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Theoretical and empirical views of the concept of genre in a writing course Marília Mendes FERREIRA ABSTRACT: The present paper reports the theoretical and empirical conceptualizations of genre by 14 ESL students taking a freshman composition course in a North-American university. This course combined an Australian view of genre with the pedagogical approach of Davydov(1988a,b). The data stem from three sources: a) visual representations of the concept of genre, b) explanation of linguistic phenomena, c) understanding of the abstract communicative principle. From the 14 students 2 showed robust signs of theoretical conceptualization of genre, 3 stayed in middle position, and 3 did not show significant signs of theoretical conceptualization. 6 could not have their development analyzed because they did not do most of these exercises. KEY-WORDS: Genre, theoretical thinking, empirical thinking, Davydov. |