucepan just let it brown a bit

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Informal / interactive features

• Dialogue turn-taking ? response markers (mm,
  yeah)
• Repetition (of own and others words), pauses,
  incomplete structures
• Approximators (sort of like), metatextual
  comments (what do they call it), vague
  expressions (green stuff)
• Short (main) clauses, co-ordination
• Active voice

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Academic text about cooking

• No doubt this perception of cooking's creative
  potential is also influenced by advertising and
  by the attention devoted to cooking in women's
  magazines and similar literature. The object of
  the exercise as presented in such channels of
  communication is not how to get the most
  nutritious meals prepared in the shortest
  possible time but rather how to go beyond the
  usual range of meals with time-consuming
  inventiveness and culinary skill. The aim is not
  simple efficiency. Instead it is an elaboration
  of the task, designed to subtract it from the
  category of "work" and add it to the creative
  pleasure dimension. This treatment of cooking,
  reflected in the comments of these housewives, is
  a particularly clear demonstration of how the
  social denial of housework as work operates.

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Formal features

• Examples of formal vocabulary perception,
  creative potential, similar, nutritious,
  inventiveness, culinary, elaboration, social
  denial.
• Formal grammar non-finite clauses (devoted to ,
  as presented in , designed to subtract ,
  reflected in ) long and complex noun phrases
  (cookings creative potential, a particularly
  clear demonstration of how the social denial of
  housework as work operates ) no contracted
  forms nouns that are formed from verbs or
  adjectives (perception, inventiveness,
  efficiency, elaboration, treatment,
  demonstration, denial), conjoined phrases (e.g.
  time-consuming inventiveness and culinary skill).
  
• No signs of interaction with addressee.

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Notes about style and register

• Since Norwegian learners normally master informal
  registers of English better than formal ones,
  they should be aware that a more formal style is
  often required, e.g. in academic essays, reports,
  and texts that are intended for publication.
• Correct spelling and grammar are important in
  more formal registers.
• A varied and precise vocabulary is (even) more
  important in formal (written) English than in
  informal (spoken) English.
• Formal written English has few interactive
  features.
• Some registers of spoken English are formal. When
  speaking formally, e.g. in formal presentations,
  public speeches / debates or job interviews, one
  should avoid slang and swearwords and excessive
  use of other informal phrases, such as you know,
  I mean and you see.

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Examples of exercises to train style and genre
awareness

• Go through a text that is typical of a genre and
  identify some stylistic features (e.g. look at
  pronoun use, use of passive, use of non-finite
  clauses, use of questions, literary/informal
  vocabulary). Use those features to write parallel
  texts (pastiches)
• Rewrite a text in different style.
• Let pupils/groups write texts in different genres
  on the same topic. (Example picture of a
  dramatic event, e.g. car crash write short
  newspaper notice, postcard, insurance claim,
  eyewitness report, story to tell in pub,
  propaganda for road safety)

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Last but not least

• It is impossible to teach all individual genres
• It should be possible to master a number of
  genres by being aware of features of informal and
  formal language use and coupling them with the
  purpose of and the audience for the text.
• THE END

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Some books/articles that include notes on style
and genre/register

• Biber, Douglas, Susan Conrad, Geoffrey Leech.
  2002. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and
  Written English. London Longman.
• Magne Dypedahl, Hilde Hasselgård and Berit Løken.
  2006. Introducing English Grammar. Bergen
  Fagbokforlaget.
• Hillier, Hilary. 2004. Analysing Real Texts
  Research Studies in Modern English Language.
  Basingstoke Palgrave.
• Chafe, Wallace, Jane Danielewicz. 1987.
  Properties of spoken and written language. In
  Horowitz, R. and S.J. Samuels, Comprehending Oral
  and Written Language. San Diego Academic Press,
  83113.
• Hasselgård, Hilde. Thematic choice and
  expressions of stance in English argumentative
  texts by Norwegian learners. To appear in K.
  Aijmer, Corpora and Language Teaching (Amsterdam
  Benjamins)