https://doi.org/10.37955/cs.v6i3.281
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Genre-based writing in a virtual
context: a didactic proposal from
neuroeducation
Escritura basada en géneros en contexto virtual: una
propuesta didáctica desde la neuroeducación
Romina Oyarzún Yáñez
r.amaliaoyarzun@uandresbello.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9938-6019
Andrés Bello University
Gabriel Valdés León
gabrielsebastian.valdes@ulpgc.es
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8807-8838
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Center for Research in Education (CIE), Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins
Pamela Iturbe
piturbe@miucsh.cl
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9091-0259
Silva Henriquez Catholic University
ABSTRACT
The objective of this work is to design and implement a didactic
proposal aimed at strengthening the communicative competence of
Spanish Pedagogy students based on genre-based writing and, in
addition, supported by the contributions of neuroeducation,
particularly in the executive functions. For this purpose, the proposal
was carried out using the guidelines that emerge from the Gender
Theory, on the one hand, and considering some key elements proposed
by neuroeducation, on the other hand. After the application of this
proposal, it is expected to promote the installation of situated writing
practices that allow students to develop skills that favor their
autonomy when facing writing challenges in both academic and work
contexts.
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September – Revista Centro Sur - eISSN: 2600-5743
103
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
RESUMEN
El objetivo de este trabajo es diseñar e implementar una propuesta
didáctica orientada hacia el fortalecimiento de la competencia
comunicativa en estudiantes de Pedagogía en Castellano que se
sustente en la escritura basada en géneros y, además, se respalde en
los aportes de la neuroeducación, particularmente, en las funciones
ejecutivas. Para ello, la propuesta se llevó a cabo utilizando los
lineamientos que surgen desde la Teoría del Género, por una parte,
considerando algunos elementos clave que propone la
neuroeducación, por otra. Luego de la aplicación de esta propuesta, se
espera promover la instalación de prácticas de escritura situada que
permitan a los estudiantes desarrollar habilidades que favorezcan su
autonomía al momento de enfrentarse a desafíos escriturales tanto en
contextos académicos como laborales.
Keywords / Keywords
writing, genres, neuroeducation, e-learning, virtual education
escritura, géneros, neuroeducación, educación virtual
Introduction
In the current context, it has become essential to incorporate
technological tools more frequently and almost obligatory in school
and higher education classes, since formal education, worldwide, has
had to be renewed, moving from classroom instruction in physical
classrooms to electronic classes to ensure to some extent its continuity
and effectiveness (Alahmadi and Alraddadi, 2020). As a result of this
change, the teaching-learning process has presented drawbacks such
as, for example, problems of connectivity, space and, in addition,
isolation of students from their peers; a decisive aspect, given the great
relevance of social participation in the acquisition of knowledge and
experiences with other people immersed in the same domain (Hyder,
Adcock and Brown, 2020).
At the same time, remote teaching includes some advantages, since it
contributes to the development of students' autonomy and self-
regulation, which implies greater participation in their own learning.
In addition, virtuality presupposes greater flexibility and adaptability
in the work times of both teachers and students, since asynchronous
104
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
resources such as e-mail, virtual classroom, among others, are used.
In this sense, Giffin (2020) indicates that it is necessary for teachers to
receive support and feedback on their work in the transition to online
learning, because this ensures its effectiveness.
There is currently a boom in the use of technologies in the educational
field, as a result of "a sudden and complete switch to virtual classes
from teaching regular classes and meeting students face-to-face"
(Alahmadi and Alraddadi, 2020, p. 58). In other words, although this
is not a recent practice, since computer tools have been used
extensively, what is happening in the context of the pandemic is that
their use has been increasing and accentuated massively, among other
reasons, so that students carry out activities and assignments and
these are evaluated mainly by this means.
Referring to the evaluation in university virtual environments,
specifically in the field of writing, it is central to consider the stages
that in general compose the latter, starting with the search for
information and continuing with the textual production to give way to
the revision and editing of the writing (Figueroa, Aillon, 2015),
procedures carried out entirely online in the present research.
Genre-based writing
Written production is a social, cultural and information exchange
activity through which ideas situated in a context are communicated
(Burgos, 2017). Particularly, writing based on genres, defined as
''abstract, socially recognized ways of using language'' (Hyland, 2007,
p.149), that is, as a series of patterns, structures and characteristics
specific to a given communicative context in which students must
develop and participate, seeks to achieve an effective and coherent use
of language in textual production. To this end, it is important,
according to Almacıoğlu and Okanb (2020), to take into account the
needs and requirements of students in the classroom, so that they
understand and apply the types of texts and their use in different
communicative situations.
A genre-based writing didactic proposal is that of Marcela Jarpa
(2019), based on three conceptual perspectives: genre theory, genre
pedagogy and pedagogical reflection. The general objective is to define
and characterize a new academic genre of pedagogical reflection,
called "chronicle of the teacher-manager", through which the
specialized knowledge delivered by the Master's program is linked to
the practical experience of its students. The purpose is that the
105
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
students learn to write this genre based on certain conceptual and
practical orientations and that, finally, they acquire academic writing
skills.
Another didactic sequence based on genres corresponds to the one
applied in two specific didactic subjects of the Language and Literature
teacher training course at an Argentine university. Based on this,
students in both courses must create didactic sequences during a year
and a half, first in groups and then individually, through three stages:
deconstruction of the genre they will work on, construction of a text
that is set within the genre, and editing of the elaborated text. Between
the first and second stages, a sub-stage is carried out, which is the
design of the text, set up for students to reflect on the organization of
the writing they will produce (Bassa Figueredo and Moyano, 2021).
The executive functions of the brain
As part of the higher functions of the brain, executive functions (EF),
executive functions can be defined as "a set of capacities referred to the
formulation of goals, planning for the achievement of these goals and
the execution of behavior in an effective manner" (Arcos Rodríguez,
2021, p.43). Another approach is that proposed by Pardos and
González (2018), who understand them as "the ability to exercise self-
control of behavior or attention, maintain and manage information
mentally, solve problems and adapt flexibly to changes or unexpected
situations" (p.30).
Although there is no consensus on the definition of SF, there is a series
of traits that are usually present: capacity, planning, self-control and
execution/resolution. These types of skills are undoubtedly
fundamental for the successful development of teaching-learning
processes; therefore, it is necessary to promote their intentional
development not only from a very early age, but also during all
educational stages.
For the present research, we considered three EFs that are usually
considered as the main ones to achieve higher psychological functions:
inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility (Pardos &
Gonzalez, 2018; Diamond, 2014). The first of these has been related to
success in academic activities such as reading, writing and, in general
terms, school performance (Reynoso and Méndez-Luévano, 2018).
The relationship is expected if we consider that this EF involves the
discrimination of distractors for the successful completion of a task
(Jiménez-Puig et al., 2019), which is one of the greatest difficulties
106
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
faced by students. Throughout the research, we have safeguarded this
discrimination through accompaniment, the procedural development
of writing and the promotion of teamwork, which favors self- and co-
regulation.
As for working memory and cognitive flexibility, these have been
addressed more explicitly in the proposal. The former has been
strengthened mainly through the planned reading of texts that were
used as "models" of the requested genres. This decision is based on the
works of Martínez et al.(2019) and Restrepo et al. (2019), to name
some of the studies that establish favorable correlations between
guided reading and working memory.
However, in relation to cognitive flexibility, much has been studied
about its relationship with reading, a key aspect in our proposal.
Indeed, Paba-Barbosa et al. (2019) point out, in this regard, that
"people with greater cognitive flexibility perform more corrective
behaviors such as rereading, searching for key words or searching for
the main idea of the text" (p.91). In addition to the above, this EF also
affects the writing process when we understand that this does not
necessarily imply linearity, but rather flexibility, since this allows
readings (one's own or others') to alter, modify and enrich the final
product.
As we have pointed out in §1.2, the health context of recent years has
led to the forced and rapid implementation of virtual educational
processes. Although this made evident the technological and technical
shortcomings at the time of adopting this modality, it also allowed an
accelerated growth of distance education, which led teachers to rethink
strategies to achieve learning in the new scenario that arose.
In this sense, in order to face the challenge posed by the search for
strategies to develop competencies such as reading and writing in
virtual higher education, there is a need to discuss pedagogical
experiences that, in different contexts, have proven to be useful in
achieving the proposed educational objectives. However, from our
perspective, this instance of pedagogical-academic exchange becomes
more valuable as long as it is possible to count on well-founded,
planned, replicable experiences with impact evaluation.
Thus, considering the above, the didactic proposal offered in the
following pages aimed to design and implement a didactic proposal
oriented towards strengthening the communicative competence in
students of Pedagogy in Spanish that is based on genre-based writing
107
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
and, in addition, is supported by the contributions of neuroeducation.
To this end, in order to provide the community with a contribution that
can contribute to the teaching of writing in virtual contexts, the work
we offer a) is based on genre-based writing didactics and key concepts
of neuroeducation; b) represents a well-designed proposal, whose
process is thoroughly explained and justified; and c) is replicable, since
all the necessary material is shared or referenced to ensure that the
experience is implemented or adapted in other educational contexts.
Regarding the impact evaluation, it should be noted that it has been
decided to present this information systematically in a later work,
however, it should be mentioned that the preliminary results and
comments from the actors involved have been favorable.
The proposal has been elaborated for fourth year university students
of the Spanish Pedagogy course of a private Chilean university, in the
course Advanced Textual Production Workshop, a course that closes
the formative line oriented towards writing. The first step to reach the
design was to review the programs of curricular activities whose
objective was to contribute to the development of writing skills from a
disciplinary perspective. Therefore, a table was prepared that
summarizes the objectives, didactic strategies and topics addressed in
each one of them (Table 1).
Table 1. Workshops
Course
name
Level
Teaching
strategies
Nature of
the course
Oral and
written
production
I
Not stated
theoretical
and
practical
108
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
Oral and
written
production
II
controls
individual
and group
written work
individual
and group
oral
presentation
s
Theoretical
-practical
Intermedia
te written
production
workshop
group and
individual
work
design of
didactic
material
Theoretical
-practical
In general terms, we can observe the predominance of courses of a
theoretical-practical nature, with a tendency towards the development
of students' writing skills and then towards the teaching of this skill.
We can also infer an organization that progressively advances from
more "superficial" linguistic aspects (orthotypographic, for example)
in the first two courses, to then approach writing from a situated
perspective, both in the last units of course 2 and in course 3. In this
109
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
scenario, and considering the complex nature of writing at university
(Navarro, 2019), it was decided to strengthen a genre-based
perspective of writing in future language teachers, a decision that is
also supported by the pedagogical potential that this perspective
possesses.
The advanced textual production workshop aims to provide students
with theoretical and methodological tools for the implementation and
evaluation of production strategies in order to promote creative,
reflective and critical capacities of textual producers.
The proposal was distributed in four classes, which made up the
second unit of the course. In each one of them, a discursive genre was
selected that had not been addressed before in any of the curricular
activities that make up the curriculum, so that they would have to
investigate the characteristics of the genre. Thus, the writing tasks
were the following: an advertising poster, a description of a
commercial product, a unboxing and a couple of negative annotations
in the school class book.
In order to contribute to the development of competencies that allow
the student to identify, deconstruct, analyze a genre and,
subsequently, elaborate a textual product that responds to these
particularities, the writing of each of the texts was organized following
a series of four steps that seek to provide the student with autonomy
at the moment of facing the writing process. To achieve this, together
with Moyano (2007), we took as a reference the Australian model for
the didactics of reading and writing, which comprises three stages:
deconstruction, joint construction and independent construction. As a
previous step, we incorporated the identification of the genre, a step
that consists of the search and selection of one or more texts that can
be considered as "exemplary" or exemplary and that serve as a
standard at the moment of arriving at the joint construction.
This work proposal was socialized with the students during the first
class of the unit, using the material shared below (Figure 1).
110
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
Figure 1. Material prepared to socialize the work model with
students.
111
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
Considering that the course in which the didactic proposal was carried
out had two weekly sessions of 90 minutes each, it was decided to
dedicate the first session to the completion of the first two stages
(identification of the genre and deconstruction) and, subsequently, the
second class to the remaining two (joint construction and independent
construction). It should also be noted that the autonomous work time
of the course (4 hours per week) was devoted to the completion of the
fourth step, which is usually the most extensive.
For the genre deconstruction stage, a grid was used to guide the
analysis focusing on four aspects: linguistic-textual, visual, rhetorical-
discursive and cultural-valorical. In order to guide the analysis process
and encourage student participation, the Moodle ® "virtual
whiteboard" tool was used, which allowed students to complete the
proposed grid together (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Analysis grid in the Moodle ® shared whiteboard.
The joint construction and individual construction stages were
accompanied by a rating scale that weights each of the aspects
contained in the analysis grid (Figure 2). The evaluation instrument
presented below (see Figure 3) was replicated for each of the tasks
requested, although with some modifications according to the
characteristics of the genre evaluated.
112
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
Table 2. Instrument
Dimension
Excellent
5pts
Well
3pts
Can be
improve
d
1pt
No
evidence
0 pts
Gender
appropriateness
The structure,
organization and
orthotypographic
resources correspond to an
advertising poster.
Design
The color, the
arrangement of the
elements in the plan, the
visual resources and the
relationship between
them.
Rhetorical-discursive
aspects
In the poster, the
appellative function
clearly predominates. In
addition, the brand's own
style (ironic, burlesque,
close) is evident.
Cultural-value aspects
The values conveyed by the
poster correspond to those
that characterize this
company: freedom,
transgression of rules,
irreverence.
The didactic unit consisted of four writing challenges, and in each of
them the students were asked to write a different multimodal
discursive genre: advertising poster, product description, unboxing
and negative annotation in a school context. For the first stage, and in
order to motivate and model the requested text, some examples were
presented and students were asked to collect some others by
themselves. The first challenge presented the following slogan: "The
well-known telecommunications company Wom® will launch, as a
limited edition, an energy drink, and you have been asked to create the
poster for this campaign". The posters taken as reference by the
113
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
students belonged to the world of telecommunications and energy
drinks. On that basis, and following the four-step proposal, they
developed their own poster (Figure 4).
Figure 4. On the left, one of the posters taken as a reference; on the
right, one produced by a student.
The second writing challenge corresponded to the writing of a
descriptive advertising text. The situation proposed to the students
was the following: "As an expert in the Spanish language, a retail
company has contacted you to offer you a job: to write the description
of the products they offer on their website". As input, they were given
some descriptions so that they could have reference texts (Figure 5).
Figure 5. On the left, a descriptive text taken as a reference; on the
right, one produced by a student.
As a third challenge, students were invited to perform a unboxing, a
very popular genre on the Internet that consists of sharing, through a
video, the first impressions of an acquired product, and in which the
strengths and weaknesses of the product are usually presented (Figure
6). Although this challenge is dominated by non-linguistic aspects,
114
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
such as visual and auditory, the process that the student must follow
is the same: identification, deconstruction, joint construction and
independent construction.
Figure 6. On the left, the screenshot of a Youtube® video; on the
right, the one produced by a student.
The fourth challenge had a professionalizing character. Three
situations of violence in the classroom were presented, starring high
school students, using videos broadcast on Youtube®, in order to
provide students with inputs to answer the following question: How
would you write the negative annotation on the student's resume? The
resulting text turned out to be very conditioned by the models used,
since this genre usually presents many variations depending, for
example, on the restrictions established by the educational institutions
at the time of writing. An example of the product produced can be seen
in Figure 7:
Figure 7. Above, an example of negative annotation disseminated on
the Internet; below, the university student's production.
115
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
Conclusions
The contributions that neuroeducation has made in recent years have
an undeniable value in improving the performance of our students.
The convergence between neurology, psychology and pedagogy, the
three main fields involved in this discipline, has made it possible to
reinforce some teaching perspectives, as in the case of gender-based
didactics, and, in others, to demolish some myths -or neuromyths-
related to learning. This invites us to rethink our teaching practices
based on the advances that this discipline has achieved, to reflect on
the findings that neuroeducation has made and, on that basis, to
engage in a critical dialogue that favors the achievement of learning
objectives.
This work is nothing more than a contribution to the above: it involves
the design of a didactic sequence based on genre-based writing from
the Australian model (which is about three decades old) and, on that
basis, enriching it with the theory on the executive functions of the
brain, specifically, inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive
flexibility. As a result, we were able to obtain a proposal that allows us
to strengthen written communication skills in university students, a
key competence to achieve a successful performance during any
student's formative itinerary.
References
Alahmadi, N. S. & Alraddadi, B.M. (2020). The Impact of Virtual
Classes on Second Language Interaction in the Saudi EFL
Context: A Case Study of Saudi Undergraduate Students. Arab
World English Journal, 11 (3) 56-72. DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.4
Almacıoğlu, G., & Zuhal, O. K. A. N. (2018). Genre-based approach to
writing instruction for students at an English language and
literature department. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics,
4(1), 71-100.
Bassa Figueredo, M. L., & Moyano, E. I. (2021). About a teacher
training experience founded on genre didactics: configuration of
the teaching object and pedagogical interaction. Signo, 46(86),
74-85.
Diamond, A. (2014). Understanding executive functions: What helps
or hinders them and how executive functions and language
116
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
development mutually support one another. Perspectives on
Language and Literacy, 40(2), 7.
Figueroa, B. & Aillon, M. (2015). Academic writing of an essay
mediated by virtual collaborative learning. Estudios Pedagógicos
XLI, N° 1: 79-91.
Gómez Burgos, E. (2017). Use of the genre-based approach to teach
expository essays to English pedagogy students. HOW, 24(2),
141-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.19183/how.24.2.330.
Giffin, J. (2020). Teacher Observation, Feedback, and Support in the
Time of COVID-19: Guidance for Virtual Learning. Center on
Great Teachers and Leaders.
Hyder, N., Adcock, A., & Brown, D. (2020). An overview of virtual
communities of faculty practice. Journal of Educational
Research and Practice, 10, 420-426.
https://doi.org/10.5590/JERAP.2020.10.1.27
Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing
instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, 148-164.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2007.07.005
Jarpa-Azagra, M. (2019). Academic writing for the development of
pedagogical reflection in teacher education: the chronicle of the
teacher-manager. Íkala, Journal of Language and Culture,
24(1), 85-101.
Jiménez-Puig, Elizabeth, Broche-Pérez, Yunier, Hernández-Caro,
Amarys Aimée, & Díaz-Falcón, Dayana (2019). Executive
functions, chronotype and academic performance in university
students. Cuban Journal of Higher Education, 38(2), e15. Epub
August 01, 2019. Retrieved May 09, 2022, from
http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0257-
43142019000200015&lng=es&tlng=pt.
Martínez, M., Marrujo, J., Perillo, M., González, F., & Burin, D. (2019).
Text comprehension in E-learning: support strategies and
working memory. Ocnos: Journal of reading studies.
Moyano, E. (2007). Teaching discursive skills in Spanish in a pre-
university context: An approach from SFL. Revista signos,
40(65), 573-608.
117
Received June 08, 2021 / Approved October, 06 2021 Pages: 102-117
eISSN: 2600-5743
Centro Sur Vol. 6 No. 3- July - September
Navarro, F. (2019). Contributions to a didactics of academic writing
based on discursive genres. DELTA: Documentação de Estudos
em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada, 35.
Reynoso Orozco, Orlando, & Méndez-Luévano, Tanya Elizabeth
(2018). Is it possible to predict academic performance?
Behavioral regulation as an indicator of academic performance
in higher education students. Diálogos sobre educación. Current
issues in educational research, 9(16), 00008. Retrieved May 09,
2022, from
http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S
2007-21712018000100008&lng=es&tlng=es.
Paba-Barbosa, C., Paba-Argorte, Z., & Barrero-Toncel, V. (2019).
Relationship between reading comprehension and cognitive
flexibility in students of a public university. Duazary, 16(2), 87-
102.
Pardos, A., & González, M. (2018). Intervention on Executive
Functions (EF) from the educational context. Revista
Iberoamericana de Educación (Print Version), 78(1), 27-42.
https://doi.org/10.35362/rie7813269. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fap&
AN=133276454&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site