“Reading Science: Using Systemic Functional Linguistics to Support Critical Language Awareness”
In the article, O’Halloran, Palincsar, and Schleppegrell discuss a design-based research project meant to raise critical language awareness for teachers and students; specifically, using the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) metalanguage to investigate how authors draw on language resources to convey attitude in informational texts. Unlike narrative texts, informational texts are often viewed as lacking in authorial attitude and opinion; information is presented as a set of unquestionable facts. The authors argue informational texts are, indeed, inscribed with authorial opinions and perspectives and that critical language awareness can help teachers and students see the inherent dialogism in informational texts – that, like narratives, students can become “empowered to speak back” to informational texts, questioning assumptions by drawing awareness to the language resources that clue the reader in to author attitudes (5). The two major ways the researchers draw attention to author attitudes and opinions is through the identification of interpersonal adjuncts such as fortunately and interestingly (7). Interpersonal adjuncts like fortunately or hopefully signal to the reader that the author is expressing an opinion, while adjuncts like interestingly create salience, focusing the reader’s attention on a specific piece of information.
This is part of a greater design-based research project making SFL “useful and usable” for ELL teachers and students. Design-based research “involves multiple iterations of creating, piloting, refining, and then implementing and studying new innovations in authentic contexts of educational focus” (5). The participants consisted of twenty-three primary school teachers and literacy coaches across five schools in a predominantly Arabic community (5). The researchers conducted eight forty-five minute sessions teaching students and teachers how to analyze authorial attitudes in informational texts using SFL. The researchers collected four types of data: teacher responses after the initial training session, lesson transcripts from two third grade classrooms, teacher logs, and teacher discussion in professional development after the unit (5). The data shows students were more likely to develop a critical orientation to informational texts after the unit. Most teachers reported increased knowledge regarding the dialogic and attitudinal nature of informational texts. Several teachers, however, did not see the importance of examining author attitudes in informational texts, as informational texts are thought to convey solely factual information. The researchers concluded they need to provide better materials and support for teachers integrating functional grammar into the classroom.
This article is useful for educators looking to infuse critical language awareness in the classroom with SFL. The article provides practical models for promoting critical literacy when reading texts. Also, the research presents a systematic methodology for investigating functional grammar in the classroom, which is often missing from work on SFL and genre pedagogy. While Martin and Rose’s “Designing Literacy Pedagogy” provides an important overview of genre theory, O’Halloran et. al’s piece narrows down what is often viewed as an unwieldy and overly complicated theory into classroom-based research which is manageable and related to the needs of students, teachers, and researchers while still addressing the important issue of social justice and raising students’ critical language awareness.
O’Hallaron, C. L., et al. Reading science: Using systemic functional linguistics to support critical language awareness. Linguistics and Education (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2015.02.002