Abstract

Genre teaching is considered vital for language and literacy pedagogies. Several genre modelsGenre model have been suggested based on various approaches and fitting various goals of teaching genres[aut]Teachingteaching genres. In the present chapter I propose a technique of modelling spoken genres for cognitive development[aut]Cognitivedevelopment of EFL students. It consists of three stages, starting with modelling the native interlocutor’s view of genre, proceeding with building the language teacher’s model, and finally coming to the student’s model created for each specific target learner audience. The resulting model explicitly outlines the essential features of genre to be emulated by the learners, expounds discrepancies between analogous genres in L1 and L2 cultures, and reveals gaps in learners’ prior genre knowledge. The technique draws on the theory of zones of proximal development, identifying the skills to be acquired while learning genres in the EFL classroom. The technique was used in building a model of the genre of storytelling[aut]Storytelling for education students in a Russian[aut]Russian university. Implementation of the model in a communication[aut]Communication course enabled the students to acquire new interaction techniques and communicative skills.