Situated, Social, Active

Abstract

The author explores new conceptions of genre and genre learning: learning genres, learning through genres, and learning about genres. Drawing on the work of Bahktin, she argues that reconceptualizing genres as situated, social, and active, rather than focusing on formal features, can extend and enrich process approaches to writing and enhance learning in the elementary classroom.

Relations Between Pragmatic Language and Literacy-Related Skills in Omani Elementary Students

“…Understanding this authorial stance allows the reader to view the information with the weight the author likely intended and as a result adjust prior knowledge activation, inferencing, comprehension monitoring, reading speed, and similar strategies. Effective discourse regulation, another aspect of pragmatics, is requisite to effectively use genre structure and subject knowledge for meaningful communication of ideas in writing or interpretation of ideas through reading (e.g., Chapman, 1999). Similarly, the use of figurative language is seen to be crucial for success in reading and writing because roughly two thirds of English is nonliteral (Arnold & Hornett, 1990) and almost one in 10 reading texts used in elementary classrooms contains idiomatic expressions (Lazar et al, 1989).…”