Group members:

1. Amelia (20421017)
2. Annisa Indri Hastuti (20421036)
3. Siti Himatul Aliah (20421032)
4. Ila Nur Kholis Fatihah (20421007)

THE PRACTICE OF GENRE-BASED PEDAGOGY IN INDONESIAN SCHOOLS: A CASE OF PRESERVICE

(resume)

Genre-based pedagogy, or genre-based approach, has increasingly gained popularity among teachers
who teach writing in English, particularly in EFL and ESL classrooms. Studies show the effectiveness of
genre pedagogies to teach writing in different countries.

In the case of Indonesia, where English is treated as a foreign language, genre-based pedagogyhas been
incorporated into the national curricula prevailing in the schools today (the 2006 schoolbased
curriculum and the 2013 curriculum) through the inclusion of different kinds of texts to be produced by
students in written and orally. Students are expected to develop their language skills (listening,
speaking, reading and writing) by ways of practicing the texts such as narrative, recount, procedure,
information report, and exposition texts. The fact that many Indonesian English teachers are not yet
knowledgeable with genre-based pedagogy and its implementation in the classroom has prompted the
need for investigating the teaching and practice of this pedagogy in the teacher education programs that
prepare professional school teachers.

Theoretical Framework
Genre-Based Pedagogy
Genre-based pedagogy refers to teaching learners how to use language patterns to produce coherent,
purposeful piece of writing (Hyland, 2003). This approach, Hyland explained, derives from the
theoretical work of Michael Halliday which is known as Systemic Functional Linguistics. Genre-based
pedagogy has been developed based on the theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) by M. A. K.
Halliday in 1978 and 1985. It emphasizes explicit teaching of grammar and text to develop students’
literacy outcomes(Knapp & Watkins, 2005). These two important foci, grammar and text, are
underpinned by the principle of functional model of language, that is the relationship between text and
context.
Teacher Education

Teacher education is very important because teaching. Teaching skills are not only acquired through
experience; instead, they must be taught or trained. Therefore, teacher education plays a key role in
creating effective teachers.

In the special case of language teacher education, particularly second/foreign language teacher training
and education, it is important to equip preservice teachers with the necessary knowledge and teaching
experience. In this regard it argues that: Traditionally there have been two strands within the field of
SLTE (Second Language Teacher Education) – one focused on classroom teaching of skills and pedagogic
issues, and the other focusb on what has been considered the academic basics of classroom skills,
namely knowledge of language. and learn languages. then At the university being studied, the
curriculum of the English teacher education program has made an attempt to compromise these two
strands, where equal emphasis is placed on teaching skills and concepts or theories of language and
language being studied. Students must take courses on theories and concepts of language and language
learning, and in the upper semesters, they will take courses with greater emphasis on teaching skills and
pedagogic issues.

Teaching skills are accommodated in peer teaching and teaching practicum courses. Teaching practice is
indeed very important to help students connect the theoretical knowledge they have gained from
previous courses and practical experience in real settings, it also serves an important role in students'
professional growth. studied, such as in 2006 and 2013 the national curriculum included the type of text
in the language being studied. Thus, teacher education programs in Indonesia are considered familiar
with genre-based pedagogy, including the teaching approach, as this approach has been incorporated
into the national curriculum for more than a decade. Thus, it is very important for preservice teachers to
understand and practice this approach.

Among other approaches, in their teaching practice the program may lack their practice, but the
moments of the teaching practicum program are expected to familiarize preservice teachers with the
school, curriculum, classroom, and students. Therefore, in our research, we wanted to investigate how
preservice teachers know and understand about genre-based pedagogy from previous courses and how
is this knowledge and understanding? applied to their teaching in real settings.

METHOD

This research adopts a qualitative approach with a case study method. The participants of this study
consisted of 6 (six) pre-service English teachers at state universities in Indonesia who took practical
courses at two public junior high schools in West Java Province, Indonesia.

Genre-based pedagogy is not taught in certain courses, participants have had some exposure to genre-
based pedagogy, such as those embedded in pedagogical courses, such as Lesson Planning and Teaching
Methodology. The participants carried out a four-month program teaching practicum under the
supervision of school teachers and teacher educators or partners. b In the first phase of the study, the
researchers distributed questionnaires to find out about the knowledge and understanding of pre-
service teachers about genre-based pedagogy. In the next stage, the researcher conducted observations
in the preservice teacher's class to find out whether they knew and understood about genre-based
pedagogy reflected in their teaching practice. The researcher also analyzed instructional documents,
namely lesson plans, to find out more about the implementation of genre-based pedagogy. An interview
was conducted at the end of the study to clarify preservice teachers' knowledge and understanding of
genre-based and practice-based pedagogy.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Preservice teachers’ knowledge and understanding about genre-based pedagogy

The questionnaires distributed to the participants in the beginning of the study show that in general the
preservice teachers’ knowledge of GBA varies. Some participants seem to understand partially and some
comprehensively.

PST 1 and PST 3, PST 2 believes that texts in genre-based pedagogy is the medium to develop students’
language skills, this participant shows some understanding that the teaching activities in genre-based
pedagogy can help students develop their linguistic knowledge and skills. PSTs 4, 5, and 6, have more
accurate definitions of genre-based pedagogy, in which all of them understand that one of the final
goals of genrebased pedagogy is to help students produce texts. To start with, PST 4 defines genre-
based pedagogy as “a text-based teaching method. The teaching method aims to make students master
and produce different kinds of texts both orally and in written. Examples of the texts are procedure,
descriptive, narrative, recount, report texts.” This participant clearly understands the end goal of genre-
based pedagogy and is even able to provide examples of the kinds of texts to be taught. Participant or
PST 5’s response to the question on genre-based pedagogy definition is as follow: “An approach that is
used especially to improve students’ writing. This approach includes the communicative competence
and language structure.” This participant does not only understand the final goal of genre-based
pedagogy, but also the fact that genre-based pedagogy is concerned with communicative competence
and language structure. This definition is in line with the one put forward by Hyland (2003), in which he
claims that genre-based pedagogy aims to teach learners how to use language patterns to produce
coherent, purposeful piece of writing. This approach, Hyland explains, is derived from the theoretical
work of Michael Halliday, known as Systemic Functional Linguistics.

In each teaching and learning session, this approach prioritizes the structure of a text, both spoken and
written, and puts forward the text’s content.
The participant believes that using genre-based pedagogy, students’ knowledge of language structure
will be activated. They will know which language or grammatical features to use for certain text types, as
each text requires different language features.

Preservice teachers' of genre-based pedagogy

All participants present their knowledge and understanding of genre-based pedagogy, not all
participants practice the approach in their classrooms.

Three (PSTs 1, 2 and 3) practiced the approach in 6-8 meetings of teaching different types of texts and
one (PST 4) practiced it once to teach reading narrative texts.

PST 4 taught narrative text through the activities of reading a narrative text, explaining the structure of
narrative text, answering the questions based on the text, and arranging jumbled paragraphs of another
narrative text.

Their focus of teaching was to ask their students to write the texts, in group or individually.

Identifying their practices of genre-based pedagogy using the teaching and learning cycles, it was found
that not all stages were implemented in the classroom.

What interesting is that the students inserted illustration for their recounts. In the next meeting, the
students went out of the room and observed their school environment. They had opportunities for
vocabulary exploration as resources to their writing because they could look up their dictionary for
English words. After that, their writings would be based on their observation.

The tenet of genre-based pedagogy, on the other hand, is to present text and context in writing a text or
a genre (Derewianka, 2003).

Context is built through the stages of the teaching and learning cycles.

The stages of modelling and deconstruction of the text mainly focus on reading narrative and recount
texts and grammar that is to be used in the process of writing the texts.

As the product of their teachings, the participants who applied genre-based pedagogy want to the stage
of independent construction.

The findings clearly show that there is a gap between what the preservice teachers know and
understand about genre-based pedagogy and how they apply their knowledge and understanding in the
classroom. Similar gap was found, though not in the context of teaching writing through genre-based
pedagogy in Hudson, Nguyen, and Hudson’s study (2008). Their study revealed that more specifically
highlighted the gap between students’ knowledge and classroom practices in terms of writing genres,
writing topics, and student’s motivation. To find the causes of this gap, an interview was conducted to
the participants after the teaching practicum program was completed. The participants clarify their
practice of genre-based pedagogy. The explanations are as follows:
· The first reasong is the load of the materials to be covered or learning targets to meet in the teaching
practicum program.

· The second reason is actually much related to the previous one, namely time allocation. The
participants perceived that the time allocated for each topis was not sufficient.

· The third reason is a lack of practice due to the fact that it was their first time applying genre-based
pedagogy in real settings.

· The fourth reason is the less-than optimal supervision of both the visiting lecturer and supervising
teacher, a problem found in other similar studies on EFL preservice teachers (Merc, 2008l Noel, 2007).

The four aforementioned problems encountered by the preservice teachers participating in this research
seem to be commonplace. Although not in the same context of practicing genre-based pedagogy in the
teaching of writing in EFL classrooms, similar problems were discovered by Merç (2008) who found that
preservice teachers mostly have problems with themselves, the students, teaching, supervision, and
Noel (2007) who addedthe school, learning, and preparation to the problems.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This study has shown that the genre-based pedagogy is potential to be further developed in teacher
education. However, some problems need attention such as preservice teachers’ perceived difficulties in
managing the teaching and learning practice using genre based pedagogy in terms of time allocation and
learning targets, and the less-than optimal supervision from the supervising teachers and visiting
lecturer.

To address the above problems, here are some recommendations to be taken into consideration.
Preservice teachers need more practice in genrebased pedagogy. With more practice, the preservice
teachers will be able to adjust the genre-based pedagogy to the time allocation and targets set in the
curriculum. They will be able to design classroom teaching and learning with genre-based pedagogy that
is especially suited to the situations they encounter. This way, the preservice teachers will no longer see
time allocation and learning targets as constraints; rather, these are the challenges they need to address
in their teaching. There is also the need for a strong collaboration among preservice teachers, visiting
lecturer, supervising teacher, and students because as Haigh, Pinder, & McDonald (2006) suggested,
“The most frequently mentioned enabler was the development of professional relationships, whether
they be between the associate and student teacher, the visiting lecturer and student teacher and the
children and the student teacher” (p. 17).
Meanwhile, with the limited studies on the practice of the genre-based pedagogy by preservice EFL
teachers, further studies will be needed to find solutions to the gap between preservice teachers’
knowledge and classroom practices.