ABSTRACT
The term genre is not new, of course. For more than a century, genres have been definedas written texts that are“(a) primarily literary, (b) entirely defined by textual regularities in form and content, (c) fixed and immutable, and (d) classifiable into neat and mutually exclusive categories and subcategories” (Freedman & Medway, 1994b, p. 1). The current reconceptualizations of genre challenge each of these traditional features. Experts argue that although all types of texts, literary and otherwise, might initially be identified by knowledgeable readers and writers through their conventions, as “typical forms of utterances” (Bakhtin, 1984, p. 63). those who understand and utilize specific genres have other cognitive and socially constructed tools that facilitate both text recognition and production. These include notions about context, content, readers’ and writers’ roles, community values, and so on (see, especially, Berkenkotter & Huckin. 1995; Halliday & Hasan, 1989; Purves, 1991). Thus, genre has become a term that refers to complex oral or written responses by speakers or writers to the demands of a social context. Yet, as Hyon (1996) and others have noted, there are considerable differences among theorists and practitioners about how genres should be described and what his term means for the classroom.
