TEFLIN TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SERIES

Series Editors: Willy A Renandya & Nur Hayati

TEFLIN Teacher Development Series contains short practical resource booklets

for English language teachers in Asia published by TEFLIN (The Association for
the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia) through its
Publication Division. Titles in the series (2020) include:

Introducing Task-based Language Teaching by Rod Ellis

Evaluating, Adapting and Developing Materials for Learners of English as an
International Language by Brian Tomlinson
Cooperative Learning in Language Education by George M Jacobs & Willy A Renandya
Teaching Pragmatics in EFL Classrooms by Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh & Le Van Canh
Implementing a Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching by Helena Agustien
Inspirational Stories from English Language Classrooms edited by Flora Debora Floris &
Willy A Renandya
Feedback in L2 Writing Classrooms by Icy Lee
Instructed SLA: A Practical Guide for Teachers by Eun Sung Park

If you have any queries, please contact:

TEFLIN Publication Division
Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 2020 by Helena Agustien

All rights reserved

Publisher: TEFLIN Publication Division in collaboration with Bintang Sejahtera Press

c/o Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Negeri Malang
Jalan Semarang 5 Malang, East Java, Indonesia, 65145
http://www.journal.teflin.org

ISBN: 978-602-1150-42-9

First published 2020

Cover Designer: Himawan Prakosa
Formatting: Ibnuz Zaki
IMPLEMENTING A TEXT-BASED APPROACH
IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Helena I. R. Agustien
Universitas Nasional Karangturi Semarang, Indonesia

TEFLIN Teacher Development Series

published by
TEFLIN Publication Division
I
t is a great pleasure for TEFLIN to publish this Teacher Development
Series, a series which provides useful and affordable resources for English
language teachers and teacher educators in Asia. The booklets in the
series cover various topics pertaining to ELT and are written by experts in
the field. Teachers and teacher educators will enjoy reading the series as the
booklets are written in a friendly and accessible style.

Throughout more than sixty years of TEFLIN, we have shown our full
commitment towards teacher training and education and teacher professional
development in the field of ELT by means of various programs. We have
organized conferences and academic forums for English language teachers both
nationally and internationally, and collaborated with different organizations to
provide support for teachers in developing their professionalism, such as, by
giving scholarships to attend conferences and conducting teacher trainings.

Through the TEFLIN Publication Division, we have published volumes of the

TEFLIN Journal, a peer-reviewed journal indexed in Scopus and fully accredited
with an “A” rating by the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Higher Education.
The journal contains both research and concept papers in the field of ELT. This
TEFLIN Teacher Development Series is another project of the division and is yet
another form of our commitment to giving continued support to the
development of English language teaching in Indonesia and in the wider region.
This year we are aiming to launch five books of the series, and are committed to
publishing more titles in the following years to support teachers’ sustainable
professional development.

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We are indebted to Dr. Willy A Renandya for sharing with us his brilliant ideas
and for giving his utmost effort and lending his expertise to this project. Without
his capacity and networking, this project would not be possible. We also
gratefully thank all the experts who have contributed to the series. Their
contribution is invaluable.

We hope this series will serve its purpose, to empower English teachers and
facilitate their professional development through quality and accessible
resources.

Joko Nurkamto Yazid Basthomi

President of TEFLIN Coordinator of TEFLIN Publication Division

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching ii

T
he TEFLIN Teacher Development Series is a series of short practical
resource booklets for English language teachers in Asia as part of a
collaborative project with the Publication Division of TEFLIN (The
Association for the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in
Indonesia). The booklets (or modules) are intended to be used by teachers (both
pre-service and in-service) and teacher educators as a learning resource and as
the basis for organizing workshops, in-service courses and various other
purposes of teaching and learning and teacher professional development.

The booklets in the Series are written in an accessible and teacher-friendly style
and cover both principles and techniques and include different topics relevant to
ELT and teacher professional development. Each booklet contains practical ways
for teachers to apply new ideas in their own teaching as well as reflective tasks
that provide opportunities for the users to reflect on their own classroom
practices.

For the second batch of the series, we have had a great honor and pleasure to
work with experts in various areas of ELT. One of them is Helena Agustien, a
highly recognized scholar in the field, who generously shares her knowledge and
expertise in the area of Text-based language teaching in this book. It is an
approach that is firmly ground in sound language and language learning
theories, highlighting the importance of the purpose, audience and contexts of
communication. We believe that teachers and teacher educators would greatly
benefit from the author’s comprehensive discussion on the theoretical
backgrounds and principles of the approach as well as the strategies for
implementing it in the classroom.

Again, we extend our utmost gratitude to Dr. Helena Agustien as well as other
experts who have contributed to the Series for their kindness and generosity in
sharing their knowledge and expertise and helping make this project happen.

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We are committed to publishing more quality booklets in the coming years in

order to meet the needs of English teachers and teacher educators in Asia. We
hope to collaborate with many more experts in various areas of ELT and bring
out booklets that are affordable and beneficial for the development of ELT and
teacher professionalism particularly in the Asian region.

Willy A Renandya

Nur Hayati

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T
his book is intended as a practical introduction to teaching English in
ESL/EFL contexts using a text-based approach (TBA). This approach
places text at the heart of English language teaching (ELT) because the
main goal of ELT is to enable learners to communicate in English both
in spoken and written forms. Theoretically, communicating is an activity of
exchanging meanings and when the communicators understand each other,
they are participating in the creation of texts. Text is defined as a unit of
meaning. Therefore, throughout the book, the discussion is geared around how
to teach communication using a text-based approach.

Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical background to inform the readers about the
underlying theories including social semiotic perspective of language: why text is
central in this perspective, the abstract functions of language known as
metafunctions including ideational, interpersonal, textual meanings and text
types.

Chapter 2 introduces some basic principles of text-based approach in ELT. Some

basic principles including explicit teaching of language knowledge such as
grammar and expressions that are needed in EFL contexts is explained. The
differences between spoken and written styles and their implications in ELT are
also described. The concept of genre is also described especially the genres or
the texts types generally included in school contexts.

Chapter 3 focuses on a framework for implementing TBA. The learning theory

underlying TBA is Vygotsky’ socio-cultural approach believing that learning takes
place at social level first before it happens at individual level. For the learning to
happen, learners need to be involved in various scaffolding activities. These
principles can be seen in the framework for implementing TBA involving the
cycles and stages of learning. The cycles and stages of learning shown in the
framework can be seen as the socio-cultural practices in ELT.

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Chapter 4 goes to greater detail showing a practical way of implementing TBA

particularly how to develop written language ability in ESL/EFL contexts. The
description includes the stages of learning from teaching explicit knowledge to
the independent construction of text. An important feature of this chapter is
how learners can transform the writing from the speech-written-down style to
the grown-up academic style that displays lexical density. The language skills
developed here are reading and writing.

Chapter 5 is similar to Chapter 4 in that it shows the stages of learning spoken

language. The first stage addresses explicit knowledge about spoken language
and gradually moves to the development of listening and speaking skills. It is
important to note that in ESL/EFL contexts, learners need explicit knowledge of
spoken language features such as formulaic expressions, discourse markers and
so on.

I do hope that this book will be helpful for teachers in carrying out their job
using a text-based approach in the teaching of English in ESL/EFL contexts.

Helena Agustien

Universitas Nasional Karangturi Semarang

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I
would like to wish to thank everyone who has helped me in writing this
book.

Firstly, I would like to express my great appreciation to Dr. Willy

Renandya of NIE, Singapore, for involving me in this writing project. His constant
support, guidance and encouragement throughout the editing process have
been instrumental in the completion of this volume. His inspiring comments
have undoubtedly inspired me in many ways without which this book would not
have been what it is.

Secondly, I would like to thank Ms. Nur Hayati of Universitas Negeri Malang who
has been involved in editing the draft up to the publishing stage.

Thirdly, I would like to thank Mr. Muarifin Riyadi of Mondial Education who
helped me design and create the diagrams to make the explanation clear.

Last but not least, I would like to thank friends who helped me with the
technicalities in times of technical trouble.

Thank you.

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching vii

FOREWORD FROM THE PUBLISH ER .............................................................. i
SERIES EDITORS ’ PR EFAC E ............................................................................. iii
AUTHOR’S PREFACE ................................................................................................. v
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................ vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. viii
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ xi
LIST OF DIAGRAMS .................................................................................................xii
CHAPTER ONE
THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS ................................................................................ 1

Language as Social Semiotic .....................................................................1

The Centrality of Text ................................................................................2
Meanings in Text........................................................................................4
Ideational Meaning ...................................................................................4
Interpersonal Meaning..............................................................................5
Textual Meaning ........................................................................................6
Text Types ..................................................................................................9

CHAPTER TWO
A TEXT-BASED APPROACH IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING......................... 15

The Basic Principles ................................................................................ 15

Genres 18
School Genres ......................................................................................... 19

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CHAPTER THREE
A FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTING A TEXT-BASED APPROACH .................... 28

Vygotsky’s Learning Theory ................................................................... 28

A Framework for Implementing a Text-Based Approach...................... 31
The Learning Cycles ................................................................................ 31
The Learning Stages ............................................................................... 33
Spoken Cycle ....................................................................................... 33
Written Cycle ....................................................................................... 35
Literacy Practice ..................................................................................... 38
From Spoken to Written Language ........................................................ 38

CHAPTER FOUR
IMPLEMENTING THE TEXT-BASED APPROACH: DEVELOPING WRITTEN
LANGUAGE .............................................................................................................. 43

Introduction ............................................................................................ 43
Cycle and Stages in Developing Written Language ............................... 44
Stage 1: Building Knowledge of the Field .......................................... 47
Stage 2: Modeling of Text (Developing Reading Skills) ...................... 48
Stage 3: Joint Construction of Text (Developing Writing Skills) ........ 49
Stage 4: Independent Construction of Text (Developing Indent
Writing Skills) ........................................................................ 51
Stage 5: Linking Related Texts (Other Forms of Instructional Texts) 53

CHAPTER FIVE
IMPLEMENTING THE TEXT-BASED APPROACH: DEVELOPING SPOKEN
LANGUAGE .............................................................................................................. 55

Introduction ............................................................................................ 55
Cycle and Stages in Developing Written Language ............................... 56
Stage 1: Building Knowledge of the Field .......................................... 56
Stage 2: Modeling of Text (Developing Listening Skills) .................... 57

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Stage 3: Joint Construction of Texts (Developing Conversational

Skills)...................................................................................... 64
Stage 4: Independent Construction of Text (Developing
Monologue Skills) ................................................................. 66
Stage 5: Linking Related Texts ............................................................ 67
CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................ 68
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 70

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Table 1: Interpersonal Meaning ............................................................................... 5

Table 2: Spoken and Written Language: The Linguistic Implications of Mode.... 16
Table 3: Spoken and Written Contexts .................................................................. 17
Table 4: Major School Genres ................................................................................ 20
Table 5: Features of the School Genres ................................................................. 21
Table 6: Spoken and Written Skills......................................................................... 32

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Diagram 1: Zone of Proximal Development .......................................................... 29

Diagram 2: The Spoken Cycle ................................................................................. 31
Diagram 3: The Written Cycle ................................................................................ 32

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching xii

This chapter outlines the theoretical insights underlying the development of a
text-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language. The discussion
starts with a theoretical stance: language as social semiotic, the centrality of
text, meanings and the three abstract meanings known as metafunctions
including ideational meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning. At
the end of this chapter text types that are commonly used in schools are also
discussed.

Language as Social Semiotic

Looking at language as social semiotic means that

… we take account of the elementary fact that people talk to each other. Language
does not consist of sentences; it consists of texts or discourse – the exchange of
meanings in interpersonal meanings in interpersonal contexts of one kind or another
(Halliday 1978, p. 2).

In the context of English language teaching (ELT), Halliday’s statements above

suggest the followings.

• Language is a system that people use to exchange meanings or to

communicate in their daily lives;

• The system consists of grammar, vocabulary, sound, spelling, etc. With the
system, students can learn how to create grammatical sentences.

• However, when communicating, people do not produce single sentences;

they usually produce more than one sentence. The sentences produced by

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people are not random; the sentences are usually structurally connected or
logically connected. These connections create something beyond the
individual sentence; they create a text or a discourse.

• A text is a unit of meaning. Since it is a unit of meaning, a text can be spoken

and written. When people talk to each other meaningfully, they create text;
when people write meaningfully, they also create text.

• When a text is meaningful to the listeners or the readers, communication

happens.

• Communication happens at a text level, not at a sentence level. It goes

without saying that we cannot communicate with one word, but the context
of situation should be as such so that that single word can be easily
understood. This happens because meanings are not only conveyed by
words; they are conveyed by the context as well. In face-to-face interactions,
people make use of words as well as the shared context to create meanings.

• When we claim that we teach English for communication, we do not stop at

sentence level; we need to end up at text level.
• Every text has a communicative purpose such as describing, explaining,
recounting, and so on.

• With this understanding, text becomes a central issue in teaching language in

general and especially ELT.

The Centrality of Text

So far, we understand that a language teacher’s main job is to help students
create texts. In this regard, it is important for language teachers to understand
what text is. To discuss the topic, some statements written by Halliday can help
us with the basic description of text.

The important thing about the nature of a text is that, although when we write it
down it looks as though it is made of words and sentences, it is really made of
meanings. Of course, the meanings to be expressed, or coded, in words and
structures, … in sounds and written symbols. It has to be coded in something in
order to be communicated; but as a thing in itself a text is essentially a semantic

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unit. It is not something that can be defined as being just another kind of sentence,
only bigger (Halliday, 1985, p. 10).

The citation describes how texts as units of meaning are created. The
description can be elaborated as follows.

• Under normal circumstances, someone communicates because they have

something in mind or some meanings to be conveyed to other people. For
example, when one needs to borrow a book from a friend they need to
express the meanings using language. This is the meaning level.

• In order to convey the meanings, one needs to choose the words and
structures that are believed to be suitable to convey the meanings accurately
so as to avoid any possible misunderstanding. This is the lexicogrammatical
level.
• The next step is to say or write it using the sounds or the alphabets or other
writing systems. Only through these symbols can other people ‘read’ our
minds or our meanings. This is the expression level where we use sounds or
letters that can be heard or seen by other people.
• Therefore, although what we hear are sounds and what we see are words,
these sounds and words are actually the expressions of meanings.

• Communication starts from the meaning system to language system and

finally to expression system.

• That is why, a text is essentially a unit of meaning.

• When we communicate in conversations or emails, for example, what we do
is essentially exchanging meanings.

Reflective Questions

1. When people communicate, what do they exchange?

2. When can a conversation be called communication?
3. When people talk and they understand each other, what do they create?

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Meanings in Text
When we ask students about what we exchange in communication, their likely
answer would be “We exchange information.” This answer is not totally wrong,
but it is not totally correct either. Information is only one type of meaning we
exchange and there are other types of meanings that come with information. In
systemic functional linguistics, we recognize at least three types of meaning,
each of which serves a special function. They are ideational meaning,
interpersonal meaning and textual meaning. Thus, in every clause we convey
these three meanings.

Ideational Meaning
The first function of language is to represent our ideas and experience of the
world. Our experience includes what happens, who is involved in the happening,
where, when and how something happens. In order to be able to represent our
thought and experiences we need to learn sets of vocabulary so that we can
express ourselves in different contexts.

In school contexts, for example, students need to talk and write about math,
science, history, arts, language and so on. These school subjects require
different sets of vocabulary so that students can participate in school
communication.

In their daily lives, students also need to talk about events that they encounter
such as reading stories, telling past events, and giving various instructions. All of
these require different sets of vocabulary.

To teach English in foreign language contexts where English is not often heard or
used in the community, the teaching of vocabulary needs to be carefully
planned according to some future communicative events the students will likely
be engaged in. This planning is usually manifested in the choice of topics that
are presented in English course books.

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Interpersonal Meaning
The second function of language is for interacting with others. In order to
interact with others, learners cannot rely on the vocabulary alone because
vocabulary or words mainly express ideas. In order to interact, people need to
express their feelings too, and the feeling is expressed in the grammar of the
language. This feeling is called interpersonal meaning. The following illustrations
may help you understand the concept of interpersonal meaning.

Table 1: Interpersonal Meaning

Mood:
Sentence Interpersonal Meaning
Subject + Finite
Rudi lives in Declarative: I am giving you information that
Jakarta. Subject + Finite verb Rudy lives in Jakarta.
Negative
Rudi doesn’t live in Subject + Finite I am denying the fact that Rudy
Jakarta. (negative) + lives in Jakarta.
Predicator
Does Rudy live in Finite + Subject + I am asking you if Rudy lives in
Jakarta? Predicator Jakarta.

The illustration in Table 1 suggests that by putting words together, one after the
other, it is possible for the writer to express some ideas as in Rudi live in
Jakarta* which is supposed to interpersonally mean ‘I am giving you
information’ since the structure is quite simple. Still, if we probe further, there is
a problem because the absence of third person singular marker ‘s’ fails to tell
the readers whether or not the event (live) happens in the present or in the
past.

The second sentence Rudy doesn’t live in Jakarta also demonstrates that
without grammar it would be impossible for a writer to deny the fact that Rudy
lives in Jakarta. A writer cannot simply say Rudy not live in Jakarta*. One might
argue that in conversation it is possible to use such a construction, but, again,
the tense is missing so that the sentence cannot be argued. The correct
construction Rudy doesn’t live in Jakarta can be argued by saying Does he?
Doesn’t he? Or He does, doesn’t he? When this arguing happens, interaction
happens, text is created.

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When a speaker only expresses the ideas without grammar as in Rudy not live in
Jakarta*, it will be difficult for the interlocutor to respond to the utterance. It is
difficult because the interlocutor cannot decide whether s/he should say ‘does
he?’ or ‘did he?’ since the tense is not clearly indicated. The same explanation
applies to the interrogative form although in ‘emergency’ situations people rely
on the use of intonation (i.e., rising intonation) to ask questions such as in ‘You
go tomorrow?’ instead of ‘Are you going tomorrow?’

It is now clear that words express ideas and grammar (the Mood) expresses
feelings, and every clause or sentence must contain both. The grammar of
Mood is like a truck that has a powerful engine to carry the messages (the loads)
around. Every single idea has to be presented by grammar.

This is the reason why grammar needs to be explicitly taught in foreign language
contexts. A text-based approach in ELT needs to address grammar because in
the learners’ native languages, it may not work the same way. The absence of
Finiteness in Asian languages often becomes the sources of grammatical
problems for Asian students (Agustien, 2016, p. 215). Unlike English, an
Indonesian or a Malay sentence does not contain a Finite verb which carries the
tense of the sentence since the two languages do not have tense. The following
examples are perfect sentences in Indonesian and Malay.

NOUN NOUN / ADJECTIVE / ADVERB

Dia (He) NO VERB IS guru (teacher) / NOUN
Dia (He) NEEDED HERE pandai (clever) / ADJECTIVE
Dia (He) di sini (here) / ADVERB

Textual Meaning
The third function of language is to organize messages within and beyond the
clause for different purposes depending on the context. There are times when
we feel the need of starting a clause or a sentence with the subject of a
sentence and there are times when we like to start our sentence with the
adjunct or the circumstances of a sentence. For example:

a. Rudy lost his new bike in the market place yesterday.

b. In the market place, Rudy lost his bike yesterday.
c. Yesterday, Rudy lost his new bike.

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Sentences a, b and c express exactly the same idea or experience. So,

ideationally speaking they are identical. The sentences use a declarative
structure and therefore they express the same interpersonal meaning: giving
information. However, the messages in the three sentences are organized in
different ways.

Sentence a starts with Rudy. When this happens, the writer ‘thinks’ that the
sentence is about Rudy; Rudy is the topic of the sentence; and the rest of the
sentence is about Rudy. The same explanation applies to sentences b and c.
Technically, the first element of the sentence is called the Theme of the
sentence and the rest is called the Rheme. The Theme is always in the initial
position of the sentence. A Theme is also known as old or known information
whereas Rheme is also referred to as new information.

This way of looking at a sentence can be helpful in teaching writing, in teaching

how to write a cohesive paragraph or how to make a paragraph flow smoothly.
The following illustration may be used to explain the idea to the learners.

Rudy celebrated his 10th birthday on Saturday last week. He was very happy
because his father gave him a special gift: a new bike. Rudy loved the bike so
much and he rode on the bike everywhere. Yesterday, Rudy went to the market
place to buy the pet food, so he left the bike at the parking place near the pet
shop. Unfortunately, he forgot all about the safety lock; he left the bike unlocked.
When he returned to the parking place, his bike was nowhere to be found. Rudy
lost his new bike in the market place. He walked all the way home.

Let us have a closer look at how the messages in the paragraph is organized by
way of organizing messages starting from the old information and followed by
the new information.

Old Information New Information

No
(Theme) (Rheme)
1 Rudy celebrated his 10th birthday on Saturday last week.
was very happy because his father gave him a special
2 He
gift: a new bike.
loved the bike so much and he rode on the bike
3 Rudy
everywhere.
Rudy went to the market place to buy the pet food, so
4 Yesterday
he left the bike at the parking place near the pet shop.
5 Unfortunately he forgot all about the safety lock.

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Old Information New Information

No
(Theme) (Rheme)
6 he left the bike unlocked
7 (When) he returned to the parking place,
8 his bike was nowhere to be found.
9 Rudy lost his new bike in the market place.
10 He walked all the way home.

Sentence 1 starts with Rudy to introduce who the sentence is about. The rest of
sentence 1 tells us what happened to Rudy. Once Rudy is mentioned in the first
sentence, Rudy is considered old information and Rudy can be used as the
starting point in sentence 2. The rest of sentence 2 is new information. This is
how a paragraph develops step by step using the old and new organization of
messages.

However, not all sentences should start with Rudy; a writer can shift the focus
when needed by providing new information yesterday as displayed in sentence
4. The word yesterday is not mentioned in sentence 3 but yesterday is a word
that can be easily understood by the readers; it is a word that is known by
everybody. Therefore, it can be used as the first old information as a stepping-
stone to the new information. The same explanation applies to sentences 5 to
10.

This section has shown the implications of textual meaning in creating cohesive
texts. Theme-Rheme choices controls the information flow that helps readers
comprehend the text and thus helps create cohesion. Message organization at
the sentence level is not only a sentence issue; it has serious implications in the
creation of meaningful texts. The texts created can consist of one paragraph or
more. When we write more than one paragraph we need to deal with texts type
issues.

Reflective Questions

1. When we talk about meaning, we do not only talk about information. What
other strands of meaning do you know?
2. What is ideational meaning?
3. What is interpersonal meaning?
4. What is textual meaning?
5. When we teach English sentence structures, what type of meaning do we
teach?

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Text Types
In addition to the three functions of language described earlier, Derewianka
(2011) describes two other functions of language and they include language for
constructing coherent texts in both spoken and written modes and achieving
different social purposes. These two functions lead our discussion to another
level beyond the sentence: the text level or the communication level.

Along the same line, Thornbury (2005, p. 19) argues that texts are self-
contained, well-formed, hang together (cohesive), make sense (coherent), have
a clear communicative purpose, are recognizable text types and are appropriate
to their contexts of use. These indicate that creating a text or communicating is
not a simple matter. Self-contained means that the text is complete; it has the
necessary elements or information in it. Well-formed means that the text is
well-structured both at sentence level and at text level. Cohesive means that
there are clear relations within the text whereas coherent means that there are
clear relations between the text and context. Communicative purpose refers to
what the text is trying to accomplish. For example, the communicative purpose
of a text is to explain, to describe, to entertain, and so on.

Learners need to attend to a number of rules or conventions that confine them

in creating both spoken and written texts. In a text-based English language
teaching (ELT), these issues are addressed explicitly to raise awareness regarding
the conventions. In teaching English in foreign language contexts this kind of
awareness is pivotal since the communication conventions they are familiar with
in their first languages might be different from those of English. By familiarizing
themselves with English text types learners are expected to be able to predict
how a communicative event unfolds. Thus, learners do not only speak or write
English; they also speak and write the English way.

Many texts unfold in predictable ways and language researchers have identified
text elements and how they are structured to achieve the communicative
purposes. Texts with clear communicative purposes and text structures are
often referred to as genre. Martin and Rose define genre as

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… a staged, goal oriented social process. Social because we participate in genres with
other people; goal oriented because we use genres to get things done; staged
because it usually takes a few steps to reach our goals (Martin & Rose, 2003, p.7).

Based on the descriptions above, a genre is characterized by three things.

1. Communicative purpose (goal oriented)

2. Generic structure (staged)
3. Linguistic features (spoken or written style)

When someone decides to speak or write, s/he must have a clear

communicative purpose. For example, you call somebody because you need to
borrow a book. You write to a newspaper because you want to express your
opinion and so on. It is the communicative purpose that confines you in
structuring your messages so that your purpose will be effectively achieved. The
other aspect to consider is the linguistic feature. When we converse, we use the
spoken features; when we write, we use the written features.

We can conclude that knowing how to write grammatical sentences and

acquiring a considerable number of vocabularies does not guarantee that we
can participate in all communicative events in our own language, let alone in
English. For example, if I were to write an employment contract in my native
language, I do not think I can do that because I am not accustomed to
participating in employment business. It takes some training before I can
confidently say that I can. This is the reason why we need to teach learners how
text types work.

As an illustration, we will look at the following narrative, a fable by Aesop found

in http://www.storyit.com/Classics/Stories/tortoisehare.htm. A fable is a type of
narrative text. In terms of genre, a narrative text is characterized by its
communicative purpose, generic structure, and linguistic features (Gerot &
Wignell, 1995, p. 204).

Communicative
Text type Generic Structure Linguistic Features
Purpose
Narrative To entertain • Orientation • Focus on specific
• Evaluation and usually
• Complication individualized
• Resolution participants
• Re-orientation • Use of material

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Communicative
Text type Generic Structure Linguistic Features
Purpose
(optional) processes
• Use of relational
processes
• Use of temporal
conjunctions and
temporal
circumstances
• Use of past tense

The Tortoise and the Hare

Orientation One day a hare was bragging about how fast he could run. He
bragged and bragged and even laughed at the tortoise, who
The writer sets
was so slow. The tortoise stretched out his long neck and
the scene and
challenged the hare to a race, which, of course, made the hare
introduces the
laugh.
main
participants.
Evaluation "My, my, what a joke!" thought the hare.
"A race, indeed, a race. Oh! What fun! My, my! A race, of
The writer
course, Mr. Tortoise, we shall race!" said the hare.
provides an
evaluation that
racing is a
simple matter
for the hare
Complication The forest animals met and mapped out the course. The race
begun, and the hare, being such a swift runner, soon left the
The writer
tortoise far behind. About halfway through the course, it
gives details on
occurred to the hare that he had plenty of time to beat the
the problems
slow trodden tortoise.
faced by the
"Oh, my!" thought the hare, "I have plenty of time to play in
tortoise and
the meadow here." And so he did.
how the
After the hare finished playing, he decided that he had time to
tortoise tries to
take a little nap.
solve the
"I have plenty of time to beat that tortoise," he thought. And he
problems.
cuddle up against a tree and dozed.
The tortoise, in the meantime, continued to plod on, albeit, it
ever so slowly. He never stopped, but took one good step after
another.
The hare finally woke from his nap. "Time to get going," he
thought. And off he went faster than he had ever run before!
Resolution He dashed as quickly as anyone ever could up to the finish line,
where he met the tortoise, who was patiently awaiting his

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The writer arrival.

shows how the
problems are
solved.
Re-orientation None

Another useful model and description of how the genre approach is organized
into a syllabus can be found in the English language Syllabus 2001 published by
the Curriculum Planning and Development Division Ministry of Education
Singapore. In the syllabus, the text types and the relevant descriptions including
communicative purpose, generic structure and language features are presented
in details.

The Singapore syllabus (2001) and the Indonesian syllabus (2004) share a
common ground in that they include the same major text types. In the more
recent curricula (Singapore 2010 and Indonesia 2013) the same text types are
also included.

Talking about genre is not only talking about essays or monologs that are
created by a person. There are other spoken and written genres that can be
classified as follows.
Spoken Language Written Language
Transactional conversation Short transactional text (email,
Whatsapp messages, etc.)
Casual or interpersonal conversation Essays in various genres including
procedures, descriptive, report,
recount, narrative, news item,
explanation, discussion, exposition
and review.
Short functional texts (prompts, various Short functional text (notices,
announcements) announcement, etc.)
Monologs in various genres including Essays in various genres including
procedures, descriptive, report, procedures, descriptive, report,
recount, narrative, news item, recount, narrative, news item,
explanation, discussion, exposition and explanation, discussion, exposition
review. and review.

The table shows that there are two major types of conversation: transactional
and casual or interpersonal. Transactional conversation is carried out for the
purpose of getting something done. In other words, transactional conversation

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has a very clear pragmatic purpose, such as: to buy or sell something, to invite
somebody, or to promote a product.

As a genre, transactional conversation also displays a generic structure:

Opening^transaction^closing (the symbol ^ means ‘followed by’). It also displays
spoken linguistics features such as spontaneity, interactivity, laughter, vague
language and so on (Thornbury, 2005).

Casual/ interpersonal conversation is defined by Eggins and Slade (1997:19) as

“a talk which is NOT motivated by any clear pragmatic purpose”. It suggests that
people talk because, under certain circumstances, they simply have to talk. For
example, if some people happen to be having lunch with people they know, they
are likely to start a conversation on whatever topics. They do this to avoid
silence because total silence might put everybody in an awkward situation. So
the main purpose of casual conversation is to keep the interpersonal
communication open or tell people that we are in good terms.

This kind of conversation also has structures but they are dynamic; it has topic
changes, abrupt stops, overlaps and so on. Regarding linguistic features,
transactional and casual conversations share the same spoken linguistic
features.

Other texts that need to be introduced to the learners include short functional
texts, both spoken and written. In their daily life, language learners encounter
spoken short functional texts such as announcements in different contexts and
written short functional texts such as advertisements, quotes and so on. These
texts display various structures and linguistic features depending on the
contexts. A collection of useful quotes, for example, can be found in
https://www.google.com/search?q=famous+quotes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client
=firefox-b

A monologue is a spoken text produced by a person in a series of utterances.

The utterances are usually in the forms of spoken clauses, phrases, words,
conjunctives and so on. Unlike a written text or essay, a monologue is never neat
and it contains spoken language features such as repetition, gambits, fillers and
so on. A monologue may be somewhat messy, but it is characterized by a
communicative purpose, generic structure and linguistic features.

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In this chapter we have looked at the theory of language as social semiotic and
its implications in language education. We have seen that teaching language is
teaching communication and that is why language education needs to address
not only the language system but also the conventions beyond language people
use in communications. These conventions include text types and particular
genres that are relevant to learners’ schooling and daily lives.

Reflective Questions

1. The word ‘text’ does not only refer to a passage; it refers to spoken and written
texts. Can you mention the major text types we teach in schools?
2. What is the main difference between transactional conversation and casual
conversation?

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From the previous chapter, we have learned that communicating is creating text
in context. Since a text is a unit of meaning, it can be spoken or written. In this
chapter we are going to discuss a text-based approach (TBA) in English language
teaching (ELT).

According to Feez and Joyce, a text-based approach in language teaching

involves

1. teaching explicitly about the structures and grammatical features of spoken

and written texts
2. linking spoken and written texts to the social and cultural contexts of their
use
3. designing units of work which focus on developing skills in relation to whole
texts
4. providing students with guided practice to develop language skills for
meaningful communication through whole texts.
(Feez & Joyce 1998, p. v)

The four points above can be considered as the basic principles in implementing
TBA in teaching language. Those principles are elaborated in the following
section.

The Basic Principles

The first principle suggests that in TBA there is a place to teach about the
language explicitly. This means that teachers can teach sentence structures, text

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structures, spoken language features and written language features. This is an

important part in building the learners’ knowledge about the language. This is
especially needed in foreign language contexts where learners are not exposed
to English in their daily lives. Learners are not immersed in situations that can
‘force’ them to use English. Therefore, starting with some knowledge at hand
may help boost the learners’ confidence later when they start learning the
language skills.

The second principle suggests that in designing the stages of teaching and
learning, teachers need to show how spoken and written language styles are
related. The two modes of communication share many things in common but
they are also different in some ways because they serve different functions in
everyday communications. Eggins outlines the differences in the following table.

Table 2: Spoken and Written Language: The Linguistic Implications of Mode

(Source: Eggins, 2004, p. 93, with slight modifications)

SPOKEN and WRITTEN LANGUAGE

The linguistic implications of MODE
SPOKEN LANGUAGE WRITTEN LANGUAGE
Turn taking organization Monologic organization
Context dependent Context independent
Dynamic structure Synoptic (fixed) structure
• interactive staging • Rhetorical staging
• open-ended • Closed, finite, ‘final draft (polished)
• Spontaneity phenomena (false indications of earlier drafts removed
starts, hesitations, interruptions, • ‘Prestige” lexis
overlap, incomplete clauses) • Standard grammar
• Everyday lexis • Lexically dense
• Non-standard grammar
• Lexically sparse

Table 2 shows that when learners have learned the spoken mode and they are
about to move to the written mode, they need to undergo some kind of
transformation because written language is not simply speech written down.
Moving from spoken language to written language needs a lot of instructions
and exercises in the forms of modeling, joint construction (collaboration) and
eventually independent creation of written texts (Hammond et al., 1992)

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The third principle suggests that TBA is aimed at developing language

knowledge and the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
These knowledge and skills are developed in every lesson unit and every lesson
unit is organized around a communicative purpose in communication. For
example, if a lesson unit is aimed at developing skills in giving instructions, the
learners will learn the language knowledge of giving instructions and developing
the four skills in giving instructions.

In short, the outcomes of a lesson unit can be formulated in terms of the

communicative purpose of the lesson unit. Once the communicative purpose is
decided, the teacher can start preparing the teaching materials and activities to
scaffold the lesson.

The fourth principle suggests that the materials and activities we design for the
learners are aimed at guiding students towards the creations of whole texts.
Earlier we have discussed that communicating is creating text and, therefore, a
text is a communicative event. When we claim that we teach communication,
we need to specify what communicative events or what texts we are teaching.

For example, we want to teach students how to give instructions. The term used
to label this communicative act is procedure text; the text type or the genre is
called procedure. Procedural text can happen in different contexts and,
therefore, we try to make students to create procedural texts (or to give
instructions) in the following contexts.

Table 3: Spoken and Written Contexts

SPOKEN TEXT WRITTEN TEXT

Transactional conversation Short transactional texts
(involving giving instruction) (involving giving instruction such as
emails, messages involving
instructions, etc.)
Casual conversation Short casual exchanges
(involving giving instruction) (involving giving instruction such as
in written chats, casual email, etc.)
Monolog (procedure speech) Essay (procedure text)
Short functional text Short functional text (traffic signs,
(involving giving instruction such as memes, quotes, etc.)
announcements, short commercials, etc.)

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English instructions in school are aimed at building language knowledge and

skills to communicate in social and academic contexts so that students can use
language across the curriculum; students are expected to learn language to
learn other subjects in school. In order to equip learners with language that is
relevant to their academic purposes, certain text types or genres are included in
English syllabuses.

Reflective Questions

1. What are the basic principles of a text-based approach?

2. In what ways are spoken language and written language different?
3. Why do teachers need to know the differences of spoken and written
language?

Genres
To understand what genre is, a definition proposed by Martin and Rose can be
used as a starting point.

… genre is a staged, goal-oriented social process. Social because we participate in

genres with other people; goal-oriented because we use genres to get things done;
staged because it usually takes a few steps to reach the goal (Martin and Rose
2004, p. 7-b).

For practical teaching purposes, the definition can be interpreted as follows.

1. When people start communicating, they communicate with other people;

they intend to interact with the listeners or readers. That is why
communication is a social activity or social process. We create meanings and
we make sure that our audience understands what we mean.
2. When we speak or listen to people or read a text, we participate in the text.
When we speak, we create text; when we listen or read, we create meanings
based on what we listen to or read. So, both the speaker and the hearer or
the writer and the reader actively create meanings.
3. Usually, when people speak or write, they have a particular purpose in their
minds. For examples, we call somebody because we want to ask questions.
We write an email because we need to give information. In order to ask
questions or give information properly, we need to know HOW to do it.

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When we call someone and s/he answers the phone, we do not directly say
“Hey, what time is the meeting tomorrow?” because that is not what people
normally do. To achieve the goal of ‘asking question’, we need to go through
stages of, say, ‘opening^asking question^closing’ (the symbol ^ means
‘followed by’). People living in a society are usually aware of what to do in
order to achieve communicative goal. Martin and Rose (2004) call this
staged-goal oriented.
4. Every communicative event has a goal and when the goal is achieved people
get something done. For example, people want to tell a story and the goal of
telling a story is to entertain. To achieve the goal, a story or a narrative text
needs to have some compulsory or generic elements, namely,
orientation^complication^resolution. If one tells a story without orientation,
the audience might not understand the setting, who the characters are and
so on. As a result, the story can be confusing and not entertaining. The same
thing happens when a story starts with orientation, followed by complication
but it misses the resolution stage. Readers might get upset and think that the
story is not finished. They are upset, instead of entertained, and the goal is
not achieved.
5. In short, we need to be aware that communicative purpose, generic
structure and linguistic features characterize a genre. In other words, when
we claim that we teach communication we need to develop awareness
regarding genre: the purpose of communication, the stages of how the
communication unfolds and the linguistic features needed for that type of
communication. When we teach English using this approach, we teach
knowledge about language and develop skills of how to communicate the
English way. English genres teach us what to do in order to be successful
communicators.

School Genres
TBA has been used in some countries including Australia, Singapore and
Indonesia. In these countries, English instructions in schools are organized
around genres that are relevant to the learners’ schooling purposes. The major
genres include transactional and casual conversation, spoken and written
functional texts, monologs and essays.

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The monologs and essays in the TBA in those countries are of the following
types.

Table 4: Major School Genres

Literary Genre Factual Genre Argumentative Genre

Narrative Procedure Explanation
Poetry Descriptive Discussion
Short story Report Exposition (analytical and
hortatory)
Recount Review / Response
News Item

It is important to note that the literary genres in first language context

(Australia) and in second language context (Singapore) may include more types
of narrative text such as novel, short story, myth, legend, science-fiction, fantasy,
fable, cartoon, stage play, film script, television script, radio script, role play and
so on. In a foreign language context (Indonesia) however, the narrative genre
may include ‘simple’ text types such as short stories, myth, legend and so on.

In first and second language contexts, poetry may include sonnet, haiku, lyric
verse, song, limerick, jingle, epic, ballad, whereas in a foreign language context
poetry is limited to song lyrics and rhymes.

The five factual genres and the four argumentative genres appear in first,
second and foreign language contexts. In Indonesia, the five factual genres are
included in junior high-school level (grade 7 to 9), whereas the four
argumentative genres are introduced in the senior high-school level (grade 10 to
12). In the EL curriculum in Indonesia, explanation, discussion, exposition and
review texts are grouped under argumentative genre because these texts
require the ability to present opinions, arguments coupled with justification.

To develop lesson units using TBA, teachers need to specify the communicative
outcomes of each unit. For example, a teacher has decided that at the end of
unit 1, students will be able to give instructions or creating procedural texts. This
means that at the end of unit 1, students are expected to create or participate in

1. Transactional conversations that involves giving/exchanging instructions

2. Casual conversations that involve giving/exchanging instructions

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3. Short functional texts (e.g. spoken announcements) for the purpose of giving
instructions
4. Short functional texts (e.g. written announcements) for the purpose of giving
instructions
5. Monologs for the purpose of giving instructions (e.g. cooking demonstration)
6. Procedural texts (e.g. writing recipes or manuals)

In other words, when students are able to demonstrate the ability to create
those texts, the teacher has been successful in teaching communication
because the six text types are communicative events.

The following table describes the genres commonly taught in schools in the
contexts of first, second and foreign language contexts. The sources of the
descriptions in the table below include Gerot & Wignell (1995) and Graham,
(2017) available at http://australiancurriculumf-6resources.blogspot.co.id/
2013/04/text-types.html
Table 5: Features of the School Genres

Communicative
Linguistic Features /
Genre Purpose / Social Generic Structure
Grammar Focus
Function
Procedure To instruct • Goal • Use of present
someone or to • Materials tense: imperative
describe how (optional) (e.g. Boil the
something is • Steps (oriented to water)
accomplished achieving the • Use of action
through a sequence goal verbs (e.g. cut,
of actions or steps fry)
• Use of noun
phrases (e.g. 3
chicken eggs)
• Use of
conjunctions (e.g.
first, second,
then)
• Use of adverbs
(e.g. slowly, until
golden brown)
Examples of Procedure Texts:
instruction, manual, recipe, direction, etc.
Description To describe a • Identification • Focus on a

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Communicative
Linguistic Features /
Genre Purpose / Social Generic Structure
Grammar Focus
Function
particular person, (identifies the specific thing (e.g.
place or thing phenomenon to my house, the
be described) White house)
• Description • Use of simple
(describes parts, present tense
qualities, • Use of finite verbs
characteristics) ‘be’ (be +
adjective / noun /
adverb)
• Use of noun
phrases (e.g.
small building,
tennis shoes)
• Use of action
verbs (e.g. eat,
run, jump)
Examples of Description Texts:
travel brochure, nutrition facts, school description, etc.
Report To describe the way • Identification • Focus on a
things are -based (identifies the general thing (e.g.
on systematic phenomenon hunting dog
observation under discussion instead of my
(e.g. volcanoes, dog)
healthy food, • Use of simple
mammals) present tense
• Description (e.g. • Use of finite verbs
parts, qualities, ‘be’ (be +
habits or adjective / noun /
behaviors) adverb)
• Use of noun
phrases (e.g.
small building,
tennis shoes)
• Use of action
verbs (e.g. eat,
run, jump)
Examples of Report Text:
reference book, documentary (of nature, planets, etc.), experimental report, research
result presentation, etc.
Recount To tell a series of • Orientation • Focus on specific
past events for the (provides the characters (e.g.
purpose of setting and name. nouns,

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Communicative
Linguistic Features /
Genre Purpose / Social Generic Structure
Grammar Focus
Function
informing or introduces the pronoun)
entertaining characters) • Use of past tense
• Series of events • Use of action
(tells what verbs
happened in • Use of adverbs
what sequence) (time, place,
• Re-orientation manner, etc.)
(optional – • Use of
closure of events) conjunctions of
time (e.g. then,
after, before, etc.)
Examples of Recount Text:
Personal recount, newspaper article, historical recount, biographical recount,
time line, etc.
News Item To inform readers, • Newsworthy • Short, telegraphic
listeners or viewers event(s) (in information to
about events of the summary) create a headline
day that are • Background • Use of action
considered events (elaborate verbs and
newsworthy or what happened, nominalized verbs
important to whom, in what • Use of verbal
circumstances) verbs (e.g. say,
• Sources said, announce)
(comments by • Use of adverbs
participants, (time, place,
witness, manner, etc.)
authorities, • Use of
experts on the conjunctions of
event) time
Examples of News Item Text:
newspaper headline, TV live report, breaking news, etc.
Narrative To amuse or to • Orientation (sets • Focus on specific
entertain the scene and individualized
introduces the characters
characters) • Use of past tense
• Evaluation (a • Use of action
stepping back to verbs, behavioral
evaluate the verbs (e.g.
plight) yawning,
• Complication (a sneezing), verbal
crises arises) verbs (e.g. say,
• Resolution (the tell), mental verbs

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Communicative
Linguistic Features /
Genre Purpose / Social Generic Structure
Grammar Focus
Function
crises is resolved, (e.g. think,
for better or for consider)
worse) • Use of direct and
• Re-orientation or indirect speech
Coda (optional) • Use of
conjunctions of
time
Examples of Narrative Texts:
novel, short story, myth, legend, science fiction, faire tale, fable, cartoon, stage play,
film script, television script, radio script, role play, etc.
Explanation To explain why and • Identification of • Focus on the
how something phenomenon phenomena being
occurs (e.g. How snow discussed
forms or How silk • Use of the simple
is produced) present time
• A sequenced • Use of action
explanation why verbs and ‘be’
and how the verbs
phenomenon • Use of
occurs conjunction of
time and cause
• Use of passive
voice
• Use of technical
terms (e.g.
particle,
humidity)
Examples of Explanation Texts:
scientific writing, oral explanation in various contexts, etc.
Discussion To present (at least) • Statement • Use of mental
two points of view outlining the verbs (e.g. feel,
about an issue issue believe, think,
• Arguments for hope)
and against • Use of modals
(containing point (e.g. can, could,
and elaboration) may, must)
• Conclusion or • Use of
recommendation comparative (e.g.
better, as good as,
worse)
• Use of
connectives (e.g.

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Communicative
Linguistic Features /
Genre Purpose / Social Generic Structure
Grammar Focus
Function
however, on the
one hand, on the
other hand)
• Use of noun
phrases (e.g.
terribly disturbing
phenomenon)
• Use of
nominalization
Examples of Discussion Text:
debate, conversation, talkback radio, for-and-against texts, etc.
Exposition: To persuade by Analytical • Use of the simple
• Analytical arguing from one exposition present tense
exposition side of an issue • Thesis (containing • Use of general
• Hortatory (a) position to nouns (e.g. park,
exposition indicate the trees)
speaker’s or • Use of abstract
writer’s position nouns (e.g. style,
and (b) preview imagination)
to introduce the • Use of Finite
main arguments) verbs ‘be’ and
• Arguments those that can
(containing (a) function like ‘be’
point to restate (e.g. is, are, seem,
the argument and consist)
(b) elaboration to • Use of action
support / justify verbs (e.g. move,
the argument) march)
• Reiteration or • Use of mental
reinforcement of verbs (e.g. think,
the thesis consider)
• Use of modal
Hortatory verbs (e.g. can,
exposition: may, should)
• Thesis • Use of modal
• Arguments adverbs (e.g.
• Recommendation certainly,
definitely)
• Use of
connectives (e.g.
First, second,
third)

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Communicative
Linguistic Features /
Genre Purpose / Social Generic Structure
Grammar Focus
Function
• Use of evaluative
language (e.g.
bad, mundane,
good, terrific)
Examples of Exposition Text
Campaign, advertisement, commercial, editorial, persuasive articles in mass-media,
etc.
Review/ To critique or to • Orientation • Use of present
Response respond to visual, (context of the tense
written or work) • Use of persuasive
performed work for • Description of the language which
a public audience work expresses
• Evaluation / judgment
judgment • Use of descriptive
• Evaluative language
summation • Use of words that
(optional) or a indicate the
kind of punch line writer’s or
to sum up the speaker’s feelings
writer’s judgment about the work
Examples of Review/Response Text:
Reviews of books, movies, restaurants, hotels, response to published articles, etc.

So far in this chapter we have learned the concept of a text-based approach in

language teaching. This involves some basic principles of the approach or what
it takes to design a TBA. An important element in TBA is genre, which specifies
the communicative purpose, generic structure and linguistic features of text.
The school genres are discussed here because in teaching English at school we
need to highlight the genres that are relevant to the learners’ schooling. In this
way, English instructions will be relevant to or support the learning of other
subjects.

Reflective Questions

1. Why is TBA useful in teaching communication?

2. What are the four basic principles in using TBA in language teaching?
3. Why do we need to understand genre?
4. What characterizes a genre?
5. To design a TBA lesson unit what text types need to be included?

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6. To develop the skills in performing monologs and writing essays, what genres
are included in the syllabus?
7. In implementing TBA in foreign language contexts, is it possible for teachers to
teach grammar and other knowledge explicitly?
8. What genres are considered relevant to support the students’ schooling?
9. When students learn ‘description’ genre, what other school subjects would this
be relevant to?
10. How do we know that our teaching (of a particular genre) is successful?

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 27

In this chapter we will discuss some key concepts in implementing TBA that
include a brief review about underlying theories of learning, language and
literacy. The learning theory adopted here is Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of
learning whereas the language theory used in text-based approach is Halliday’s
systemic functional linguistics. The literacy perspective is taken into account
because language learning in schools is not only meant for developing the ability
to communicate for daily purposes; language teaching is conducted as a means
to develop the learners’ ability to participate in academic community that
involves reading and writing. The discussion might give us some ideas why the
framework includes the cycles of learning the spoken and written language and
some stages.

Vygotsky’s Learning Theory

One of the tenets in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is the claim that “higher
mental functions, such as rational thought and learning, originate in the social
activity” (Johnson, 2004, p. 108). Johnson explains further as follows.

• Any function in the child’s cultural development appears twice, or on two

planes.
• First it appears on the social plane, then on the individual plane. In other
words, learning appears between people as an interpsychological category
and then within the child as an intrapsychological category.

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• To put it simply, learning takes place first at the social or interpersonal level
and then at the individual or intrapersonal level.
• “The transition from the interpersonal to the intrapersonal plane is
dependent on the mediated function of sign systems, in which language
plays a crucial role.” (Johnson 2004, p. 108)

Translating these into the teaching and learning process, it is mandatory that
teachers need to plan the whole process to help learners go through the
transition from learning that depends on peers and teachers to individual
learning where a child is capable of learning independently. The transition
process requires well-planned activities or scaffolding. Scaffolding refers to “the
assistance that a teacher or more proficient/experienced other learner can bring
to an individual’s process of learning” (Macaro, 2010, p. 97).

A child does have the capacity of learning on his own, but when the child
interacts with the more capable others (teachers and peers), he can “move
beyond the level he displays in the classroom setting to a higher level of
functioning.” (Smidt, 2009, p. 121). The gap between the learner’s current stage
and the next stage on some developmental scale is called Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD). In order to expand the ZPD, teachers need to plan and
create scaffolding activities. Thus,
whatever activities a teacher
plans, they need to be geared
around the attainment of
the desired outcomes.

The association of ZPD

and scaffolding can be
described using the
following diagram.

The grey circle in the

middle is called
Independent Learning Zone
or the current stage a child
has achieved. The new
learning process is aimed at Diagram 1: Zone of Proximal Development

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developing the gray zone further into the desired lighter grey one (the lighter
grey area or the outer circle) called ZPD. To reach the goal, teachers need to
scaffold the lessons with all kinds of activities. It is at this stage that many kinds
of teaching methods and techniques the teachers have learned previously come
into play.

In the pre-service trainings, teachers learn, for examples, how to teach grammar
and vocabulary, how to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills,
how to use games and songs to engage their students. All of these are very
useful when used properly at the right moments to scaffold the lessons.

Based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, the scaffolding stages are organized

into stages, that is, from the stages where students are given the opportunities
to interact socially with their peers and teachers to the stages where the others’
involvements get less and less. In other words, at the beginning stages, teachers’
involvements in the activities are relatively high and at the later stages, the
learners gain more control over the activities. This is the meaning of moving
from social or interpersonal plane to individual or intrapersonal plane. This
model is used in developing the text-based approach in language teaching.

The movement from the social to the interpersonal plane is manifested in the
cycles and stages of learning in the framework shown in the next section. In
order to develop the spoken and written language, learners go through series of
activities which are highly collaborative or social in nature, and eventually they
move to more individual activities.

Reflective Questions

1. According to Vygotsky, learning happens at two different planes. Explain what

they are.
2. The teacher’s job is to expand the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Explain
what ZPD is.
3. To expand the ZPD, teachers need to plan scaffolding activities. Explain what
‘scaffolding activity’ means.
4. Why do students need to interact with teachers and fellow students a lot?

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A Framework for Implementing a Text-Based

Approach
From the previous chapters we have learned that when we teach language for
communication, we need to state what kind of communicative purpose we are
aiming at. For example, at the end of lesson we want the students to be able to
explain. If that is the case, we will try to develop the ability to explain both in
spoken and written language; from oracy to literacy.

Since we try to develop the spoken and the written modes of communication,
we need to organize our plans into two major cycles: spoken cycle and written
cycle. This has been suggested and implemented by the Australian School in
teaching English to foreign students (Hammond et al., 1992).

In Indonesian contexts, the same framework has been used to implement TBA
since 2004. This framework has also been used in developing course books for
junior and senior high schools. Every chapter in the books is aimed at achieving
one communicative purpose in two different cycles: spoken and written cycles.
The spoken cycle is meant to develop the knowledge and skills of listening and
speaking, whereas the written cycle is meant to develop the knowledge and
skills of reading and writing. The
following section describes the
learning cycles and stages
learners need to go
through to develop the
four skills.

The Learning
Cycles
The diagram displays the
five stages to develop
spoken language. Each stage
can take around 70-80
minutes to complete. So, it Diagram 2: The Spoken Cycle

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takes around 5x70 or 80 minutes to develop the knowledge and skills of listening
and speaking suitable for the communicative purpose of the text type under
discussion.

The same stages apply to the written cycle. The difference is that in the written
cycle the learners learn the language knowledge that is used in the written
language and they also develop the skills of reading and writing.

Overall, when a teacher plans a

lesson unit s/he needs to
allocate around 10x70 or 80
minutes for teaching
communication with one
communicative
purpose. If there are 2
lessons per week and
each lesson lasts 70/80
minutes, it will take
around 5 weeks to
complete a lesson unit. The
details are explained in the
following section.

As an illustration, let us try to Diagram 3: The Written Cycle

write a plan to develop the learners’ ability to explain. That means, at the end of
the lessons, the learners will be able to participate in or create the following
explanation texts. These texts are the desired outcomes of the lesson.

Table 6: Spoken and Written Skills

Spoken Text Written Text

(Listening and Speaking) (Reading and Writing)
• Spoken transactional conversation • Written transaction (e.g. explaining
involving explanation (e.g. how to book a hotel the easy way
explaining how to plan a trip the through emails or short messages
cheapest way) using cell phones)
• Casual conversation involving • Casual written interaction (e.g.
explanation (e.g. conversation over inbox chats or emails involving
a meal involving explanation) explanation)
• Spoken short functional text (e.g. • Written short functional text (e.g.

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short announcements involving explanation how to use a tool)

explanation)
• Monolog (e.g. speech for the • Essay (e.g. written explanation about
purpose of explaining) how to grow vegetables)

The Learning Stages

In the learning cycles above we can see that each cycle contains five learning
stages, namely: 1) building knowledge of the field, 2) modeling of the text, 3)
joint construction of the text, 4) independent construction of the text and 5)
linking related texts.

Spoken Cycle
This cycle is meant to develop the listening and speaking skills.

1. Building Knowledge of the Field

This first stage allows the teacher to prepare the learners to engage in
communication for the purpose of explaining. The teacher can prepare a topic
that can encourage the students to explain. For example, the class can talk
about how and why earthquakes happen. In a country where earthquakes often
happen this topic can be relevant in the cultural and academic contexts.

Students and teachers can share experiences and discuss new vocabulary
needed for discussing the topic. Teachers can explain the sentence patterns or
grammar that is needed in explaining. In chapter 2, you can find the relevant
grammatical features that help students to explain. Besides, teachers need to
address discourse issues such as conjunctions, conjunctives, lexical bundles,
gambits, and so on. In other words, this stage introduces the features of spoken
language.

2. Modeling of Text

At this stage, teachers expose students to English texts to provide

communication models. In the spoken cycle the texts can be short functional
texts such as announcements, directions, transactional and casual conversations
and monolog or speech. This is the stage where students develop the listening

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skills. Teachers can use their knowledge and teaching techniques they have
learned to develop the students’ listening skills.

The learning activities can highlight any aspects the learners need to attend to
such as pronunciation, intonation, expressions, communication strategies to
compensate for communication breakdowns, discourse markers, and so on. The
purpose of highlighting these aspects is to make students notice the specific
features of spoken language.

3. Joint Construction of Text

At this stage, the main goal is to develop the students’ conversation skills. Based
on what they learned in stage 2, they start learning to speak jointly, that is,
learning to converse. The teachers need to plan activities to guide students to
develop their skills needed for transactional and casual conversations.

It is important to develop conversational skills first because conversation is

jointly created so that students have the opportunity to build their confidence in
speaking. When students are able to converse, they start learning to do
monologs. Students can learn to construct monologs in groups even with the
help of teachers.

4. Independent Construction of Text

After going through the process of creating texts in groups, students start
learning to create their spoken texts independently. At this stage, students are
expected to write and perform or present their speeches for the purpose of
explaining (or whatever genres). They are also expected to create spoken short
functional texts such as announcements, short explanation and so on. In short,
the speaking skills to develop include the skills in producing those texts.

At this stage, teachers can evaluate the whole process to see whether or not the
desired outcomes have been achieved. Teachers can create a rubric to check
whether or not the students are able to carry out transactional and casual
conversations, and creating short functional texts and monologs for the purpose
of explaining. In this way, it would be easier for the teachers to claim that the
teaching has (or has not) been successful.

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5. Linking Related Texts

This stage is meant to develop the learners’ awareness to relate their explaining
skills in daily life. Students can create their own explanation texts using different
topics. In class students may talk about earthquakes, in the daily life they can
apply the skills to talk about how to produce silk fabric (in Thailand) or batik
cloth (in Indonesia).

Students can also create explanation texts using different modalities by

combining texts with images or even creating explanation texts using their
information technology. So, creativity is the key word for linking the lesson and
real life.

Written Cycle
This cycle is meant to develop reading and writing skills.

1. Building Knowledge of the Field

One may ask why we need to go through the process of building knowledge
again. The reason for doing this again is that because the spoken and written
modes imply different language styles. In spoken language, people use ‘small
sentences’ or clauses, phrases, words or even expressions such as huhuh, hmhm
etc. because the meanings are often recoverable by the context of situation.
Written language, however, is more linguistically ‘demanding’.

In writing, students need to write simple, compound and complex sentences.

They need to be accurate in terms of sentence patterns, spelling, punctuations,
conjunctions, etc. Writing conventions matter in order to make the readers
understand. When students read their science or other books, this is the kind of
language they face. When they write for academic purposes, this is the kind of
language they need to write. So, in this cycle teachers develop the learners’
literacy.

As an example, let us read an excerpt from Wikipedia found in https://

simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow. The text is about how snow forms.

At the freezing point of water (0° Celsius, 32° Fahrenheit), snow melts and
becomes liquid water. Sometimes, the snow will melt very fast and become

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water vapor. This is called sublimation. The opposite, where water vapor
becomes snow, is called deposition.

The text above contains noun phrases (underlined) and technical terms that can
be challenging for foreign leaners. The sentence structure may look simple, but
the number of content words in the forms of noun phrases and technical terms
makes the text rather challenging to read and write. This is the reason why we
need to build the knowledge associated with written language.

This is important especially in foreign language contexts because the differences

in grammar and style are often taken for granted. Not many are aware that
being able to speak English does not automatically mean being able to write in
English. The lexico-grammatical differences imply that English users do not only
need to learn two different modes; they need to learn two different styles.

Teachers also have the opportunity to discuss the genre under discussion
involving its communicative purpose, text (generic) structure and linguistic
features. This shows that TBA allows explicit teaching of grammar. In foreign
language contexts where students do not hear English spoken in day-to-day
interaction, knowledge can help the students to boost their confidence before
they are exposed to more challenging communicative tasks at the next stage.

2. Modeling of Text

In the written cycle, modeling happens again involving texts such as written
transactional and casual interactions, short functional texts and essay. At this
stage the students develop their reading skills. They explore not just the ideas
presented in the texts; they explore what elements there are in a text, how texts
are structured and what written language features are used. In essence, this
stage is meant to expose students to the English language and how it is used in
various contexts.

A question can be raised here: is it really important to study something beyond

the ideas presented in the texts? The answer is ‘yes’ because text development
varies from culture to culture. An explanation text, for example, may share some
elements in two cultures, but there is no guarantee that the two cultures have
identical elements. That may be the reason why learners do not only learn

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English at sentence level; they need to know how English texts unfold. To learn
communication is to learn how a text unfolds.

In planning the scaffolding activities, teachers can use any strategies and
techniques they have learned in order to make the teaching engaging. Making
the learning fun is also an important consideration given that writing is not an
easy skill to develop.

3. Joint Construction of Text

After exposing learners to the model texts, learners start to develop their writing
skills. To learn writing, there is an important step teachers cannot ignore, that is,
writing in groups or jointly constructing the targeted texts. This is an important
step in scaffolding writing.

Teachers can give tasks to students to do written transactions and casual chats
with friends using emails or gadgets. In groups they can write short functional
texts for different contexts and then they can also create explanation texts.
Students may choose a different topic, but the communicative purpose remains
the same: explaining.

Students are given the opportunity to learn together in how to use dictionaries,
finding sources in the Internet, checking conventions and so on. Together they
learn how to structure explanation texts, to construct noun phrases, to find
technical terms, to write drafts using the template, to correct grammatical
mistakes, to peer review and so on. These are just some of the activities that can
be used for scaffolding.

4. Independent Construction of Text

After the joint construction activities, teacher can start with the independent
writing activities. This does not mean that students must work 100%
independently. When needed, students can always consult with teachers or
their peers.

At the end of this stage, students are expected to present their written
explanations. When they do, they prove that they can explain something in
writing. When they do, teachers can say that the teaching has or has not been
successful.

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Students can then ‘publish’ and share their writing in different ways. They can
display the works on the walls, class blog, etc.

5. Linking Related Texts

At this stage creativity is encouraged to create different explanation texts in

different contexts. Students can create colorful explanation brochures, flyers,
booklets and so on. By doing these activities, students are given the
opportunities to display their potential academically and artistically.

Literacy Practice
The previous discussion shows us that when teaching language at school, what
we do is not simply teaching communication. What we do is ‘changing the
behavior’ from making meanings in the spoken ways to making meanings the
written ways. They are two different ways of doing things. We, teachers, need to
develop both ways of making meanings: the spoken and written ways. As an
illustration, we will examine what kind of transformation students need to go
through as we write the lesson plan.

From Spoken to Written Language

The following text is a transcript of Lady Gaga’s monolog in an interview with
Dalai Lama that can be found in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUSE1CKDMQ

The text transcribes Lady Gaga’s speech as is in the speech-written-down style.

(a)

the really fantastic thing about kindness is that it’s free… and it can’t hurt you or
anybody else… it is the thing that brings us all together… in time of chaos and
crisis… what we all tend to do is start pointing fingers at where we think the bad
guys are… where the evil is… we all start arguing, everybody has different
opinions about that … please do not forget… hatred or evil, whatever you want
to call it… is intelligent. It’s smart and it’s invisible. It doesn’t have a color, I

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doesn’t have a race, it doesn’t have a religion, it has no politics… it’s an invisible
snake that while it is planning to make its attack, it is thinking to itself I am going
to divide my enemy into smaller less strong groups and then I am going to make
them hate each other so that it’s easier to take them down… and as we’re all
yelling at each other… trying to figure out which group it is that’s causing the
problem, evil’s winning… all around us… we need to shift the perspective … the
solution is that we need to build a kinder and braver world… get rid of those
labels … these different factions… gay, straight… rich, poor… mentally ill, not
mentally ill… gun owner, not gun owner… none of this can matter anymore,,, we
are unified in our humanity and the only thing that we all know, we all
appreciate in one another, is kindness… so this has to come before all things and
you must operate relentlessly this way… with everything you have…

For foreign language learners, transcribing a speech such as this or a

conversation accurately is quite a big effort. This is about transforming sounds
into written symbols in a foreign language. The learners need to know grammar,
vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation etc. in order to understand the meanings
conveyed by the speaker. Transcribing can be used as a technique of teaching
writing for beginners. However, writing takes much more than simply
transcribing.

The transcript needs to be transformed into a piece of writing by using writing

conventions where people can clearly see the sentences. People can see the
beginning of a sentence by looking at the capital letter; they can see the end of
a sentence when there is a dot, etc. This is a discourse skill whereby the writer
interprets the whole text, the elements of the text and how those elements are
represented in paragraphs and so on. The above text can be written, with slight
modifications, as follows.

(b)

Kindness is fantastic because it is free and it cannot hurt anybody. It is the thing
that brings us together.

In times of chaos and crisis we tend to point fingers at whoever we think as the
bad guys or the evils. We start arguing and presenting different opinions.
However, we sometimes forget that hatred or evil is intelligent. It is smart and
invisible. It does not have a color, a race, religion or politics. It is an invisible

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snake that while it is planning to make its attack, it is thinking of dividing its
enemy into smaller and less strong groups that hate each other. In this way, it is
easier to take the enemies down.

In the meantime the groups are yelling at each other and trying to figure out
which group it is that is causing the problem. This is when evil is winning. It
happens all around us and that is why we need to shift our perspective. The
solution is that we need to build a kinder and a braver world. We need to get rid
of labels such as gay and straight, rich and poor, mentally ill and not mentally ill,
gun owner and not gun owner, and so on. None of this can matter anymore.

When those issues do not matter anymore, we are unified in our humanity. The
only thing that matters is that we all appreciate each other’s kindness. Kindness
has to come before everything else. We need to operate relentlessly with
everything we have.

Obviously, transforming the spoken style into the written style (text b) involves a
lot of decision-makings such as phrasing, sentencing, paragraphing, all of which
demands knowledge of metalanguage. Metalanguage is the language to talk
about language. Unless a learner knows what a sentence is or what a paragraph
is or what present tense is, s/he will not be able to achieve this level of writing.
Therefore, building knowledge or explicit teaching about language cannot be
ignored.

This kind of text can still be transformed further especially when we teach adult
learners with higher literacy level. This seemingly mundane text can be made
into a more scientific style by including noun phrases to increase lexical density.
Text (c) below displays the transformation into a more written style.

(c)

The greatest thing about kindness is that it is free. Acting in kindness comes at
no great cost or risk of inflicting harm upon oneself or others. It is the great
catalyst that unites people of all creeds.

Human beings often feel the need to understand the evil that lies at the heart of
great chaos and turmoil. There is often a moral drive to identify the villains if
only to put a face on this evil. What follows, almost invariably, is the tendency to
draw lines in the sand, to smear and vilify the other.

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While evil is abstract and inanimate, hatred is conscious and tangible. Hatred is
cunning and invisible. It knows neither color nor race. It acts without regard for
neither religion nor politics; it is an unseen serpent poised to strike with a
singular purpose: to sow discord and division. Once divided, society will fracture
into smaller, more vulnerable factions, turning on each other, paving the way
towards destruction. And all the while we will remain oblivious, pointing fingers
and laying blame while evil triumphs.

Perspective is key. The solution is to foster a kinder and braver world that is not
defined by factions and labels like gay, straight, rich, poor, mentally ill, sane, gun
owners, non-gun-owners. These things can no longer be made to matter.
Humanity is united by the common belief that kindness can be found in one
another. It is this belief that must take precedence in finding common ground on
which fruitful alliances can be built in the pursuit of real solutions. (Written by
Aditya Nugraha)

When we see texts (a), (b) and (c) above we can see three stages of
transformation. First, the transformation from spoken into written symbols,
second from written symbols into a holistic text and third, from a ‘simple’
holistic text into a more lexically dense written style.

In summary, developing the four language skills is never a simple matter. The
outcomes of every lesson unit need to be clear. The stages of development need
to be specific and the scaffolding activities need to be carefully planned. It takes
around five weeks or one month to develop the ability to explain various texts.

The following link can help improve your understanding about this topic.
https://www.oup.com.au/books/higher-education/education/9780190303686-
teaching-language-in-context

Reflective Questions

1. Why do we need to organize our teaching plan using the spoken and written
cycles?
2. Mention the stages in each cycle and explain what scaffolding activities you can
plan for the stages.
3. Plan scaffolding activities for building knowledge stage in the spoken cycle.
4. Explain how the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are built in

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the spoken and written cycles.

5. What kind of grammar do students need in order to transform their spoken
language to written language?
6. Do you think explicit English grammar instruction is needed? Why?

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 42

Introduction
Generally speaking, the text-based approach in developing language skills starts
from the development of spoken language skills. The reason is that all children
learn spoken language first and they only start learning the written mode when
they start school. This normally happens when the language taught is their first
or second language. In countries such as Australia and Singapore, English is used
in daily life so that children in those countries naturally learn the spoken
language first. The children start to learn written English when they are at
school. When they start school, they have already acquired some spoken English
and it is only natural that schools start teaching English in its spoken mode.

This situation is very different from that of teaching English in foreign language
(EFL) contexts where children come to school without any English background.
Very often, the teachers too, do not speak English well. This maybe the reason
why English teaching in EFL contexts tend to start with the teaching of written
English such as formal grammar, vocabulary, reading skills and so on. When
students have learned the knowledge of written language, they start learning
the spoken English such as conversation and speech.

When I asked Indonesian teachers of English (through a polling) whether they

prefer to start teaching English from the spoken or the written mode, most of
them prefer to start from the written language. They said that by learning the

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written language first the learners have some knowledge that would make the
learning of the spoken language easier. Both teachers, and possibly students,
feel more ‘secure’ to acquire some written knowledge first and then they are
ready to move to the spoken mode.

It is for this reason that this book offers a different starting point in
implementing a text-based approach in teaching English in EFL contexts. This
chapter will discuss the teaching of written English and the next chapter will
discuss the teaching of spoken English.

Cycle and Stages in Developing Written

Language
Referring to the explanation in Chapter 3, this section displays the illustrations of
how the teaching and learning are conducted step by step. The text type used as
the illustration is a text called ‘procedure’. The main goal of this cycle is to
enable students to WRITE procedural texts. The topic can vary depending on the
contexts of use. As an example, the topic chosen in this section is ‘food’. At the
end of the cycle, students are expected to be able to write Indonesian recipes in
English.

The communicative purpose

of procedural text is to give
instruction systematically.
The generic structure
includes the goal,
materials, method and
possibly other elements
(non generic) where
needed. The linguistic
features include
imperative structures, noun
phrases, action verbs,
adverbs, abbreviations and
conjunctions. Here are the stages of implementation.

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After deciding that the topic is food, we can choose a procedural text commonly
associated with food and that is a recipe. This means that at the end of the
cycle, students are expected to be able to write their local recipes in English.

The recipe chosen in this section is an Indonesian recipe of nasi goreng or fried
rice. This food is widely known in Asian countries and beyond. The source of this
recipe is http://paiskitchen.com/nasi-goreng/. By reading this authentic recipe,
teachers know what the target text looks like. This implies that the teaching is
successful when students can write similar recipe texts at the end of the
teaching cycle.

Generic GOAL Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)

Structure MATERIALS OR Serve 3
(Compulsory) INGREDIENTS • 1 head shallot, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 – 1½ tsp shrimp paste (depending
how strong of a shrimp paste flavour
you like)
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp kecap manis (sweet soy
sauce)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sambal oelek (chili paste)
• 400g steamed jasmine rice, cold if
possible
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 green onion, chopped
• Optional: any protein/vegetables you
want to add (see note)
Note: If you’re using raw protein, I would
just cook it first, take it out of the pan, and
then add it back in when you add the rice.
METHOD OR • Pound garlic, shallots, and shrimp paste
INSTRUCTIONS in a mortar and pestle into a rough
paste.
• In a small bowl, combine kecap manis,
fish sauce, and sambal oelek; stir to
combine.
• Fry the eggs sunny side up, or to your
liking, and set aside.
• In a wok, add a little vegetable oil and
saute the herb paste until aromatic. If
adding meat or vegetables, add them
at this point and toss just to heat them

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through.
• Add rice, then pour the sauce mixture
over the rice and add the salt.
• Turn the heat up to high and toss,
breaking up rice lumps by pressing
them down with a spatula.
• Once there are no more lumps and the
rice grains are dry and evenly coated in
the sauce, turn off the heat and toss in
half of the green onions.
• Plate the rice, and arrange all the fixins
around/on the rice. Top with the
remaining green onions.
Non-generic or FIXINS • Sunny side up eggs, 1 per person
additional • Shrimp crackers (krupuk)
elements when • Fried shallots (see instructions below,
Necessary. for video instructions see this video
@1:30)
Some short • Fresh tomato and/or cucumber slices
functional texts • Pickled cucumber & carrots (see recipe
are often below)
found. Indonesian Pickled Cucumber and Carrots
(Acar)
• 1 cup carrot, cut into 1.5-inch sticks
• 1 cup cucumber, 1.5-inch sticks
• ½ head shallot, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• Any kind of fresh chilies, to taste
(optional)
• ¾ cup white vinegar
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
INSTRUCTION • For pickles: In a small pot, combine
FOR FIXINS vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, shallots and
chilies; bring to a boil. Meanwhile,
place carrots and cucumber into a glass
jar or another container that is heat-
proof and acid-safe. Pour the boiled
pickling liquid over the vegetables,
making sure everything is submerged.
Close the container jar, and once it is
cooled to room temperature, it is ready
to use. Store in the fridge.
• For Fried Shallots: Thinly slice shallots

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lengthwise and spread them out on a

piece of paper towel. Sprinkle salt over
them and let sit for at least 10 minutes
to let the salt draw out the moisture.
Once the moisture has been drawn out,
pat the shallots dry with a double layer
of paper towel. Fry them on LOW heat
in a small pot or a round-bottomed
wok, with just enough oil to submerge
them. Once they turn a deep golden
colour, and the bubbling has subsided,
fish them out with a mesh skimmer and
drain them on paper towel. This may
take 7-10 minutes depending on your
heat and how much you are frying.
They will darken a bit more once you’ve
taken them out, so be careful not to let
them get too dark. They also burn
quickly so do not walk away!
• For Shrimp Crackers: If you wish, break
the dry shrimp crackers into 2-3 pieces
as they expand a lot once fried. Heat
about 1 inch of oil to 375°F and fry the
crackers, no more than 3 at a time.

Stage 1: Building Knowledge of the Field

The fried rice recipe above shows that there is so much knowledge to learn
before one is expected to write a recipe. To write the ingredients, students need
to learn measurements (3/4, 400 gr), abbreviations (tbs, tsp), food vocabulary
(garlic, jasmine rice, etc.), and noun phrases (1 head shallot, 3 cloves garlic).

To write the method or instructions, learners need to learn some action verbs or
material processes (pound, combine, fry, etc.), imperative structure (Add rice,
Turn the heat up, etc.), adverbials (in a mortar, by pressing them down, thinly,
over the river, etc.), and conjunction (once).

For about 90 minutes or so, teachers need to address the knowledge needed in
creating a procedural text. How do we teach this knowledge? This is where you
find the teaching methods and techniques you have learned before useful. This
is where scaffolding takes place in the forms of activities that you might have
learned from so many sources.

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Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘building knowledge of
the field’ for an 80-minute session.

Stage 2: Modeling of Text (Developing Reading Skills)

At this stage, learners develop the reading skills. Teachers need to provide
samples of procedural text such as recipes and short functional texts related to
recipes such as the ones under FIXINS in the above recipe. Authentic texts found
in food wrappings often contain procedural texts. Students can be assigned to
find their procedural texts and short functional texts in the food packages and so
on.

Cooking tips can also be considered as short functional texts that do not display
particular structures but they are often found in cooking sites or recipe books.
They are instructional in nature. Here are some examples.

TIPS FOR COOKING STEAK

Let the meat rest. Twice.
Cold steaks don’t cook evenly. Placing a chilled piece of meat in a pan or on the
grill makes it difficult for the heat to reach the center. Let the steak rest out on
the counter at least 30 minutes before cooking.

Sear hot.
Whether you are grilling your steaks or searing them in a cast iron skillet, always
start with high heat. A hot cooking surface is extremely important to caramelize
the outside of the steak and lock in the juices and flavor.

High heat also creates the textural diversity of steak-house quality steaks: crispy
on the outside, yet moist and tender on the inside.

Source: https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/5-best-tips-for-
cooking-steak/

While reading, teachers also address the communicative purpose, the generic
structure and the linguistic features. Teachers can use teaching reading methods
and techniques they have learned from other ELT sources. The activities are

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aimed at scaffolding the attainment of reading competence as an important skill

in schooling.

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘modeling of text’ for an
80-minute session.

Stage 3: Joint Construction of Text (Developing Writing

Skills)
At this stage, teachers start to develop the writing skills. To do that, teachers
need to provide an opportunity for the students to work collaboratively.
Students are assigned to produce the English recipes of the food they eat
regularly at school through discussions with friends, organizing thoughts
together, finding words needed, attending to the text structures, using
dictionaries and other scaffolding activities.

The purpose of this stage is to build confidence before the students are asked to
write independently. Through these processes, teachers can help students, for
instance, by class writing, that is, a teacher writes the first sentence on the
board and asks students to contribute the following sentences to create a story.
This technique applies in the teaching of procedural texts too.

For students in Thailand, for example, students can be assigned to write the
recipe of ‘pineapple rice’ by making use of the learners’ experiences in reading
the ‘fried rice text’ or nasi goreng. The outcomes of their joint constructions
may look like the following recipe.

Thai Pineapple Rice

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil or quality vegetable oil, divided

• 2 eggs, beaten with a dash of salt
• 1 ½ cups chopped fresh pineapple
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• ¾ cup chopped green onions (about ½ bunch)

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• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

• ½ cup chopped raw, unsalted cashews
• 2 cups cooked and chilled brown rice*, preferably long-grain brown jasmine
rice
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari or soy sauce
• 1 to 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce or sriracha
• 1 small lime, halved
• Salt, to taste
• Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, torn into little pieces, for garnishing

Instructions

1. Heat a large wok, cast iron skillet or non-stick frying pan over medium-high
heat and place an empty serving bowl nearby. Once the pan is hot enough
that a drop of water sizzles on contact, add 1 teaspoon oil. Pour in the eggs
and cook, stirring frequently, until the eggs are scrambled and lightly set,
about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer the eggs to the empty bowl. Wipe out
the pan if necessary with a paper towel (be careful, it’s hot!).
2. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and add the pineapple and red pepper. Cook,
stirring constantly, until the liquid has evaporated and the pineapple is
caramelized on the edges, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then add the green onion
and garlic. Cook until fragrant while stirring constantly, about 30 seconds.
Transfer the contents of the pan to your bowl of eggs.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining 2 teaspoons oil to the
pan. Pour in the cashews and cook until fragrant, stirring constantly, about 30
seconds. Add the rice to the pan and stir to combine. Cook until the rice is hot,
stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.
4. Pour the contents of the bowl back into the pan and stir to combine, breaking
up the scrambled eggs with your spoon. Cook until the contents are warmed
through, then remove the pan from heat. Add the tamari and chili garlic
sauce, to taste. Squeeze the juice of ½ lime over the dish and stir to combine.
Season to taste with salt and set aside.
5. Slice the remaining ½ lime into 4 wedges. Transfer the stir-fry to individual
serving bowls and garnish each bowl with a lime wedge and a light sprinkle
of cilantro. Serve with bottles of tamari and chili garlic sauce or sriracha on
the side, for those who might want to add more to their bowls.

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The short functional texts can be in the form of tips such as follows.

Rice notes: For 2 cups cooked rice, you’ll need to cook up about ⅔ cup dry rice. To
cook the rice, rinse it well in a fine mesh colander, then bring a large pot of water
to boil. Add the rice and let it boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Drain off the
remaining cooking water, then return the rice to the pot. Cover the pot and let
the rice steam, off the heat, for 10 minutes. To chill the rice ASAP, spread it
across a parchment paper-lined rimmed baking sheet and let it cool in the
refrigerator.
Source: https://cookieandkate.com/2015/thai-pineapple-fried-rice-recipe/

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘joint construction’ for an
80-minute session.

Stage 4: Independent Construction of Text (Developing

Indent Writing Skills)
At this stage, students are expected to be ready to write individually or
independently. This does not mean that they cannot get assistance at all. A
student can still ask questions to the teacher or fellow students when they have
problem.

Students can be asked to write the recipe of their favorite food or food that is
commonly found in their country and short functional texts that include
instructions. By discussing food that belongs to their own culture, it is expected
that students do not have many problems about the content of the writing. All
they worry about is the language and to organize the writing the English way.

Students with Chinese background can be assigned to write the recipe of

Chinese Fried Rice such as the following.

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Chinese Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 3
⁄4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (or more eggs if you like)
• 3 drops soy sauce
• 3 drops sesame oil
• 8 ounces cooked lean boneless pork or 8 ounces chicken, chopped
• 1
⁄2 cup finely chopped carrot (very small)
• 1
⁄2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 4 cups cold cooked rice, grains separated (preferably medium grain)
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (add more if you like)

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok; add chopped onions and stir-fry until onions turn a
nice brown color, about 8-10 minutes; remove from wok.
2. Allow wok to cool slightly.
3. Mix egg with 3 drops of soy and 3 drops of sesame oil; set aside.
4. Add 1/2 tbsp oil to wok, swirling to coat surfaces; add egg mixture; working
quickly, swirl egg until egg sets against wok; when egg puffs, flip egg and
cook other side briefly; remove from wok, and chop into small pieces.
5. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok; add selected meat to wok, along with carrots, peas,
and cooked onion; stir-fry for 2 minutes.
6. Add rice, green onions, and bean sprouts, tossing to mix well; stir-fry for 3
minutes.
7. Add 2 tbsp of light soy sauce and chopped egg to rice mixture and fold in; stir-
fry for 1 minute more; serve.
8. Set out additional soy sauce on the table, if desired.
Source: https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/chinese-fried-rice-38748

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To assess the students’ writing, teachers need to include the communicative

purpose, the generic structure and the linguistic features of the final product.
Writing rubrics that can be found in other assessment sources can also be used.

Reflective Task

Write some instructions for your students so that they know the
procedure/activities of the individual construction.

Stage 5: Linking Related Texts (Other Forms of

Instructional Texts)
At this stage, students are given the opportunity to find and create other types
of instructional texts in order to raise awareness about how else people create
instructional texts. Texts such as ‘tips’ can be easily found in the Internet
nowadays. One example of such a text can be found in
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/habits.html in which the writer gives some
advice about healthy eating. Some of the tips include:
1. Have regular family meals.
2. Serve a variety of healthy foods and snacks.
3. Be a role model by eating healthy yourself.
4. Avoid battles over food.
5. Involve kids in the process.
(The rest of the text can be found in the site)

If students want to discuss other topics or texts they find in daily life, teachers
are suggested to make allowances to encourage students to relate what they
learn with what they find in the surroundings. Here is an example of
instructional text found in a box of pain relief plaster.
• Apply once a day, each time 1 patch.
• For external application only.
• Avoid contacts with eyes and mucous membranes when in use.
• Do not apply on wounded skin.
• Consult a Chinese medicine practitioner or seek advice from a doctor before
the use of this product by children
• Store in cool and dry place.

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• Avoid direct exposure to sunlight.

• Keep out of reach of children

Short functional texts that contain one or two or more can also be found in
public places. Students can be assigned to explore those texts such as:

• Stop
• No smoking
• Keep left
• No overtaking
• Shake before use
• Etc.
This activity can be followed by asking students to create instructional texts to
be placed around the school. In this way, the teaching/ learning procedural texts
can be put in direct use.

Students with different interests can create more procedural texts for different
topics such as ‘how to make a kite, how to make origami doll, how to install an
application’ and so on.

This chapter has managed to discuss the implementation of TBA in order to

develop the written language skills, namely reading and writing. The discussion
shows that in order to make students write authentic texts there are some
stages that students need to go through. The teachers’ job is to scaffold the
lessons by creating activities and providing sample texts and the relevant
lexicogrammatical knowledge to boost the students’ performance.
In the next chapter, the discussion of how to develop spoken language skills
using a text-based approach will be presented.

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘linking related texts’ for
an 80-minute session.

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Introduction
In Chapter 4 we have discussed how written language skills (reading and writing)
are developed through the stages in the written cycle. This chapter will show the
cycle and stages in order to develop spoken language skills (listening and
speaking). Thus, this chapter is continuation of the previous chapter in that this
chapter still focuses on procedural text.

The communicative purpose of the text is to show audience how to give

instructions systematically so that the audience can carry out a series of
activities to achieve the goal. The text structure is also the same in that it
displays the elements of goal, materials/ingredients and method/steps.
However, in terms of language features, the written and spoken modes of
communication display quite different features that those foreign language
learners do not hear in daily life. Thanks to technology, nowadays many EFL
learners have access to sites that show models of authentic spoken
communication in English. In the illustrations, some links are provided here to
raise awareness of how easy it can be to find teaching materials related to
spoken language.

We will start the discussion by examining the cycle and stages in developing
spoken language and what can happen in each stage.

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Cycle and Stages in Developing Spoken

Language

Stage 1: Building
Knowledge of the
Field
After developing know-
ledge and skills of
creating procedural
texts in written mode,
the students have
accumulated a
considerable amount of
knowledge that can be used
in the spoken mode. In terms
of grammar, the students
have learned the imperative The cycle and stages in developing
pattern in order to give spoken language
instructions. In the spoken mode they are supposed to do the same, but the
instructions may be linguistically realized in different patterns. In the written
mode one can write a straightforward imperative such as Pound garlic, shallots,
and shrimp paste in a mortar and pestle into a rough paste. In the spoken mode,
the instruction can be delivered in a declarative pattern as in Now… you pound
the garlic like this… etc.

Regarding the noun phrase patterns, students have learned the efficient way of
putting words together so that they do not need to use many words to describe
the ingredients such as 400g steamed jasmine rice, cold if possible. However, in
a cooking show, one cannot simply read the noun phrase aloud because if they
do, they sound like reading aloud and not naturally communicating. If that is so,
what kind of spoken language knowledge do the students need to learn?

The phrase 400g steamed jasmine rice, cold if possible is a noun and when it is
read out loud the speaker does not seem to have some ‘interpersonal touch’;

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s/he sounds like a book. Spoken language is an interpersonal language; it is

about ‘you and I’ and that is why spoken language tends to be long with a lot of
frills, not very efficient and tend to be messy at times. In order to express the
same meaning of 400g steamed jasmine rice, cold if possible, one can say:

You see… you need rice, steamed rice like this… you don’t need much… just 400
grams… and I think jasmine rice makes the best fried rice… so you steam it until
soft like this… but don’t fry the rice straight away … you need to let it cool… you
can put it in the fridge if you like… and you can use it the next day

This example shows that spoken language uses features that are not used in
written language. Features such as spontaneity, interactivity, interpersonality
and frequent referencing to the context are displayed in the text. This can only
be learned when students are exposed to authentic materials. These materials
can raise awareness regarding the features students need to attend to.

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘building knowledge of
the field’ for an 80-minute session.

Stage 2: Modeling of Text (Developing Listening Skills)

At this stage, students develop the listening skills that include listening to
transactional conversations, casual conversations, short functional texts and
monolog of procedural text. Teachers can explore what authentic materials to
download from the Internet to be used in teaching.

Transactional conversations can be conversations in the market place such as

grocery shopping, ordering food in the restaurant, conversation in the kitchen
and so on. Casual conversations can include dinner table conversations,
conversations in school canteen and so on. The short functional texts can
include spoken announcements in supermarkets, in schools and so on. The
procedural monolog can be in the form of cooking demonstration or show that
can be found in different sites.

The methods and techniques of teaching listening you have learned from
different sources can be used at this stage and so can the techniques of

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assessing listening to develop the skills. Equally important is making the

students notice the spoken language features found in the sample texts because
at the end of the day students will be assigned to create the spoken texts.

Given the complexity of the texts it is suggested that teachers use audiovisual
materials that resemble real communication. Some cooking shows found in
YouTube site can be used.

As an illustration, the transcript of fried rice cooking show found in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVr383Ip-fc can be used as a model text to
develop listening skills.

This is how the transcript goes:

hey everyone welcome to Pai's kitchen …today we're going to travel to Indonesia
… and make one of the classic dishes ‘nasi goreng’ and that just literally means
fried rice …now the first time I had Indonesian food I fell in love with the flavors
instantly, and I think it's because Indonesian cuisine uses a lot of the same
ingredients as Thai cuisine so the flavors were just super familiar to me as I'm
super excited to be doing one of their dishes on Pai’s kitchen today so let's get
started so we're gonna start by making herb paste it's the base of the fried rice
so some garlic into the my mortar and pestle here and also shallots so thinly
sliced shallots and shallots as I found out is used a lot in Indonesian cuisine as it
is in Thai’s cuisine…shrimp paste so this is shrimp paste now I've used shrimp
paste before on hot Thai kitchen but the shrimp paste that I'm using today is
Malaysian shrimp paste which is closer to Indonesian shrimp paste and Thai
soup pastes so it comes in a block like this Thai shrimp paste is usually not as
hard and it comes in a tub however they're more or less the same so if you have
tight shrimp paste you don't need to go and get another one like this I just
wanted to show you and then the package this is the one that I have it's called
‘belacan’ that's in Malay in Indonesian it'll be called ‘terasi’ and in Thai it's ‘gapi’
they smell the same I tasted this straight up and it tastes a little bit different but
really doesn't matter so minor so I'm gonna pound this up into a paste just like
that is fine just a rough paste it doesn't need to be liquefied or superfine okay
let's make the sauce which I love the sauce because it's so quick and easy I have
got here some sweet soy sauce so this is Indonesian sweet soy sauce it's called
‘kecap manis’ if you have a Thai sweet soy sauce I haven't tasted them side by
side but I'm gonna guess that you can use that as well it's very thick very sweet

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it's got an intensive molasses flavor to it and then fish sauce so when I went to
culinary school I had a friend who's from Indonesia and she kept saying sweet
soy sauce the only thing sweet soy sauce the most important thing in Indonesian
cuisine and so I haven't met I haven't seen over years but the one thing I do
remember about her is how passionate she was about sweet soy sauce and I'm
also going to add some spicy some sambal and this is just ground-up chili and
vinegar I'm going to put quite a bit here because I don't think it's very spicy
alright so that's it that's the sauce super-easy now one quick thing before we get
cooking protein as I said nasi goreng just means fried rice which means you can
put anything in it that you want …

This is just the beginning part of the whole transcript. The purpose of showing
this is to raise awareness that spoken language can be messy, long and anything
can happen in the process of text production. Students who listen to such a text
need to develop the skills of distinguishing, which bits of information are
relevant and which are not.

The benefit of using such a text for teaching listening is that the students get to
see interpersonal nature of spoken language. Unlike the written recipe, this text
contains many ‘you’ and ‘I’. Coupled with intonation, facial expressions and body
language, such a text can represent authentic communication.

The speaker also uses evaluative language to express her feelings about some
things such as fell in love instantly, super familiar, super fine, which I love, etc.
This demonstrates that learning spoken monolog needs to go beyond the
content of the recipe; there are many interpersonal things attached to spoken
language. This may be the reason why many foreign language teachers think
that they find it ‘easier’ to handle written language.

At this stage, teachers also present conversations to be used as model texts

students can listen to. Students need to listen and watch some transactional and
casual conversations that might involve the acts of giving and receiving
instructions. The following conversation transcript shows how transactional
conversation is done. This transcript can be found at https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AHQneE5FJ1o

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Order a Delivery
00:17 Hello, Lee’s Garden Cuisine. What would you like to order?
00:21 Hello, I’d like to hear your specials, please.
00:25 Sure Sir, we have Wonton noodles, Hakka noodles, Crispy lamb, Veg,
Chicken or Pork Dim sums.
00:34 Okay, I’d like to order Wonton noodles and Chicken Dim Sum for two.
00:39 Is that all, Sir? Would you like to order some starters or soup?
00:44 Ummm, no thanks, that’s it. My address is 42 Beverly Street.
00:49 Okay, that’s $34 and your order will be delivered within 30 minutes.
01:00 Hey Tom! I want to order delivery today. Any recommendations?
01:04 What cuisine do you want, Sarah?
01:06 Ummm, Chinese or maybe Italian.
01:09 If you want Chinese, you’ve got to order from Lee’s Garden, they make
awesome sizzlers.
01:14 For Italian, Pizzeria Roza is excellent. They make authentic Pizza pies.
01:20 Okay, awesome! Tell me the numbers of both restaurants, will ya?
01:24 No problem!
01:31 Hello, this is the Thai Bamboo Restaurant. What would you like to order?
01:36 Well, I am not really sure. I’ve never eaten Thai food before. Any
suggestions?
01:41 We’ve got Pad Thai noodles, Duck curry, Fresh broccoli with oyster sauce
and Thai bamboo cashew nut.
01:49 Wow! So many options. Why don’t you tell me what could be a good
combination?
01:55 I’d recommend Pad Thai noodles and Fresh broccoli with oyster sauce,
that’s our special.
02:01 Okay, that sounds nice. I’ll go with your choice. My address is 689
Hampton place.
02:08 Your order will be delivered in 30 minutes. Will you be paying in cash?
02:14 Yep, no problem.
02:16 Please pay the delivery boy $32.
02:19 Alright.
02:21 Thank you. Hope to serve you again soon.

Transactional conversation such as this may not present many challenges to the
student because the trajectory of the conversation is quite predictable. The

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speakers start with greetings, followed by offering and detailing food and finally
some orders are placed. The conversation is not long and the students can
concentrate on the content of the talk. Teachers can ask comprehension
questions and any other questions that have to do with culture and so on.
A more challenging task comes when students listen to a casual conversation
since it is usually long, the topic is often unpredictable and the speakers can
stop anytime. Thus, the conversation structure is very dynamic as if ‘anything
goes’ and this makes it difficult to teach. Still, learners need to be presented
with model texts to raise the awareness of what to expect when they are
involved in casual conversations.
The following text is a part of a conversation transcript found in https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVilq1cv84Y
Dinner-table Conversation
01:09 Years ago, when you and I and Debbie Boon
01:12 did some things.
01:14 - Hold on let me grab that
01:16 aim you just dropped. (everyone laughing)
01:21 - I remember it was at Anderson University.
01:23 - [Sandi] Yes.
01:24 - And I told you that night I said,
01:25 "I am so thankful I was born in your lifetime."
01:28 - [Sandi] Oh.
01:29 - To hear that voice.
01:30 I remember I was sitting with my friend Dina
01:32 at the outdoor theater in LA,
01:34 that beautiful amphitheater thing.
01:36 - The Greek.
01:37 - The Greek? - Or the, yeah.
01:38 - You were at it. (Andrew laughs)
01:39 - Yeah.
01:40 - It was your concert, it was sold out.
01:42 And I remember, this was before I knew you,
01:43 before I was, had my big break that you gave me.
01:46 - Well we got to talk about that.
01:47 - Yeah, but let me just say (Andrew laughing)

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01:48 I remember thinking, "I wish she knew my name."

01:51 - Oh. - Isn't that weird?
01:52 - And here we are!
01:53 - And here we are,
01:54 so, so. - Having dinner!
01:55 - Yeah right. (Sandi laughs)
01:57 She knows it know. (laughs)
01:59 - At Estes Park. (Sandi and Andrew laugh)
02:01 I'm finally getting to sing at Estes Park.
02:03 - [Sandi] Yes.
02:04 - And the night--
02:05 - [Sandi] This was year.
02:06 - 1988. - Okay.
02:07 - I know exactly, I can tell you what I was wearing.
02:09 (Sandi and Andrew laugh)
02:10 I see that uh,
02:13 Dallas Holme was supposed to introduce me in the morning.
02:16 And I want you to, because the two biggest stars
02:19 in our world at that time were Amy Grant and Sandi Patty.
02:21 There were no bigger stars, I mean
02:24 superstars, all right, and everybody else was down here,
02:27 right? (Andrew laughs)
02:28 So she introduces me, she doesn't know what I'm gonna do,
02:30 she introduces me and I said, "Thank you Amy
02:32 "for that wonderful introduction."
02:34 (Andrew laughing) - Yeah totally.
02:35 - I said your first album My Father's Eyes
02:36 is still my favorite. (Andrew and Sandi laugh)
02:39 And then I said, "Are you all ready to rock and roll?"
02:41 They go, "Yes!"
02:42 I said, "Tough, I don't do that."
02:43 (everyone laughs)
02:44 - And in that moment I knew.
02:46 I, I think I wet my pants
02:49 in that moment, I think I did. (Mike and Andrew laugh)
02:52 I'd never heard such smart comedy.

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02:56 It was just the most brilliant 10 minutes

02:58 I've ever seen in my whole life.
03:01 - So you are, retiring.
03:04 - Well, slash--
03:06 - You know I am.
03:07 - You are, farewell tour's going good, huh?
03:09 - It's done.
03:10 - It's done? - It's farewell.
03:11 (Andrew laughs) - You're not gonna do like
03:12 Cher and have an adios tour,
03:14 - I am not, I am not. - and I'll see you later tour,
03:15 and we'll be back in a minute tour.
03:16 - I'm not. - No you're done.
03:18 - I'm done.
03:18 I mean music has always been such a huge part of my life,
03:21 there's no way I can not
03:23 do music. - Of course, no.
03:25 - But being on the road.
03:27 It just looks very different on a 62 year old body than
03:31 on the 30 year old body. - Sure.
03:33 Around, when we went to the concert tours,
03:35 when my parents and I came to that,
03:36 and you see this picture,
03:38 to me this is the story of redemption
03:40 that's happening throughout your family.
03:41 But you see you, your husband Don,
03:44 you see one of Don's girls, you see your twins,
03:47 you see Katie, daughter-in-law, right?
03:50 - [Sandi] Mm-hm.
03:51 - So all this literally up on stage
03:52 - Yeah. - singing together.
03:54 - 'Cause you blended a family.
03:55 - I mean blending this right
03:57 in front of us. - And Ana who runs
03:59 the business and then, you know road manager,
04:01 - Don, right? (laughs) - son and you know.

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04:03 - It's a family corporation.

04:04 - We just employ them all. (Andrew laughs)
This kind of authentic text can be especially challenging when the students are
not familiar with the culture or the background knowledge shared by the
speakers. Challenging as it may be, learners need to be exposed to texts that
may represent the real communicative events they may encounter in the future.
With regard to short functional texts, teachers can use instructional texts found
in different sources. Airline announcements can be used as useful teaching
materials to develop listening skills. The following text, found in YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-P9HeZdj_4 is an example.

Flight Announcement

00:09 seated for takeoff

00:11 ladies and gentlemen a fine
00:12 entertainment is about to begin for
00:14 further details please refer to your
00:15 copy of the inside entertainment guide
00:17 found in the seat pocket in front of you
00:19 thank you

In this section we have discussed the model texts that are suggested to be used
as teaching materials to develop listening skills. The next step addresses the
development of speaking skills.

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of modeling of text for an
80-minute session.

Stage 3: Joint Construction of Texts (Developing

Conversational Skills)
At this stage, learners develop the speaking skills particularly how to carry out
conversation. Carrying out conversation is a joint effort of creating spoken text.
Together, students need to co-construct texts for different purposes in different
contexts.

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 64

 a
Teacher Development Series

There are two major types of conversation students need to learn: transactional
conversation and casual conversation. At this stage, students have been exposed
to both types of conversation as shown at stage 2 when they develop their
listening skills. The texts presented at stage 2 serve as model texts students
need to accomplish.

Since the topic discussed so far has to do with food and the text type is
instructional text, teachers can assign students to choose similar topics that
encourage students to produce conversations that include instructions. In other
words, the students learn how to exchange goods and services.

Some possible topics may include transactional conversations in the following

contexts:
• Buying food in the school canteen
• Ordering food from a restaurant through telephone or online
• Conversation between people cooking together in the kitchen
• Grocery shopping
• Etc.

Regarding casual conversations, teachers can assign students to develop and

demonstrate the ability to sustain relatively long conversations in the following
contexts:
• Dinner-table conversations
• Birthday-party conversations
• ‘Hang-out’ conversations
• ‘Food-lover’ or culinary conversations
• Etc.

Through these conversations, students are encouraged to collaborate in the

learning process. This collaboration might help to boost students’ confidence in
speaking. Various activities designed by teachers at the joint construction stage
are meant to scaffold the lesson in order to achieve the ultimate goals:
demonstrating the ability to carry out transactional and casual conversations.

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘joint construction of
text’ for an 80-minute session.

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 65

 a
Teacher Development Series

Stage 4: Independent Construction of Text

(Developing Monologue Skills)
The main goal of this stage is developing the leaners’ ability to carry out speech
or monologue independently. Consistent with the goal of the unit, the kind of
monologue students need to demonstrate is a monologue that is instructional in
nature and the topic is about food.

At stage 2, students have been exposed to spoken monologue commonly found

in YouTube sites and now it is their turn to do it. Some students have expressed
their interest to become a ‘youtuber’ as their career path to give information to
the world. With this development of technology, English language teaching can
significantly contribute to the students’ future career. With the skills, students
can introduce their cultures to the world.

In the contexts of Indonesia, for example, there are so many recipes from
different regions that can be of interest to those who want to learn about
Indonesia. A country with diverse languages and cultures offers a great variety of
food cultures that can be used as resources in ELT. The same applies to other
countries. The following topics may be of interest to those living in or learning
about Asian cultures:

• Singaporean Chicken Rice

• Vietnamese Pho
• Indonesian Satay
• Chinese Peking Duck
• Malay Laksa
• Thai Pad Thai
• Etc.

At the end of the lessons, when students are able to demonstrate the ability to
perform the monologues, they have achieved their communicative competence.

Reflective Task

Write some instructions for your students so that they know the procedure/
activities of the individual construction.

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 66

 a
Teacher Development Series

Stage 5: Linking Related Texts

Equipped with the knowledge and the four skills in procedural text discussed in
this chapter, students can be expected to create instructional monologues in
different topics. For examples, some male students might be interested to
demonstrate how to make a kite and some girls may be interested in
demonstrating their skills in origami.

Since students are doing monologues, they can also include small descriptions
that are necessary for the audience within the procedural texts. The model text
at stage 2 shows that sometimes people find some micro texts such as small
descriptions or explanations within the macro text (main text), which is
procedural.

Reflective Task

Plan and write some scaffolding activities for the stage of ‘linking related texts’ for
an 80-minute session.

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 67

So far we have managed to discuss an alternative way of teaching the English
language as a means of communication. This stance leads us to explore what it
takes to develop the abilities to communicate in spoken and written modes.
Some key elements that need to be considered in developing the English
communication program and skills have been presented to give some insights
regarding how to ‘translate’ the theories into practice.

The two underlying theories adopted here are, firstly, we look at language as a
social phenomenon whereby people exchange meanings in everyday life and,
secondly, people learn language from their social interactions with others.
Looking at language as a social activity implies that when learners lean a
language, they do not only learn language at the sentence level; they need to
attend to how people go about organizing text. Text is a level beyond the
sentence; it is the communication level. This is the reason why text is central in
this approach. The learning theory suggests that learning happens at social level
first and then at individual level. This implies that in order for learning to take
place, the learning experiences should include a lot of carefully planned
scaffolding activities in which learners interact with each other.

At the implementation levels, a framework in the forms of learning cycles and

stages has been presented. This framework has been widely used in different
countries such as Australia, Singapore and other Asian countries. In those
countries where English is taught as the first and second language, people
develop the spoken language first and then followed by the written language. In
this book, however, the order is reversed because the learners do not hear any
English outside the school and many English teachers do not speak English. It is
hoped that by learning some English in the written form first, learners and
teachers will feel more ready and confident to learn the spoken form of English.

Text-based Approach in English Language Teaching 68

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