Teacher use of genre pedagogy : Engaging students in dialogue about content area language during text deconstruction

Research from the fields of science representation, genre pedagogy and disciplinary literacy for adolescents indicates that achievement for students, including those from linguistically diverse backgrounds, will improve if they engage with the meaning-making conventions of disciplinary texts, but there is no current agreement on the nature of teaching practices for supporting such work. This paper reports on the pedagogical changes that occurred when a high-school biology teacher was supported to develop knowledge about systemic functional linguistics and to use genre pedagogy. The case study of one biology teacher discussed here demonstrates that student participation in dialogue about the language patterns of scientific texts improves when the teacher uses genre pedagogy during text deconstruction. Student involvement in dialogue about content area language increases when the teacher focuses on specific parts of texts, prepares students for what to look for within texts, and elaborates on student input. Preparation included converting language to everyday meanings, while elaboration involved recasting to academic language, as well as prompting to reword and expand meaning.