Genre, text type, and the language learning classroom

Recent years have seen increased emphasis being placed on the notion of genre in the language learning classroom. Less attention, however, has been given to the notion of ‘text type’. This article argues that the distinction between ‘genre’ and ‘text type’ is an important and useful one. To illustrate this distinction, an analysis is presented of a number of texts from two genre-based coursebooks, one which focuses on adult second language literacy development, and another which focuses on writing in an academic context. The article also suggests ways in which the relationship between genres and text types may be exploited in the language learning classroom.