ERIC Number: EJ895185
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0965-8416
EISSN: N/A
A Systemic Functional Contribution to Planning Academic Genre Teaching in a Bilingual Education Context
Walker, Elizabeth
Language Awareness, v19 n2 p73-87 May 2010
Commencing study through a foreign language in senior secondary school brings huge challenges because of the cognitive-linguistic demands of academic subjects. This paper argues for the need to blend sociocultural and systemic functional linguistic (SFL) perspectives to address this enormous task. Firstly, readers' attention is drawn to the less than successful history, globally, of helping students overcome the challenges. Secondly, the paper sets out the author's intention to respond to the call by Coyle for bilingual educators working in a predominantly sociocultural paradigm to "connect" with other paradigms. Next, aiming to respond to two exploratory questions regarding the power of SFL to inform planning of language-aware teaching, which is richer and more productive than is evident in sociocultural scholarship, the paper proceeds towards descriptive and comparative analyses of a student's written outcome in science, using the SFL framework based on "text architecture". The SFL analyses exemplify what might be taught, with brief mention of how SFL practitioners do so, in order to raise awareness of academic genre creation. Finally, drawing on the paper's analyses and evidence from elsewhere, arguments for the paradigmatic blending are synthesised.
Descriptors: Writing (Composition), Second Language Learning, Bilingual Education, Intention, Bilingualism, Linguistics, Secondary School Students, Metalinguistics, Second Language Instruction, Academic Discourse, Comparative Analysis, Language Styles, Science Education, Outcomes of Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A