Multi- and Uni-Text Treatments of Genre: A Trainer’s Description and Teacher-Trainees’ Evaluation

Abstract

This paper discusses two approaches to teaching literacy: a text-level approach, involving the use of multiple models; and a context-level, genre-based approach, involving a single model. Each approach is described, and its implications on literacy comprehension evaluated. A qualitative assessment of teacher trainees towards the adoption of uni-text approaches follows. The findings suggest that, although teachers acknowledge the superiority of a genre-based approaches for facilitating communicative skills, they have misgivings about its applicability due to unfamiliarity with L2 and with the technical manipulation of the approach, and the antagonistic influence of current testing paradigms.