Oral and Written Genres in Motion: 20 Years of Impact and Reinvention in Language Didactics

Abstract

This article presents the special issue “Oral and Written Genres at School”, published in Revista Indagatio Didactica, in the context of the twentieth anniversary of the Brazilian edition of the work by Bernard Schneuwly and Joaquim Dolz. Its main objective is to discuss the theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical impact of this work on the field of Language Didactics and Applied Linguistics in Brazil, as well as to reflect on its contemporary developments. The article historically contextualizes the emergence of the Geneva School proposal, grounded in Sociodiscursive Interactionism, highlighting key concepts such as discourse genres, didactic sequences, didactic models, and language capacities. It also provides an analytical synthesis of the five papers included in the dossier, emphasizing their contributions to different educational levels and training contexts. The studies address the centrality of genres in language education, the challenges of teaching genres in higher education, initial teacher education mediated by didactic devices, the role of argumentation in promoting citizen literacy, and formative pathways aimed at academic-scientific literacies. Taken together, the articles demonstrate the vitality and relevance of the Geneva framework and its adaptability to contemporary educational demands. The paper concludes that genre-based didactics remains a structuring axis for language teaching, fostering the articulation between social language practices, teacher education, and pedagogical innovation, while also pointing toward a critical, inclusive, and socially situated language education.