This paper addresses how teachers can be trained to enable cumulative knowledge-building. It focuses on the final intervention stage of the "Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Schooling" ("DISKS") project at the University of Sydney. In this special issue, Maton identifies "semantic waves" as a crucial characteristic of teaching for cumulative…

This paper takes as point of departure the register variable field, and explores its application to the discourse of History and Biology in secondary school classrooms from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics. In particular it considers the functions of technicality and abstraction in these subject specific discourses, and their…

The paper begins by arguing that knowledge-blindness in educational research represents a serious obstacle to understanding knowledge-building. It then offers sociological concepts from Legitimation Code Theory--"semantic gravity" and "semantic density"--that systematically conceptualize one set of organizing principles underlying knowledge…

Based on the theoretical understandings from Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2013) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin, 2013) underpinning the research discussed in this special issue, this paper focuses on classroom pedagogy to illustrate an important strategy for making semantic waves in History teaching, namely "temporal shifting". We…

This article examines several "language practice" interactions among adult immigrant students in an ESL classroom in the U.S. from the perspective of performativity theory. In drawing on performativity theory, it conceptualizes such classroom interactions, along with the research practices used to investigate them, as constitutive actions. That…

This paper addresses the role of multimodal fluency in establishing agency in the second language classroom. The focus of the paper is on the semiotic resourcefulness of an English Language Learner in an English as a Second Language classroom in the United States. Framed from a social semiotic perspective, fine grained multimodal analysis of…

Stephen Krashen's theories can appear "seductive" to teachers of languages, in that they identify a seemingly clear way forward for language acquisition in the classroom. However, reification of Krashen's theories, in particular the notion of attaining "i+1" through comprehensible input, is demonstrated to be problematic. Based on empirical data…

Drawing mainly on Pierre Bourdieu's notions of symbolic capital, Bakhtin's concept of voice and heteroglossia in the novel, and Gee's theory of Discourses and the term third space as applied in education, I construct a theoretical framework for heritage language (HL) literacy and identity processes. I propose that HL literacy acquisition be viewed…

How can foreign language education integrate the learning of language with learning of content, and culture on a systematic basis, when assessment typically focuses on language in isolation from meaning? Examining developmental data gathered over a three-year period from elementary students in a Chinese program in North America, we explore the…

This paper focuses on the discursive and grammatical means by which science students extract and objectify knowledge from the dynamics of the laboratory setting. I argue that nominalization is a particularly important strategy by which this curriculum unit and teacher apprentice students into objectifying the data, evidence, and conclusions from…

The dialogic nature of discourse which stems from the work of [Bakhtin, M. (1994). Speech genres and other late essays. In P. Morris (Ed.), "The dialogic imagination" (pp. 81-87). London: Edward Arnold. (Original work published 1986)] provides important understandings in an investigation into the nature of classroom discourse. Using analytical…

With a view of standardized testing as a situated local practice that serves "global" agendas, I examine the specific ways that this bureaucratic mechanism receives, sorts, arranges and classifies adult learners of English; inspires certain pedagogical practices; and fosters identities desired by the new global economy. Relying on data gathered…