Developing advanced formal language abilities along a genre-based continuum

Abstract

Advanced grammar instruction in collegiate foreign language (FL) departments typically consists of a review of the grammatical canon, often relying on an advanced grammar textbook that both reviews and expands the traditional paradigms studied in lower-level instruction. Holding firm to the belief that reviewing these paradigms yet again will finally result in the mastery long considered necessary for upper-level study, this approach nevertheless fails to take into account the (con)textual nature of language use that permeates all levels of language use and that inherently requires an inextricable link between grammar and meaning, and between function and form.This chapter addresses this lack of textuality in upper-level grammar instruction by exploring how formal language development at the advanced level in one departmental context is treated from a genre-based perspective, in that the language features inherent to particular genres considered appropriate for advanced language instruction provide the basis for developing students’ formal accuracy. Specifically, this approach adheres to the belief that the development of advanced language abilities proceeds along a continuum that moves from the narrative, verbal-oriented language use emphasized at the lower levels to more argumentative, nominal dominated forms of expression.As a result, this narrative–argumentative continuum serves as the basis for selecting and sequencing genres across the curriculum.The chapter focuses on one upper-level course that was recently redesigned with this continuum in mind and that used the genres selected for the course as blueprints for the students to follow to develop more linguistically advanced forms of expression.