Producing didactic sequences for EFL teaching

by Vera Lúcia Lopes Cristovão

#6, June, 1999.

I am going to start by quoting Celani (1995), talking about the general

objective of L2 teaching and the importance of teacher
education/development. As to the first objective, she defends and
argues for the learning of L2 as "part of the general education of an
individual person, as well as for active and efficient contributors in
scientific, technological and international production and
development". As to the second issue, she presents the current
conditions of teachers and students, who are uninterested and lost
with materials which are ready-made packages used in whichever
context there is for all types of students. The author, then, uses the
opportunity to state the lack of critical reflection from teachers and
students to make them question whatever comes into their hands,
many times in inadequate formats or simply inappropriate for their
teaching/learning context.

With the same concern in mind, Nunan, D & Lamb, C (1996) talk about the importance of managing
resources, such as commercial textbooks, with care and criticism. These authors confirm the
usefulness of such materials, but remind us that no textbook is going to be a perfect match for your
students, so an adequate selection, evaluation and an efficient adaptation is necessary "to ensure that
they are used to support rather than dominate the teaching/learning process".

For an evaluation of didactic materials, some authors offer checklists. Some to be mentioned are
Bohn’s, Alderson & Beretta’s and Hedge’s.

According to Nunan & Lamb, with the information of such evaluation or analysis in hands, "the self-
directed teacher will be able to balance the needs of the student with the diet offered by the textbook."
By doing it, we could achieve more success. On the other hand, by accepting what we get, we may
be tracking down failure.

The objective of this article is to share with you some ideas on the use of Genre as a tool for the
teaching/learning of a foreign language, applied in didactic materials in the form of didactic
sequences.
The basis for this concept is on the socio-discoursive interactionism. Some of its main concepts are:

Theoretical Basis: socio-discoursive interactionism

Objective: present the notion of text genre as a tool for the teaching/learning of a foreign language,
and the basis for the production of didactic materials.

Definition of Genre: relatively stable forms of enunciations, socio-historically constituted. They

are tools which allow us to act verbally in a certain communicative situation and social models,
present in the intertext, which provide us with references for different communicative situations.
(Bakhtin, 1952)

Language: socio-historical and implied in an ideological context, living among socially

organized individuals, through enunciations that are always the product of the interactionlocutor-
interlocutor. (Bakhtin, 1952)

Language Capacities: the aptitudes required from the learner to the production of a genre in a
specific situation of interaction. (Dolz & Schneuwly, mimeo)

Didactic Models: "In a didactic model, the reference knowledge used to deal with a genre is meant
to make explicit, elaborated both from scientific research (description of several aspects of the genre
and the capacity of the students involved) and by the specialists of the genre considered."(Schneuwly
et al, 1997:7)

Didactic Sequences: they are formed by a group of progressive activities ruled by a genre related to
a communicative situation and objectives. The starting point is the observation of the capacities that
learners already have. (Schneuwly, 1997)

Context of production: the socio-cultural aspects formed by: writer/speaker, reader/listener, social
roles of the writer/speaker and the reader/listener, place where the text was produced and its social
role, time when it was produced, and aims to produce the text. (Bronckart, 1985)

To make the genres contents to be taught, professionals related to the teaching system, for example
teachers, should be prepared to produce their own means of teaching, adapted to the situations of their
class, having as their goal the development of language capacities of their students. In order to do so,
we make use of a data base (didactic models of genres) and the rules of production (principles for the
production of didactic sequences).

The didactic sequence is produced from the didactic model of the genre chosen. This didactic model
includes the decription of the main characteristics of the genre that are considered possible to be
taught to contribute to the process of learning of the students.

These aspects of the genre described are directly related to the point of view of the one describing it.
That is, the reference knowledge made evident in the genre is related to the reflection of the
specialist(s) who study the behaviour of the language in a specific situation under a specific theory,
which can be sociological, psychological, semiotic or linguistic.

Each of of these areas are supported by paradigms that may be contradictory or not, to explain the
genre and its use with interests and objectives specific to its area of application.

The didactic models of the genres present a central role to the didactic sequences, developing the
following functions:

- presupposition to the production of didactic sequences, when selecting the main aspects of the genre
to be taught. There is also an influence of the work with the genre to the transformation of these
models. In other words, there is a continuous situation of change both at the model and the genre
itself.

- tool for teacher education towards the production of didactic sequences that treat the didactic object
that they want to teach. This tool would act in the sense of making it possible for the producer to have
a certain distance to comprehend the characteristics of the genre chosen and, afterwards, use the
sequences as a means to teach. In this way, the teacher would be aware of what the students are
developing and what theoretical representation of the genre they are working with. This knowledge
of the didactic model would be characterized between the scientific knowledge and common sense
and, if they wish, they could use other reference knowledges to make part of their didactic sequence.

- an available tool to make adaptation and changes possible in the didactic sequences, according to
the needs of the group that the teacher is teaching.

- indications of the evaluation criteria in the development of the capacities of language that the
students should construct.

By taking these functions into consideration, we can deal with the topics below:

Choosing a genre with which to work

Some of the questions that may guide a teacher to make this choice are related to the genres that most
efficiently help to reach the goals established, the most appropriate genres according to the social role
of the language being taught and the ones that most adequately contribute for the construction and
education of an active and participative agent in the process of learning. According to PCNs-LE, the
teaching of a foreign language should contribute to the construction of citizenship. This idea may be
confirmed when one analyses the objectives set by the document for the work with written
comprehension in foreign language classes. These objectives are:

a) Identify the foreign languages and their roles in our society and in the world;

b) Use a foreign language to understand the world and oneself;

c) Have access to different knowledge coming from several parts of the world;

d) Use the language in different communicative situations;

e) Make oneself critically aware of the uses of language, including the linguistic level;

f) Make reading into a valuable process in the general education of the learner;

g) Make use of specific communicative skills appropriate to the communicative situation in focus.

The next topic brings a chart in which these objectives can be contrasted with the ones set by the
authors of the referred didactic sequence.

Producing a Didactic Sequence

With the construction of a didactic model in mind, the one producing the didactic sequence will
concentrate on the communicative situation, the internal organization of the texts belonging to the
genre chosen and the linguistic characteristics.

By looking at the chart below, one can have an idea of how the data base may help in the production
of material by giving the necessary information to be explored.

Content Objectives Data base (the didactic model)

To make the student familiar with the The communicative situation involving
Contextualization
genre the text and its context of production
Expose the student to the general text
Characterizing (the genre chosen) The internal organization of the text
plan

Comprehending (the genre Provide appropriate conditions for the

The internal organization of the text
chosen) general comprehension of the texts

Provide appropriate conditions for the

Developing reading strategies The internal organization of the text
detailed comprehension of the texts

Focussing and linguistic Explore the discoursive function of

components
Making explicit the situation of
text production (of the genre
chosen)
The linguistic characteristics of the text
the linguistic component
Comprehend the meanings of the
The context of production behind the
relation between a text and its
text
situation of production

Consolidation and project Deal with the genre and its context The genre and its data
By no means do we mean that the process of producing material may have this as a fixed model. All
the database is used during the entire process. Nevertheless, the division was made for better
illustration and easier comprehension.

Participating in the production of didactic sequences

Most experiences so far reported bring the producers of didactic sequences as either assessors or other
professionals belonging to the teaching system and not necessarily applying them in classrooms, as
the object of knowledge used in the didactic system. However, this does not mean they cannot be
produced by the teachers who will actually be using them with students. What it actually means is
that we must go through the process of didactic transposition that involves the changes and
adaptations from scientific knowledge to knowledge to be taught. In this process, teachers need
references and models to which they can react and respond. There have been experiences in teacher
education involving future teachers in the production of didactic sequences to be used as part of their
teaching practice in mini courses for public schools. Another opportunity we may have will be during
our development course for teachers.

Choosing to work with didactic sequences based on a genre

The choice of working with didactic sequences based on the notion of genre seems not only to bring
teachers closer to the specific needs of students but also to represent another option for teachers to be
using and working towards more autonomy. By making changes in the didactic materials, the
participants of the didactic system, i.e. teachers and students, also change. These transformations and
adaptations are part of both the development process of teachers and learners and the use of a genre.

To conclude, I would like to add that the results of the work with didactic sequences based on the
notion of genre as a tool for the teaching of a foreign language are yet to be further analysed. Such
process has started, but the didactic validity is to come. Let us wait and more will be said about this
concept.

About: Vera Lúcia Lopes Cristovão is a teacher of English Teaching Methodology and English Teaching
Practice at UEL (Universidade Estadual de Londrina). Her research as a Doctorate student of Applied
Linguistics at PUC-SP is about the teaching of foreign languages, text genres and didactic materials.

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