THE HONG KONG INSITUTE OF EDUCATION

Course Outline
Part I
Programme Title
Course Title
Course code
Department
Credit Points

: Professional Development Programme for Primary

Teachers of English (5 weeks)
: Teaching of Writing through Process-Genre Approach
: ENG5378
: English
:3

Contact Hours
: 39
Pre-requisite(s)
: Nil
Medium of Instruction: English
Level
: Postgraduate
_____________________________________________________________________
Part II
1. Synopsis:
This course provides participants an opportunity to reflect on their practice in teaching writing
to ESL learners. Participants will gain deeper understanding in the strengths and weaknesses
of process and genre approaches to writing in terms of their view of writing and how they see
the development of writing. Shifting from the emphasis on writing for taking tests, which
becomes decontextualized and artificial, participants will be guided to explore different stages
of a writing lesson and possible activities to facilitate learning in a process writing approach.
By combining the process and genre approaches, participants can help their students to study
the relationship between purpose and form for a particular genre when they use the recursive
processes of prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing. This synthesis aims at developing
students awareness of different text types and of the composing process.
2. Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
CILO1
demonstrate competencies of developing school-based teaching plans,
materials and assessment criteria for classroom learning;
(PILO 3 & 4)
CILO2
identify the major aspects of planning writing lessons using a process-genre
approach for Hong Kong primary schools pupils of diverse needs; (PILO 2 & 4)

3. Course Intended Language Learning Outcomes (CILLOs)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
CILLO1
write learning objectives for unit and lesson plans in accurate
and appropriate language. (PILO 2)
CILLO2
analyze and articulate the structures and functions of the English language
system (PILO 1)
4. Content, CILOs and Teaching & Learning Activities
Course Content

CILOs/
CILLOs

Understanding process-genre approach in writing

CILLO2

What is process-genre approach to writing

Benefits of using process-genre approach to writing -developing students writing skills, English language
proficiency and higher order thinking skills; and
heightening students genre awareness (e.g. concerns
for audience, text knowledge)

Teaching of process writing procedures from

brainstorming to publishing with a focus on redrafting
and text improvement (essence of process approach)
Curriculum planning using a process-genre approach
CILO1, 2
Considerations for teaching, learning and assessing writing
in a process-genre approach
CILLO1
Genre-based pedagogy (Ken Hylands work).
Teaching of schematic structure (top-down features) and
its lexico-grammatical features of each genre in terms of
field (subject matter), mode (medium), and tenor
(relationship between reader and writer) (bottom-up
features)

Suggested Teaching &

Learning Activities
Lectures
Workshops

aligning teaching and assessment of writing by way of

CILLO1
school-based writing curriculum

Catering for learner differences in designing writing

tasks

Using alternative assessment perspective to evaluate

student writing ability e.g., writing portfolios or other
performance assessment. Use portfolios as a tool to
integrate teaching, learning and assessment.

Giving feedback to students writing under the

process-genre approach selective marking,
comment-only marking, etc.

Construction of different rubrics, analytical scoring

guide, holistic scoring guide and primary traits

Design writing tasks

based on
process-genre
approach for
primary pupils
Stages of a writing
lesson
Aligning writing tasks
with learning
objectives
Resourcing and
materials
development
Lectures
Workshops
Strategies in
teaching, learning
and assessment
materials for writing
tasks
Developing
assessment criteria

5. Assessment
Assessment Tasks

Weighting (%)

CILOs/CILLOs

a. Work in groups of 2-3 and micro-teach a writing lesson by

using the process-genre approach.

30

CILO1, 2
CILLO1,2

b. Develop a writing package based on process-genre

approach to writing for a selected age group. Your writing
package should include (1) learning and teaching
materials, (2) assessment rubrics and (3) lesson plans.

70

CILO1, 2
CILLO1,2

6. Required Text(s)
Nil
Recommended Readings
Badger, R. G., and G. White. 2000. A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal
54 (2): 15360.
Brumfit, C., Moon, J. & Tongue, R. (Eds.) (1991). Teaching English to children: From practice to
principle. London: Collins ELT.
Brown, H. D. 1994. Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Derewianka, B. (1996). Exploring the writing of genres. Herts, England: United Kingdom
Reading Association.
Cope, B., and M. Kalantzis, eds. 1993. The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching
writing. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Fountas, Irene C. 2001. Guiding readers and writers, grades 3-6 : teaching comprehension,
genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann Goodman, K. 1986. Whats whole in
whole language? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language writing. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of
Michigan Press.
Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of
Second Language Writing, 16, 148 164.
Leki, I. 1991. Twenty-five years of contrastive rhetoric: Text analysis and writing pedagogies.
TESOL Quarterly 25 (1): 12343.
Nell K. D. et al. 2012. Reading and writing genre with purpose in K-8 classrooms. Portsmouth,
NH : Heinemann
Nunan, D. 1999. Second language teaching and learning. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.
Peregoy, S.F., & Boyle, O.F. (2001). Reading, writing and learning in ESL: A resource book for
K-12 teachers (3rd ed.). New York: Longman.
Raimes, A. 1983. Anguish as a second language? Remedies for composition teachers. In
Learning to write: First language/second language, ed. A. Freedman,

Riley, Jeni. 2000. Developing writing for different purposes : teaching about genre in the early
years
Rog, Lori Jamison. 2004. The write genre: classroom activities and mini-lessons that promote
writing with clarity, style and flashes of brilliance
I. Pringle, and J. Yalden, 25872. New York: Longman.
Tribble, C. 1996. Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yau, M. 1991. The role of language factors in second language writing. In Language, culture
and cognition: A collection of studies in first and second language acquisition, ed. L. Malave
and G. Duquette, 26683. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Zheng, Y. 1999. Providing the students with effective feedback in the writing process. Teaching
English in China (36) 4145.
7. Related Web Resources
http://www.scholastic.com/instructor
The site of Instructor magazine, a professional magazine for teachers in primary schools,
and contains some good articles by leading educators on reading, writing and spelling.
http://www.teem.org.uk
TEEM stands for Teachers Evaluating Educational Materials. A very useful site that
includes teachers evaluations of IT Literacy resources, case studies and publishers
information.
http://readingonline.org
This is the site of the International Reading Association.
http://www.telenex.hku.hk
Contains a domain called Primeteach for teachers of English in primary schools in Hong
Kong.
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
The Childrens Literature Web Guide. Links to many useful sites with teaching ideas.
http://www.sutton.lincs.sch.uk
This exemplary primary school website in the UK recently won an award from Microsoft
for its innovative and creative website. The Learning Zone, and the section about Story
Starts, reflects process writing in action. Many interesting samples of childrens work.
http://www.sunshine.co.nz

8. Related Journals
Instructor
Language Arts
Reading
The Reading Teacher
Instructor
Language Arts
Reading
English Language Forum
ELT Journal
Journal of Second Language Writing
9. Other
video
CITIE, Hong Kong Institute of Education. 2004. Implementing process writing in the primary
school.