Applied Systemic Functional Linguistics

[Sally Olsen]

There are none of course. Sorry, I should have been more precise and said that we also did auxiliary verbs for the future and other tenses as they came up. Just typing quickly because I only have 20 minutes on the computer. Thanks for the clarification.

Would anyone be interested in taking a course online based on Beverly Derewianka's course notes for SFL? She gave an excellent course last summer at the university of British Columbia in Canada and we had a course pack that our discussion group has gone over several times since. We each took a chapter and made a presentation and did some exercises to go along with the chapters. Is there any way we could do it on Dave's?
I would like things to be made as practical as possible myself. We will have a new group in September and could somehow include people in that discussion I am sure - tape recordings or on-line participation or something.

[geordie]

I like your method of colouring process types. This could be a good introduction for me in my class with the thorny issue of `transivity`. Will definitely give it a go with some of my kinder women students. By the way my lower levels here in Japan have difficulty with the existential `there is` there was` etc.
Keep this stuff coming Sally.
Geordie

[geordie]

Sally.
Include me please in your course online.
Geordie

[tigertiger]

Would anyone be interested in taking a course online based on Beverly Derewianka's course notes for SFL?
.............or on-line participation or something.

I would be interested

[tigertiger]

http://www.wagsoft.com/Systemics/index.html

Several links to software and other stuff
This was listed on the OU E841 course resources page.

[geordie]

There is some powerful learned stuff on that website.
Tomorrow I will start one of my private adult classes on colouring in verbs (processes). Red for present,blue for future tense and brown for past tense. We will worry about finite operators and lexical verbs later.
Geordie

[geordie]

Sally:
One of my students works part-time at an aquarium in Enoshima.
She wrote: `the wolf-fish is being kept in water at a temperature from 5~10 degrees centrigrade.`
How would you colour-code the verbs here, finite,auxilliary and lexical?
Geordie

[WienSam]

There is some powerful learned stuff on that website.
Tomorrow I will start one of my private adult classes on colouring in verbs (processes). Red for present,blue for future tense and brown for past tense. We will worry about finite operators and lexical verbs later.
Geordie

Geordie

That sounds like it could create some problems with correction. Brown is not a primary colour. Better to use yellow. That way you are using all PRIMARY colours.

[Stephen Jones]

Red for present,blue for future tense and brown for past tense.

Most authorities would deny the existence of a future tense in English.

'Will' is a modal verb; it would make sense to color it the same as the other modal verbs.

And remember that time is not the same as tense. Look at these examples:

• I'm coming tomorrow.
  I was in the bar, minding my own business when in comes this bloke ....

Two presents, one describing the future, and the other the past.

You could have one color for auxilaries and one for main verbs; then you would need one shade for 'is', 'be'. 'have' and one for modal auxiliaries. then you would also need a separate pattern for the proximate/present and past;/remote forms of each auxciliary. Then you would need one color for the perfect aspect, and another for the continous aspect, and a color to indicate the passive.

I'm sure it would look delightul but it would be easier to find Wally than the pedagogic point of it.

[fluffyhamster]

So we can take it that you never felt the need to invest in a hefty pack of expensive Cuisiniere rods (damn that spelling!), SJ?

[geordie]

Very elegantly put Stephen. We pedagogues,who have spent many years studying traditional and modern grammar know it is daft to talk of a future tense. Try explaining all that grammar to a group of low level Oba-san in Fujisawa! I am trying to use SFL to cobble together a very simple way of making the students aware of the way they write about past,present and future.
Geordie

[Sally Olsen]

I have never tried using the colours when things get too complicated in the more advanced classes. I just use the coloured pencils to draw a box around the words and used various shades of red for the different parts of the processes. If you use blue and yellow/brown for processes then what would you use for participants, etc.? I imagine that there is a way to do this so it would work more easily. There was a method that used coloured rods to teach just about the time that they were using Cuisannaire rods in math. Being a visual learner I found it wonderful in math and would probably have benefited in gramamr as well. But I only have experience in combining the 1000 word dictionary we developed for beginners with the colours. We had the participants in regular black print numbered on each white page (usually 20 words or less) and the relevant processes in green boxes at the bottom of the page. Greenlanders like green. It just happened that there were more colours of red paper in the art cupboards (perhaps because they had used up more blue and green). I personally liked the red for verbs because it suggests action to me. I, like you geordie, was just trying to find something simple to designate the parts of speech because I had very little time with the students and didn't want to add to their load with grammar words. They already knew red, blue, green, etc. or if they didn't learned quickly. If all the students had access to the SFG program suggested on Mike's web site (see above) and were able to use computers it would be easier.

[Stephen Jones]

I'd stick to distinguishing between past and non-past, unless you really want to make problems for yourself.

And is color coding verb forms part of SFL? I don't remember it being so.

Parts of speech are also a minefield. My advice is nouns/pronouns, verbs and others. Anything else and you will rapidly go into uncharted territory.

Abul is uncharacterstically silent, but I am sure he would comment on the dangers of giving Japanese students even more artificial sentences just to fint grammar points, and there is a real danger of falling for this trap.

[geordie]

Sally
`If you use blue and yellow/brown for processes then what would you use for participants ?`
I am only dealing with processes at this stage.

and Stephen
` Abul is uncharacterstically silent, but I am sure he would comment on the dangers of giving Japanese students even more artificial sentences`
I am not giving artificial sentences - they are colouring their own written sentences.
Geordie

[Sally Olsen]

Colour coding was part of my course in SFL in Ottawa in 2000 in the summer. It was given by Rhondda Fahey and four others based on the book, "Using Function Grammar: An Explorer's Guide" and the colour coding was the best part for me. I didn't teach my students in Greenland nouns, verbs, etc. but rather participants and nominsl groups. Of course, that was near the end when they actually asked me for names of the columns of coloured words we were making. It was exciting to see how easily the students took to these ideas and had some way to talk to me about how to put together language to make meaning. The Danish students in particular caught on quickly because English is so similar and as they said, based on Danish.
I will have to read that thread on "no future in English" again because it sure doesn't make sense to me at the moment. I give the students a grid of processes based on the pronouns
I we
you you
he, she, it they
and then past, present and future and others as they come up in more advanced classes or with more advanced students. There is a book called 501 verbs that I usually take along wherever I go, along with my Thesaurus and picture dictionary.
The students seem to find the grid helpful