Article published In:
Australian Applied Language StudiesEdited by Tim F. McNamara
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 10:2] 1987
► pp. 182–198
Edited by Tim F. McNamara
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 10:2] 1987
► pp. 182–198
The morning news genre
Using a functional grammar to illuminate educational issues
This paper aims to demonstrate how Halliday’s Functional Grammar (1985) may be used to illuminate educational questions, more specifically to illuminate the study of classroom discourse. Portion of a text from the lower primary school is examined. It is in fact drawn from a Morning News learning activity. It is argued that we can identify a “curriculum genre” in such a text, and that this has certain characteristic elements, giving it a particular schematic structure. These elements are identified, and two aspects of the functional grammar – namely, Theme and transitivity – are used with a view to proving the presence of the schematic structure. Through the examination, it is argued that the meanings children are constrained to make in the Morning News situation are of a limited kind, revealing a great deal about the limitations of much early childhood education.
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Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Christie, Frances
1991. Pedagogical and content registers in a writing lesson. Linguistics and Education 3:3 ► pp. 203 ff. 
Pappas, Christine C., Maria Varelas, Anne Barry & Amy Rife
2002. Dialogic Inquiry around Information Texts: The Role of Intertextuality in Constructing Scientific Understandings in Urban Primary Classrooms. Linguistics and Education 13:4 ► pp. 435 ff.
Samraj, Betty T. R.
1989. Exploring current issues in genre theory. <i>WORD</i> 40:1-2 ► pp. 189 ff.
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