Applied Systemic Functional Linguistics
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Joking apart, it's perhaps necessary to have a bit of distance from the perceived language "owners" to come up with novel approaches. Being in cosmopolitan polyglot cities (Pinker in Montreal) or Halliday (Hong Kong and Sydney) or not being an "owner" at all (Jespersen), or growing up in a language community that gives you some other perspective (Chomsky) seems to help. So it's probably in fact these uncouth "provincials and colonials" who are best equipped to look at English with fresh eyes.
Though plenty of great and original linguists also spend their lives cycling round Oxbridge/the Ivy League with their gowns flapping behind them, I think it's they if anybody who are to blame for the accepted terminology, as a result of trying to graft their Latin and Greek terms (future, infinitive etc) onto English.
Though plenty of great and original linguists also spend their lives cycling round Oxbridge/the Ivy League with their gowns flapping behind them, I think it's they if anybody who are to blame for the accepted terminology, as a result of trying to graft their Latin and Greek terms (future, infinitive etc) onto English.
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Seems to me this thread is getting into more theoretical paths which are interesting and perhaps even a little controversial. Should we split it into practical and theoretical.
Using SFL we could take apart WeinSam's statements and using Appraisal look at the words he uses to promote a discussion or even incite an argument. "Colonial" seems to be one word that is setting people on fire and "uncouth", "good enough for" and "indeed" after "coloured pencils". As a Canadian, and not a colonial although I appreciate all the English and French mother countries did for us and still do, I have had a good classic education as well in Latin. Just because I don't remeber things exactly doesn't mean they aren't in there and I am sure have influenced the ease of my learning Spanish and French. Learning those three languages gave me confidence to know I could learn Japanese, Mongolian, Greenlandic and Canadian Sign Language. But I think that if I had known more about SFL I would have been even better at my language learning. By the way, I used coloured pencils to learn these other languages and had great understanding teachers who made things a lot of fun. We had orgies in Latin and Mexican hat dances in Spanish and so on.
Using SFL we could take apart WeinSam's statements and using Appraisal look at the words he uses to promote a discussion or even incite an argument. "Colonial" seems to be one word that is setting people on fire and "uncouth", "good enough for" and "indeed" after "coloured pencils". As a Canadian, and not a colonial although I appreciate all the English and French mother countries did for us and still do, I have had a good classic education as well in Latin. Just because I don't remeber things exactly doesn't mean they aren't in there and I am sure have influenced the ease of my learning Spanish and French. Learning those three languages gave me confidence to know I could learn Japanese, Mongolian, Greenlandic and Canadian Sign Language. But I think that if I had known more about SFL I would have been even better at my language learning. By the way, I used coloured pencils to learn these other languages and had great understanding teachers who made things a lot of fun. We had orgies in Latin and Mexican hat dances in Spanish and so on.
SFL
Two days ago I received a copy of `A Grammar Companion - For Primary Teachers` by Beverly Derewianka. This combines the functional and traditional models. It is designed for use in Australian schools. I showed it to some of my higher level Japanese students to get their reaction. Some thought it looked very interesting. It starts off looking at the basic unit of English as the clause. There are many textbooks here in Japan based on various approaches - CLT, Task-based etc. I have tried many with limited success (incidentally my latest -the task-based approach of `New Cutting Edge` seems to be bringing positive results). I am thinking of introducing elements of `A Grammar Companion....` to my lower classes but it will take considerable manipulation on my part. I do not want to try to re-invent the wheel! Surely somebody has done this before for use in Japan! Does anybody know of a textbook for beginner students using this mult-purpose grammar?
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It seems that you might have to be the one who invents this particular wheel. There is a fellow at Macquarrie University by the first name of Kazuhiro who is studying the differences between Japanese and English using SFG and it is fascinating to see the pitfalls and problems that Japanese students have when trying to learn English. He works with students who would like to become translaters and also teaches Japanese to other speakers so has hands on experience. I think you could look at the curriculum documents of New South Wales and the Hong Kong University and see what they cover to get an idea of what you might want to put in your textbook. I sent off the course manual of Beverly Derewianka and all the little papers that we have produced in our discussion group and we can have a dialogue about those. I think perhaps you might have to be familiar enough with the ideas and vocuabulary to see where things might fit for your students. Beverly and others helped design a curriculum for schools in Hong Kong but I don't think it is available for the public yet and would be for young children. I don't think anyone has done it for adults so here is your chance to get in on the publishing. If anyone else wants to have a copy of the course manual send me a private message with your address. It costs me $20 Canadian to have the manual copied and then some for the mailing of course.
Applied SFL
Sally,
As mentioned I am keen on trying out functional grammar techniques in my classes. A further positive development: My wife, Japanese, teaches basic English grammar. She had a quick look through Beverly`s book and is interested in using some of the ideas- particularly working at the clause level and introducing (early) the ideas of adverbials and adjectivals. Many many thanks for the material you are forwarding on to me.
As mentioned I am keen on trying out functional grammar techniques in my classes. A further positive development: My wife, Japanese, teaches basic English grammar. She had a quick look through Beverly`s book and is interested in using some of the ideas- particularly working at the clause level and introducing (early) the ideas of adverbials and adjectivals. Many many thanks for the material you are forwarding on to me.
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In the course with Rhondda Fahey (Using Functional Grammar:An Explorer's Guide from the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research) we started off with dividing our student's own writing into clauses. That seemed to help them a great deal with errors of tense and plurals. Then we divided the sentence into nominal groups and process groups. The instructors had a template to put under the clauses - little boxes that divided the clauses and named them. Gradually we got more and more rows of these little boxes to show actor, process and goal and so on. By the end of the course we could do about 10 levels of analysis with one sentence. It just makes somethings pop out and starts you wondering why we do things the way we do. Even the course instructors would discuss a particular sentence and wouldn't agree on how to analyze it. It was amazing to have such discussions over language - they sometimes lasted well into the social hours. The errors I found very interesting in the Japanese student's writing were how they heavily nominalize a sentence in English as they would do in Japanese and forget their articles or put them in where they weren't required.
Last edited by Sally Olsen on Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Applied SFL
Sally
Your description of working with students at clause level sounds great.
You mentioned in a previous message about `re-inventing the wheel`.
I received a message from John Knox at Maquarie University stating it is not necessary. His message follows and are you familiar with any of these texts? (I have been through `Getting started with functional grammar` Droga & Humphries, and also `English for social purposes` Hammond et al. Also I checked out the Italian website - fabulous functional grammar available but in Italian!)
John`s message:
The Focus on series published by NCELTR is really good and targeted at ESL teachers: www.nceltr.mq.edu.au
Also the _Beach Street_ series are SFL-genre-based ESL course books, also Feez's Text-based syllabus design (also published by NCELTR) and Hammond et al's English for social purposes apply SFL and genre to teaching ESL. Also I see what you mean (published again by NCELTR). These all use an SFL-informed approach to target ESL learners - if you haven't seen these books yet make sure you get your hands on them to avoid re-inventing the wheel.
If you actually want to teach SFL to EFL students, there are books developed in Italy for this purpose and available freely on the web: http://folk.uio.no/hhasselg/systemic/
Your description of working with students at clause level sounds great.
You mentioned in a previous message about `re-inventing the wheel`.
I received a message from John Knox at Maquarie University stating it is not necessary. His message follows and are you familiar with any of these texts? (I have been through `Getting started with functional grammar` Droga & Humphries, and also `English for social purposes` Hammond et al. Also I checked out the Italian website - fabulous functional grammar available but in Italian!)
John`s message:
The Focus on series published by NCELTR is really good and targeted at ESL teachers: www.nceltr.mq.edu.au
Also the _Beach Street_ series are SFL-genre-based ESL course books, also Feez's Text-based syllabus design (also published by NCELTR) and Hammond et al's English for social purposes apply SFL and genre to teaching ESL. Also I see what you mean (published again by NCELTR). These all use an SFL-informed approach to target ESL learners - if you haven't seen these books yet make sure you get your hands on them to avoid re-inventing the wheel.
If you actually want to teach SFL to EFL students, there are books developed in Italy for this purpose and available freely on the web: http://folk.uio.no/hhasselg/systemic/
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Just able to get my books back from lending them to various people so can post the names of the ones I like:
Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer's Guide by David Butt, Rhondda Fahey and others from NCELTR
An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics by Susan Eggins by Continuum
The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach by Thoms Bloor and Meriel Bloor by Arnold
English Grammar: a functional approach by John Collerson by Primary English Teaching Association
Researching Language Schools and Communities: Functional Linguistic Perspectives edited by Len Unsworth by Cassell
Teaching Multiliteracies Across the Curriculum:Changing Contexs of text and image in classroom practice by Len Unsworth by Open University Press
Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer's Guide by David Butt, Rhondda Fahey and others from NCELTR
An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics by Susan Eggins by Continuum
The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach by Thoms Bloor and Meriel Bloor by Arnold
English Grammar: a functional approach by John Collerson by Primary English Teaching Association
Researching Language Schools and Communities: Functional Linguistic Perspectives edited by Len Unsworth by Cassell
Teaching Multiliteracies Across the Curriculum:Changing Contexs of text and image in classroom practice by Len Unsworth by Open University Press
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Had another workshop by Kathy ?, a teacher in the Burnaby school system (just outside Vancouver). She also uses colour coding and used red for participants because they ""stop"the action or are what the action is all about. Green was for processes because they "go" and blue for circumstances. She does is right on her computer. She works with grade 10's but the school board is multcultural with over 68 languages represented by the students. She was super keen and even took a course from Australia to be a tutor for other teachers. I will try and get the name of the course. If you get funding a tutor will come from Autralia and give you this course. You get a certificate and can train others. The manual and workbook looked very practical. We hope to take the training this fall.
appllied linguistics
I have so far used colours only for processes - colouring past,present and future. These Japanese classes are fairly low level and it makes them think - and me too. How do you colour present perfect!!!
I am spending a few weeks in Australia in August - any chance of finding out about that Australian course?
Red for participants because they `stop` the processes.
Green `for go` for processes.
Blue for circumstances.
Great stuff!
Geordie
I am spending a few weeks in Australia in August - any chance of finding out about that Australian course?
Red for participants because they `stop` the processes.
Green `for go` for processes.
Blue for circumstances.
Great stuff!
Geordie
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Applied Systemic Linguistics
Sally,
I joined JASFL about three months ago. I received two interesting replies regarding practical application of SFL at beginner levels. The following is particularly interesting to me - a university professor at a Tokyo university is using SFL in the teaching of articles to Japanese university students. This is a very difficult concept for Japanese students! I am looking forward to meeting this professor in Tokyo in October to learn about his methods.
The other reply was from a lecturer at a university in Kyoto who is struggling to find practical applications for SFL.
I joined JASFL about three months ago. I received two interesting replies regarding practical application of SFL at beginner levels. The following is particularly interesting to me - a university professor at a Tokyo university is using SFL in the teaching of articles to Japanese university students. This is a very difficult concept for Japanese students! I am looking forward to meeting this professor in Tokyo in October to learn about his methods.
The other reply was from a lecturer at a university in Kyoto who is struggling to find practical applications for SFL.
Re: Applied Systemic Functional Linguistics.
Can you give an example of zig zag and how you would go about working it into a class?geordie wrote:Hi Abufletcher,
Many thanks for replying.
Sorry I did not mean to suggest that my students are discussing linguistics. They are not writing ABOUT thematic progression but rather submitting simple essays USING `zigzag` thematic progression.
I understand this much about it:
Thematic progression
The exchange and linking of information between sentences either by repeating sentence beginnings (downward pattern) or exchanging information between sentence endings and sentence beginnings (zig zag or fan pattern).
but I would like to know how you do it in an ESL class. What are the steps?
Applied Linguistics
Hard to describe in words.
If you give me your email address I will scan a couple of examples written by my students and forward.
If you give me your email address I will scan a couple of examples written by my students and forward.