thesis on systemic functional linguistics

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Modern cognitive science is characterized by a number of different proposals that aim to provide a means of conceptualizing cognitive systems, and stating the kinds of information that are needed to study the phenomenon from a number of different perspectives. Recently, there has been a growing trend to think about cognitive systems in terms of embodiment and embeddedness. These two factors emphasize, respectively, the role the body and the environment in shaping the nature of cognitive processes. However, what these theses currently lack is a well-articulated conceptual framework for guiding their work. Specifically, it lacks an explicit account of the types of levels of analysis that are needed to study cognition from these perspectives. This explicitness is a feature of alternative conceptions of the mind, the classical approaches and connectionist approaches that despite their differences, both draw upon the notions of computation and representation in explaining cognitive life. Where these proposals fall short is their lack of focus of the kinds of factors that motivate the embedded and embodied view. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the literature by beginning to develop an explicit conceptual framework for embodied and embedded cognition. It is proposed that such a framework can be based upon the principles of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), a theory of language that considers communication in its eco-social context. Specifically, it proposes a number of levels of analysis that are useful for such a framework. Motivation for such a proposal is that: (1) both language and general cognition are semiotic systems, (2) they can both be described as dynamic, open systems, and (3) all the types of levels of analysis previously identified in cognitive science are also found in the SFL literature. This thesis, therefore, investigates whether such a cross-disciplinary application has the potential to be successful. In order to achieve the above goals, this thesis examines the following possible applications of notions from SFL to conceptual frameworks in cognitive science. Firstly, this thesis examines the theoretical notions of stratification, instantiation, delicacy and rank in SFL and then continues to outline their application to this neighbouring field. These are the levels of analysis indicated above. Stratification allows cognitive systems to be considered simultaneously at a number of different levels of interpretation. Specifically, it considers cognitive systems to consist of a neurophysiological system and a psychological system, i.e. a system of possible neurological states, and a system of possible cognitive acts. Delicacy describes these systems in more or less specific terms. Rank identifies the structural unit at which meaningful behaviour is taking place, and instantiation describes the interplay between observed instances and the underlying system. This last factor enables a dynamic view of cognition to be proposed. Furthermore, this thesis examines whether ideas from SFL concerning text-context interactions can prove useful for considering organism-environment interactions. The main proposal here is that the environment need not be considered as a vast, heterogeneous entity, but instead is itself a system involved in the creation of meaning. In this way, it can also be described along the dimensions discussed above, although at this stage only the notions of stratification and instantiation can be discussed in any depth. Also, it proposes that the environment can be described according to three environmental parameters: (1) the objective, that describes the objects and relations between them, (2) the relational, which describes relations between the individual and said objects, and (3) the goal, which provides the situation the individual is attempting to bring about. In this way structure can be brought to studies of cognitive embeddedness. Finally, this work considers the notion of abstraction in SFL as it relates to the dimensions of stratification, delicacy and rank. All of these have been described as operating over this relation, but this thesis argues that its meaning is different in each case. It argues this by considering the links between abstraction and the related notions of omission, generalization and decontextualization. In line with the overall goal of this work, it is proposed that a more explicit understanding of these terms can help the process of beginning to build the framework under discussion, by linking data to the overall framework. In sum, this thesis begins to develop a novel framework for cognitive science that is based upon the principles of Systemic Functional Linguistics. It is hoped that this work can bring some extra clarity to the notions of embeddedness and embodiment in cognitive science and show how cognitive systems may be studied from this perspective.

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Systematic Functional Linguistics Thesis

Introduction, definition of systemic functional linguistics, sfl analysis procedure, english – arabic translation peculiarities, sfl and explicitation of conjunctive markers.

The notion of language, despite decades of meticulous research and a variety of opportunities for empirical observation, remains one of the most challenging aspects in terms of its definition. The extensive paradigm of existing language definitions is, for the most part, quite contradictory, especially when it comes to the aspect covered by the following term (Fasold & Connor-Linton, 2013). Thus, in order to agree upon a certain definition of a language, it should be abstract enough not to limit one’s research field. One of such appropriate interpretations of the term is the definition coined by Finegan and Besnier (1989):

Language is a finite system of elements and principles that make it possible for speakers to construct sentences to do particular communicative jobs. (p. 132)

Given that language is perceived as a system of elements aimed at fulfilling the need for communication and information exchange, these elements are to be systemized according to some basic principles. Hence, the study of linguistics is primarily focused on the academic aims of categorizing language into specific groups and phenomena through active intervention into the human language. Such a meticulous investigation is performed within a variety of subdivisions, branches, and correlated disciplines (Litosseliti, 2018). Currently, the scope of linguistic research is generally divided into two major aspects: grammatical and communicative competence. While in a utopian linguistic environment, both of the paradigms are treated with equal respect to their contribution to language development, reality claims that researchers aim to prove the superiority of one of these variances (Strey & Monawar, 2017). As a result, the diachronic development of linguistics was marked by two major approaches to language investigation – structuralism and functionalism.

The supporters of the former branch, coined by Ferdinand de Saussure in 1916, provide a clear distinction between the notions of language as a semiotic system ( langue ) and speech acts ( parole ), paying specific attention to the systematic hierarchy of the language (Key & Noble, 2017). Functionalists, on the other hand, pay more attention to the acts of communication, which form the basis of a language and fulfill its major aims. (Thomas, 2019). Despite both of the approaches lacking exhaustive argumentation, the focus of this translation-oriented research is placed upon the functionalist paradigm. One of the major benefits of such an approach is the ability to perceive language as a continuously developing segment, which modifies along with the communicative shifts within society.

When putting aside the purely academic approach to the issue of linguistics, most active language users who employ it on a daily basis rarely ponder the structural peculiarities of their communication, including grammatical nuances. In fact, their only focus is dedicated to the process of conveying a meaningful message to other speech actors in order to perform a successful information exchange (Endarto, 2017). Hence, bearing this aspect in mind, functionalist researchers led by Halliday coined the notion of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), which was primarily focused on the language function, claiming the structure to be irrelevant when obtaining no communicative purpose (Eggins, 2004). Thus, according to the following theoretical framework, every single aspect of a language system, even when bearing no semantic load outside of the structure, should be primarily regarded through the prism of communicative act performance.

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004) define SFL as an umbrella term, which encompasses the analyses of language expression, message content, and context of a communicative situation. Moreover, the major peculiarity of a given analysis concerns an original approach in terms of its stages, as it goes “upside-down,” beginning with the assessment of context. This choice could most likely be justified by the significance of the communication act, which is difficult to evaluate without extensive knowledge of the communicative situation following the utterance.

The very procedure of the SFL approach on a specific language use example consists of a number of steps aimed at assessing different communicative levels, also known as strata. Thus, the aforementioned fields of the analysis are then divided into more specific levels of language and context investigation:

• Expression analysis deals with phonetics and phonology;
• The content analysis deals with the lexicogrammar investigation of lexemes and their role in the speech act and their semantic peculiarities;
• Context analysis is correlated with the assessment of the communicative environment of an utterance (Halliday & Matthienssen, 2004).

The following stratification of the utterances used in a language is then analyzed in accordance with the major metafunctions of functional linguistics: ideational, interpersonal, and textual aspects. Each of these variables is responsible for the ways in which the given speech act constructs human experience, manages interpersonal relationships, and states a logically structured and coherent semantic message (Becker, 2020). When applying the stratification pattern to a particular instance, some of the major linguistic choices of the actor are justified, whether they concern physical, mental, or verbal process (Fernandez, 2018). The processes could be easily identified within a language with fixed word order. The other languages, which do not necessarily imply verb utilization, require some additional analysis in terms of function identification. Thus, SFL contributes to the construction of a pragmatic paradigm within a communicative unit, making it easier for the message intermediator to encode the utterance into another semiotic system (i.e., target language) without losing functional equivalence. This peculiarity especially concerns rendering texts into a target language with significantly different lexico-grammatical characteristics, e.g., English – Arabic translation paradigm.

According to the basic principles of SFL, the contextual environment of a given utterance displays some of the major information in terms of the identification of the message’s nuclear content. Thus, bearing in mind this fact, one might outline that cultural differences in terms of decoding and encoding semantic meaning into the utterance play a crucial role due to the discrepancy in the associations related to a communicative situation. Such a semantic variation that resonates with the contextual aspect is known under the notion of a register (Matthiessen, 2019). When speaking of languages deriving from different language families and types, the dissonance in ways of message transmission is even more evident. A prime example of such a complicated yet relevant language pairs is the English – Arabic paradigm.

Although having a different number of active language users all over the world, both English and Arabic are common languages in their environments, making it necessary to establish proper functional communication between lingua francas of the Western and Arab worlds. However, despite the relevance in the modern context, the very process of translation is still quite limited in terms of translator’s opportunities related to the text functionality (Abdelmajd & Akan, 2018). These issues might be divided into two major aspects:

• Structure discrepancy. The English language is an analytical language, i.e., it does not obtain a variety of inflections, having modal structures and a fixed word order instead. Arabic language, on the other hand, is an agglutinative synthetic language, implying that it has many inflections to operate the syntactic structures while having a rather limited number of grammatical meanings for each existing morpheme. It means that structural equivalence in the translation is practically impossible, making a translator enhance the target text to preserve functional adequacy (Al-Sulaimaan & Al-Me’mary, 2017).
• Communicative context dissonance. Western and Arab worlds do not share much in common in terms of culture, making it challenging for an intermediator to decode the semantic load of a message faithfully. Since the context stratum is one of the most significant in the functional linguistics paradigm, its failure leads to the absence of adequate equivalent whatsoever (Hijjo & Kadhim, 2017).

The following peculiarities of the translation process lead to the closer investigation of the sentence structure in both languages, regarding some of the most significant functional signifiers. Speaking of the sentences with a single syntactic structure (subject and predicate), the major challenge concerns the difference in the word order because Arabic, unlike English, obtains both verbal and nominative constructions. However, these sentences might still be reproduced with minimum losses during the process (Dendenne, 2010). The real issue for a translator appears when compound and complex sentences are concerned. With the Arabic language having considerably fewer conjunctive markers, the notion of explicitation should be considered.

Frequently, in order to provide a faithful translation of the source text, a translator tends to expand the meaning out of the context for it to be comprehensive for a target reader. Such a procedure is called explicitation, which implies leaving no implicit semantic peculiarities in the translation (Baker, 1996). While such an approach is mostly employed by the translators when there is no other way to convey functional meaning, three major types of explicitation might be outlined. They include:

• Elaboration:
• Enhancement (House, 1997).

When applied to the English – Arabic translation paradigm, it should be noted that the major area of explicitation use is considered to be the translation of compound sentences connected with various conjunctive markers. The extensive studies in the filed claim that the texts translated in Arabic undergo a series of extensions in terms of syntactic structure in order to establish a clear message pattern without any ambiguity (Fattah, 2010). One of the most probable reasons behind such a tendency is closely correlated with the number of lexical choices available to the speech actors in each language, with Arabic having fewer conjunctive options in the same communicative situation (Faruquzzaman Akan, Rezaul Karim, & Chowdhury, 2019). For this reason, Fattah (2010) claims Arabic texts to have more constructions with the word “that,” presupposing the elaboration of the given context.

Taking everything into consideration, it might be concluded that while scholars have a full-scale right to prefer a specific approach to the linguistic analysis in terms of translation studies, there is no exhaustive pattern that would satisfy all the language aspects. However, among all the existing models of faithful translation, the functionalist school should be considered, as its principles are not bound to any structural peculiarities of a language. The phenomenon especially applies to the translation of typologically different languages like English and Arabic (analytical – synthetic discrepancy). Systemic functional linguistics is one of the most beneficial ways to evaluate the semantic variable of a text, emphasizing the importance of functional faithfulness in translation.

Abdelmajd, A. E. M., & Akan, M. F. (2018). An approach to English-Arabic Translation: problems and proposals. European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies .

Al-Sulaimaan, M. M. D., & Al-Me’mary, R. I. (2017). Syntactic ambiguity in English-Arabic translation. International Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities , 1 (1), 99-124.

Baker, C. (1996). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism . Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Becker, W. (2020). Metafunctions for benchmarking in sensitivity analysis. Reliability Engineering & System Safety , 204 . Web.

Dendenne, B. (2010). The translation of Arabic conjunctions into English and the contribution of the punctuation marks in the target language: the case of Wa, Fa, and Thumma in Modern Standard Arabic. [Master Dissertation, Mentouri University-Constantine].

Eggins, S. (2004). Introduction to systemic functional linguistics . London, UK: A&C Black.

Endarto, I. T. (2017). Systemic functional linguistics: a brief introduction. Research Gate , 1-3.

Faruquzzaman Akan, Md., Rezaul Karim, Md., & Kabir Chowdhury, A. M. (2019). An analysis of Arabic-English translation: problems and prospects. Advances in Language and Literary Studies , 10 (1), 58.

Fasold, R., & Connor-Linton, J. (Eds.). (2013). An introduction to language and linguistics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Fattah, A. A. (2010). A corpus-based study of conjunctive explicitation in Arabic translated and non-translated texts written by the same translators/authors. [Doctoral Thesis, University of Manchester]. School of Languages, Linguistics, and Cultures, Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies.

Fernandez, L. (2018). Qualitative interview analysis: the use of systemic functional linguistics to reveal functional meanings. Forum: Qualitative Social Research , 19 (2).

Finegan, E., & Besnier, N. (1989) Language: its structure and use . New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.

Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, M. I. M. (2004). An introduction to functional linguistic. (3rd ed.). London, UK: Hodder Arnold.

Hijjo, N. F., & Kadhim, K. A. (2017). The analysis of grammatical shift in English-Arabic translation of BBC media news text. Language in India , 17 (10), 79-104.

Key, L. E., & Noble, B. P. (2017). An analysis of Ferdinand de Saussure’s “Course in general linguistics.” Cleveland, OH: CRC Press.

Litosseliti, L. (Ed.). (2018). Research methods in linguistics . London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Matthiessen, C. M. (2019). Register in systemic functional linguistics. Register Studies , 1 (1), 10-41.

Strey, C., & Monawar, M. (2017). Grammatical and communicative competences as one: a study on symbouletic modality. Letras de Hoje , 52 (3), 294-301.

Thomas, M. (2019). Formalist and functionalist approaches in linguistics . London, UK: Routledge.

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Almufayrij, Haifa S. "Teaching English poetry to Saudi students : an exploratory study for applying a Systemic Functional Linguistic based pedagogy for improving the reading, analysis and interpretation of poems in the English language." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2016. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/23086.

Adetomokun, Idowu Jacob. "A systemic functional linguistics (SFL) analysis of Yoruba students’ narratives of identity at three Western Cape universities." Thesis, University of Western Cape, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3290.

Abuhasan, Wlla. "Developing Language Learners’ Use of Appraisal for Argumentative Writing: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/41941.

Hodgson-Drysdale, Tracy. "Teaching Writing Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics: "I never would have thought of doing that..."." Thesis, Boston College, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3677.

Stiefvater, Andrea L. "Language Socialization in ESL Writing Classes: A Systemic Functional Analysis." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc_num=ucin1226983324.

Bader, Britt-Marie. "Från tolk till att prata själv : En studie av SFI-studerandes erfarenheter av att delta i sina barns utvecklingssamtal." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för språkdidaktik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-195944.

Daniello, Frank. "Systemic functional linguistics theory in practice: A longitudinal study of a school-university partnership reforming writing instruction in an urban elementary school." Thesis, Boston College, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2591.

Hattingh, Nathalie. "A systemic functional analysis of two Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimonies: transitivity and genre." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2011. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_2541_1361370387.

This thesis examines how two narrators construe their experiences of the same events differently through the linguistic choices that they make, through a systemic functional analysis, as well as a genre analysis of two testimonies. The Human Rights Violations (HRV) hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) allowed testifiers to tell stories of their experiences during apartheid. The selected testimonies refer to the events that led up to the arrest and eventual torture of Faried Muhammad Ferhelst, as told by himself and his mother, Minnie Louisa Ferhelst. Theframeworks used to analyse the testimonies are drawn from the transitivity and genre theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics. A clausal analysis of the transitivity patterns is used to compare the ways in which the testifiers construct their identities and roles when recounting their stories. The transitivity analysis of both testimonies shows that both Mrs Ferhelst and Faried Ferhelst construe themselves as the Affected participant through Material, Mental and Verbal clauses, and construe the police as the Causers, mostly through Material clauses. A genre analysis revealed that both testimonies took the form of narratives, in particular the Recount, a typical genre for relating narratives of personal experience. This research project also explores how the original Afrikaans versions of the testimonies differ from the translated English versions, available online on the TRC website. The Afrikaans versions were transcribed by the researcher from  audio-visual records. A transitivity analysis reveals that the interpretation of the Afrikaans testimonies is fairly accurate, with a minimum loss of meaning. Thus in the case of these testimonies, the  actual online record in English is an accurate reflection of their stories.

Anyona, Ondigi Evans. "Face-work and identities in a discussion about xenophobia." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3994.

Bock, Zannie. "A Discourse Analysis of Selected Truth and Reconciliation Commission Testimonies. : Appraisal and Genre. /." Thesis, University of Western Cape, 2007. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/usrfiles/modules/etd/docs/etd_gen8Srv25Nme4_2685_1260525552.pdf.

Björk, Oscar. "En trädgård, en boksamling och det väl valda ordet : genrepedagogik för skriftspråksutveckling hos framgångsrika respektive mindre framgångsrika skriftspråkare i gymnasiet." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-24066.

Asima, Curkic. "Hur samspelar multimodala resurser i läromedel för svenska som andraspråk? : En kvalitativ studie med utgångspunkt i SFL:s metafunktioner." Thesis, Växjö universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-100533.

Yang, Dai Fei. "Improving Networked Learning in Higher Education: Language Functions and Design Patterns." University of Sydney, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2465.

Oscarsson, Amanda. "Hur fungerar bilder i läromedel? : En kvalitativ studie av hur bild och text fungerar som stödstrukturer i läromedel för svenska och svenska som andraspråk." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för svenska språket (SV), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-79390.

Lohrer, Magda Branco. "A coesão e a coerência em função da persuasão em texto dissertativo-argumentativo: uma abordagem sistêmico-funcional." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2009. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/14125.

Mansour, Salma Ahmed Waail Saeed. "A systemic functional exploration of translation : an appraisal corpus-linguistic approach." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5006/.

CASTRO, LIVIA MARIA AIRES DE. "WRITING AND LITERACY IN SECONDARY SCHOOL: A SYSTEMIC-FUNCTIONAL AND APPLIED LINGUISTIC APPROACH." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2009. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=15299@1.

Sano, Motoki. "A linguistic exploration of persuasion in written Japanese discourse a systemic functional interpretation /." Access electronically, 2006. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/21.

Mohammed, Tawffeek Abdou Saeed. "A taxonomy of problems in arabic-english Translation: a systemic functional Linguistics approach Tawffeek abdou." University of the Western Cape, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/4103.

McAndrew, Paula. "Investigating casual conversation: a systemic functional linguistic and social network model of analysing social reality." Australia : Macquarie University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/44619.

Mukherjee, Sarah Jane. "Children's meaning making in classroom role-play at 4-5 years : a systemic functional linguistic investigation." Thesis, Open University, 2016. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.701327.

ヘイグ, エドワード, and Edward Haig. "The language of youth crime: a systemic functional linguistic and critical discourse study of BBC radio news." 名古屋大学大学院国際言語文化研究科, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/11836.

Arnold, Julie L. "Building linguistic subject knowledge for writing instruction: Teacher responses to professional learning." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2019. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/127244/1/Julie_Arnold_Thesis.pdf.

Salgado, Odete Firmino Alhadas. "As representações de Deus em Caim, de José Saramago: um estudo sistêmico-funcional." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2014. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=7261.

Silvanus, Secilia Tulikefo. "An investigation of a Systemic Functional Linguistic approach for teaching Energy to grade 7 Natural Science and Health Education Learners: a Namibian case study." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/8165.

Fins, Moa. ""SATS-medlemmar är lyckligare, mindre oroliga och mindre deprimerade..." : En studie av hur modelläsaren konstrueras i SATS Magazine." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-39967.

Thörne, Karin. "Teaching genetics - a linguistic challenge : A classroom study of secondary teachers' talk about genes, traits and proteins." Licentiate thesis, Karlstads universitet, Avdelningen för biologi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-15311.

This thesis is written within the framework of the Hasselblad Foundation Graduate School, a four-year programme financed by the Hasselblad Foundation.

Garcia, Vera Barros Brandão Rodrigues. "Transformações em aulas de leitura e de análise linguística: percursos de professoras." Universidade Federal do Tocantins, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11612/404.

Åström, Ida. "Drömkandidaten : En kritisk diskursanalys om hur den ideale sökande konstrueras i platsannonser inom bygg- och fastighetssektorn." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Svenska, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-37396.

Meyer, Heather. "Unilateral conversations the role of marked sentence initial elements in skilled senior secondary academic writing : a thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), 2009 /." AUT University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/831.

Sippert, Luciane. "Análise da progressão textual e da estrutura temática em resenhas de alunos do ensino superior : um olhar sistêmico-funcional aliado à perspectiva sociointeracionista." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/156422.

Ataíde, Cleber Alves de. "O comportamento sintático-semântico da categoria gramatical de sujeito em títulos jornalísticos: uma abordagem funcionalista." Universidade Federal da Paraí­ba, 2008. http://tede.biblioteca.ufpb.br:8080/handle/tede/6483.

Martins, Simone Ruiz. "A persuasão na propaganda dirigida a crianças: uma análise sob a perspectiva da gramática sistêmico-funcional." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2012. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/13602.

Mheta, Gift. "A contextual analysis of compound nouns in Shona lexicography." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2011. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_2459_1320660934.

Kamler, Barbara, and edu au jillj@deakin edu au mikewood@deakin edu au wildol@deakin edu au kimg@deakin. "Gender and Genre: A Case Study of a Girl and a Boy Learning to Write." Deakin University. School of Education, 1990. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20041214.164647.

Mendonça, Tânia Regina. "Análise multimodal das aberturas de unidades da coleção High Up: na perspectiva da gramática do design visual." Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2018. http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/8303.

Soares, João Paulo. "Comunicação oral em português em congressos de linguística aplicada: estrutura genérica e escolhas léxico-gramaticais sob a perspectiva sistêmico-funcional." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2014. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/13706.

Ljung, Pernilla. ""Resan till London" : Språk, struktur och kvalitet i fyra narrativa elevtexter i årskurs 6." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-39942.

Arahata, Angela Kim. "A persuasão implícita e a argumentação através dos modos narrativo e descritivo: um enfoque sistêmico-funcional." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2011. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/13506.

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Englishes in Multilingual Contexts pp 183–203 Cite as

Applying Systemic Functional Linguistics to Build Educators’ Knowledge of Academic English for the Teaching of Writing

• Frank Daniello 5 ,
• Güliz Turgut 6 &
• María Estela Brisk 7  
• First Online: 01 January 2014

2726 Accesses

3 Citations

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 10))

The studies presented in this chapter highlight promising ways to foster inservice teachers and teacher candidates’ knowledge of the complexities of academic English using systemic functional linguistics (SFL). This linguistic understanding is required in order to successfully teach writing in multilingual classrooms that include native speakers of English, where English is the medium of instruction. Findings indicate inservice teachers’ newfound linguistic knowledge enacted changes to writing pedagogy. Specifically, teachers’ writing instruction with elementary students emphasized genre, language, and tenor. Moreover, the teachers used a greater repertoire of teaching strategies to teach content, such as deconstruction and joint construction of text. Similarly, changes to teacher candidates’ proposed writing instruction resulted in an increased focus on genre and language. The building of the inservice teachers and teacher candidates’ comprehension of academic English emerged through ongoing professional development and coursework. This learning was facilitated using SFL. This theory of language provided the theoretical lens to examine texts and the metalanguage to discuss genre and language. Developing inservice teachers and teacher candidates’ linguistic knowledge required a significant amount of time and commitment. Educators’ developed comprehension of language appears to promote robust classroom instruction that more effectively develops pupils into proficient and purposeful writers.

• Systematic Functional Linguistics, SFL
• Pedagogical cycle
• Teacher development

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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Frank Daniello

Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey

Güliz Turgut

Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

María Estela Brisk

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Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Ahmar Mahboob

Dept. of Langs, Lits & Lings., Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA

Leslie Barratt

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Daniello, F., Turgut, G., Brisk, M. (2014). Applying Systemic Functional Linguistics to Build Educators’ Knowledge of Academic English for the Teaching of Writing. In: Mahboob, A., Barratt, L. (eds) Englishes in Multilingual Contexts. Multilingual Education, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8869-4_11

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