Spoken academic genres Handout by Prof. R.

Mazzei
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Academic spoken genres

Introduction

Students are asked to produce many different kinds of texts when speaking.
Depending on your subject, these could be formal presentations, seminar
discussions, questions in a lecture, interviews, discussing methods in a practical
essays, justifying your research proposal, and so on and are normally referred
to as genres. Genres are defined by their purpose, their audience and their
structure. Looking at typical structures can help you with your organisation.
These different genres can be constructed from a small range of different text
types.

If, for example, you are asked to give an oral presentation to answer the
following question:

Discuss possible solutions to the problem of students´ drop-out of school in our

educational system.

You could answer it in the following way:

1. Define student´s drop-out, say what it is and give an example;

2. Explain why students ´drop-out is a problem in education today (and the
possible causes), and support your explanation by evidence from your
reading;
3. Describe some possible solutions to the problem of students´ drop-out in
our context. Again support your suggestions with evidence from your
reading;
4. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of each of the possible
solutions;
5. Decide which solution you would prefer and give reasons.

So in order to answer the question you need to be able to do the following

orally:

 Define
 Give an example
 Explain why / enumarate posible causes
 Support your explanation with evidence
 Describe a solution
 Describe advantages and disadvantages
 Choose
 Explain why

Bruce (2008) calls these various texts cognitive genres, but I have called them
Rhetorical Functions: see Functions.

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Here, we will pull together these different functional text types to show how the
larger genres (or part genres) you are expected to use when speaking can be
constructed from these shorter functional texts.

Fortanet (2005, p. 32) distinguishes the following academic spoken genres:

1. classroom genres
2. institutional genres
3. research genres:
a. conference genres
b. other research genres

Gillett & Hammond (2009) identified the following:

 Presentations (Individual/Group)
 Small Groups
 Meetings
 Debate
 Moot
 Defence (Art/Computer Programming/Engineering)
 Work (Health)
 Seminars
 Workshop
 Interview
 Poster Discussions

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 Teaching Practice
 Tutorial
 Oral Exams
 Viva

It would seem useful, therefore, for students to focus on these common spoken
genres:

 Lecture/Presentation
 Formal Meeting
 Colloquium/Seminar/Debate/Moot
 Defence/Viva (Dissertation/Poster/Art/Computing/Engineering)
 Interview
 Oral Exams
 Advising Sessions/Tutorial/ Office hours
 Lab Session/Workshop/Work/Teaching Practice
 Service Encounter
 Study Group

GUIDELINES FOR ORAL EXAMS

Consider these general parts for oral exams

 PREPARATION STAGE

 CORE STAGE (ORAL EXAM ITSELF)

 FOLLOW-UP

Rhetorical functions in academic speaking

Examples of texts and language. A good source of language is Leech &

Svartvik (1975). Typical rhetorical functions used in academic speaking are:

1. Describing objects, location, structure and direction

2. Reporting and narrating
3. Defining
4. Giving instructions
5. Describing processes, developments and operations
6. Classifying / categorising
7. Giving examples
8. Including tables and charts
9. Comparing and contrasting: similarities and differences
10. Generalising
11. Expressing degrees of certainty
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12. Expressing reasons and explanations / cause and effect

13. Arguing and discussing
14. Giving introductions
15. Drawing conclusions

What is morphology? What are some of the processes of morphological

changes? Give some examples.

Defining

Classifying / categorising

Exemplifying

What is the difference between blending and compounding?

Explain the difference between blending and compounding. Give examples.

Contrasting and exemplifying.

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SOME PRACTICAL IDEAS

A) Example: Based on the knowledge you have acquired by reading this text, fill in
the following bullet points.

In this chapter (name of chapter), the most common core concepts include:

 _______________________________________

 ___________________________________________

 ___________________________________________

 ___________________________________________

 ____________________________________________

 ____________________________________________

B) Thinking routine: Complete KWL chart (first two columns).

What I know (about the What I want to know What I learned

topic of the text)

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C) You may also try studyblue.com, an app that lets you create digital flashcards and
practice quizzes and also access information from a user-generated library of
explanations. MIND that these cards do not replace your readings from the
bibliography provided in every subject.
It looks like this:

D) Task: Completing Venn Diagram. Complete the left-hand circle of the diagram
with information you know or you think you may know about the concept defined
in the text you are going to read. You don´t have to read the text; this is just a
prediction stage in the reading process.

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E) Explain a concept and the related information by completing a Frayer Model:

F) Concept matrix.

Purpose: To retain concepts; to personalize ideas; to explain concepts.

Complete the matrix/table with concepts you can identify in the texts
you are reading or you have read. Having information laid out visually can help
students to prepare for a test or see how different concepts fit together.

Example: Based on the readings for today, fill in the following matrix:

Course Description Examples from the

concept readings

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G) Choose a concept you are studying in another/other subject(s). Trace the

definition of that concept in different sources (in English) on the Web and take
notes (in Spanish) in the following table, or use other ICT resources to present
the information:

CONCEPT: interculturality genre

SOURCE 1: Michael Byram SOURCE 2: Fred Dervin SOURCE 3:

H) Identify the components of the definition and then copy them in the
following table:

Components of definitions

TERM/CONCEPT RELATING VERB CATEGORY DISTINGUISHING

FEATURES