International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

Pedagogical Implications of Genre Analyses of Professional Letters for Teaching English for Specific Purposes

Genre analyses of letters in Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) provide implications for its letter writing pedagogy. Their focus is on identifying the communicative purposes and commonly used rhetorical patterns in professional letters. However, it seems that there is a scarcity of literature that explored types of genre analyses of letters and their pedagogical implications. Therefore, this study explored genre analyses of professional letters to identify types of comparisons and their pedagogical usefulness. Document analysis and thematic analysis were employed to identify the types of genre analyses of letters and their pedagogic use. The study identifies three key types of comparisons in letter genre analysis: 1) letters within the same domain to understand shared structural and rhetorical features, 2) letters by writers from different nationalities to reveal cultural influences on communication styles, and 3) letters by professionals and students to highlight differences in experience and mastery of genres. The genre analyses of letters revealed evidence of diversities in relation to communicative purposes of the letters and cultural expectations related to the genres. This study is expected to provide a theoretical understanding of the rationale for the use of comparative approach to genre analysis, which can be employed by future genre analysts who explore the impact of culture on genre production.