Enseñanza del género comentario a partir de fuentes escritas en la clase de historia en inglés como lengua adicional

Teaching the genre commentary based on written sources in the history class using English as an additional language

Abstract

This article proposes a methodology for the explicit teaching of the text commentary genre based on written historical sources, within the context of teaching English as an Additional Language. Theoretically grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and the "Reading to Learn" pedagogical model (and its adaptation known as LEC), this study addresses the lack of modeling for response genres based on historical sources, required in international examinations in secondary school. The proposal is situated within the university training of future English teachers, aiming to develop their academic literacy and prepare them to teach these competencies at the secondary level. For future researchers, it suggests lines of work that stem from this study. The approach highlights the role of an explicit pedagogy to ensure that all students in a class achieve mastery of the genre. Methodologically, the article describes the implementation of the LEC cycle: Building of Field, Deconstruction, Joint Construction, followed by an Editing stage, and Independent Construction. Through the analysis of a model written source about the origins of the Cold War, the schematic structure of the commentary is defined as: Context, Evaluation, Synopsis/Analysis, and Reiteration. Also, it highlights the critical role of the Appraisal system –specifically Attitude and Graduation– to interpret the author's stance in primary sources. The aim is to show that explicit teaching of these strategies allows students to overcome academic writing difficulties and fosters critical reading skills necessary for both their own training and their future teaching or research practice.