Cover not available
Article published In:
Language, Context and Text
Vol. 4:1 (2022) ► pp.84–113

Construing FL writers’ meaning-making choices in a historical recount genre in Spanish

A functional approach to developing academic literacy

ORCID logo | University of Technology Sydney

This study reports on a four-semester teaching programme for foreign language (FL) intermediate writing abilities in Spanish to be implemented in educational practice. The study conducts qualitative analysis, drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL), of developmental changes in twenty undergraduate, Spanish Level 4 students, based on their performance of, and comments on, pre- and post-instructional written tasks, focusing on meaning-making choices in the construction of a historical recount genre over one semester of instruction at an Australian university. Responding to the need for research on academic writing in FL, the paper shows that SFL facilitates students’ understanding of writing development in an FL as they explore textual, ideational and interpersonal meanings in conjunction with required lexicogrammatical choices to fulfil the rhetorical demands of this genre.

Keywords: foreign language teaching, register, SFL genre theory, textual meaning, ideational meaning, interpersonal meaning, rhetorical demands, nominalisation, grammatical metaphor, literacy skills in a foreign language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Writing as meaning making in L2
    • 2.2Genre within SFL and FL: Meaning making through writing
    • 2.3Theorising grammatical metaphor
    • 2.4Establishing a context for studying the development of writing in Spanish as FL
  • 3.Educational context of the study
    • 3.1Renewal of the Spanish curriculum
    • 3.2Historical recount and the teaching curriculum
  • 4.Methods
    • 4.1Research ethics and reliability of data analysis
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Data collection
    • 4.4Holistic practitioner assessment of language and content learning
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1RQ1 How did genre awareness and knowledge of genre-appropriate linguistic resources change over time as a result of an SFL genre-based pedagogic intervention?
    • 5.2Changes to the alignment of key lexicogrammatical and semantic resources in historical recount
      • 5.2.1Developing genre awareness and knowledge
      • 5.2.2Textual perspective on making meaning: Historical recount
      • 5.2.3Ideational perspective on making meaning: Historical recount
      • 5.2.4Interpersonal perspective on making meaning: Historical recount
  • 6.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 6 April 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.21005.she
References
Achugar, Mariana &, María C. Colombi
2008 Systemic functional linguistic explorations into the longitudinal study of advanced capacities: The case of Spanish heritage language learners. In Lourdes Ortega & Heidi Byrnes (eds.), The longitudinal study of advanced L2 capacities, 36–57. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Armour, William & Reiko Furuya
2013 Learning how to mean in Japanese as an additional language. In Elizabeth Thomson & William Armour (eds.), Systemic functional perspectives of Japanese: Descriptions and applications, 210–253. Sheffield: Equinox.Google Scholar
Arús, Jorge
2010 On theme in English and Spanish: A comparative study. In Elizabeth Swain (ed.), Thresholds and potentialities of systemic functional linguistics: Multilingual, multimodal and other specialised discourses, 23–48. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste.Google Scholar
Byrnes, Heidi
2009 Emergent L2 German writing ability in curricular context: A longitudinal study of grammatical metaphor. Linguistics and Education 201. 50–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Beyond writing as language learning or content learning: Construction foreign language writing as meaning-making. In Rosa Manchón (ed.), Learning-to-write- and writing-to-learn in an additional language, 133–157. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Conceptualizing FL writing development in collegiate settings: A systemic functional linguistic approach. In Rosa Manchón (ed.), L2 writing development: Multiple perspectives, 191–219. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Positioning writing as meaning-making in writing research: An introduction. Journal of Second Language Writing 221. 95–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 Advanced-level grammatical development in instructed SFL. In Paul A. Malovrh & Alessandro G. Benati (eds.), The handbook of advanced proficiency in second language acquisition, 133–156. London: Wiley Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Byrnes, Heidi, Hiram H. Maxim & John M. Norris
2010 Realizing advanced L2 writing development in collegiate FL education: Curricular design, pedagogy, and assessment. Modern Language Journal 94 (Supplement) 1–235. [URL]
Caffarel, Alice
2006 Learning advanced French through SFL: Learning SFL in French. In Heidi Byrnes (ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky, 204–224. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Christie, Frances
2012 Language education throughout school years: A functional perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Christie, Frances & Beverly Derewianka
2010 School discourse: Learning to write across the years of schooling. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Coffin, Caroline
1997 Constructing and giving value to the past: an investigation into secondary school history. In Frances Christie & James R. Martin (eds.), Genre and institutions, 196–239. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2006 Reconstruing ‘personal time’ as ‘collective time’: Learning the discourse of history. In Rachael Whittaker, Mick O’Donnell & Anne McCabe (eds.), Language and literacy, 207–232. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Colombi, María C.
2006 Grammatical metaphor: Academic language development in Latino students in Spanish. In Heidi Byrnes (ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky, 147–163. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2009 A systemic functional approach to teaching Spanish for heritage speakers in the United States. Linguistics and Education 201. 39–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Costino, Kimberly A. & Sunny Hyon
2011 Sidestepping our ‘‘scare words’’: Genre as a possible bridge between L1 and L2 compositionists. Journal of Second Language Writing 201. 24–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Derewianka, Beverly & Pauline Jones
2016 Teaching language in context. (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eggins, Susan
1994 An introduction to systemic functional linguistics (2nd edition). London: Pinter.Google Scholar
Gal, Susan & Kathryn A. Woolard
2001 Constructing languages and publics: Authority and representation. In Susan Gal & Kathryn A. Woolard (eds.), Languages & publics, 1–13. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Gibbons, John
1999 Register aspects on literacy in Spanish. Written Language and Literacy 2 (10). 63–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1994 An introduction to functional grammar (2nd edition). London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
1996 On grammar & grammatics. In Ruqaiya Hasan, David G. Butt & Carmel Cloran (eds.), Functional descriptions: Language form & linguistic theory, 1–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
1999 Construing experience through meaning: A language–based approach to cognition. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Hood, Sue
2010 Appraising research: Evaluation in academic writing. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Humphrey, Sally & Lucy Mcnaught
2016 Functional language instruction and the writing growth of English language learners in the middle years. TESOL Quarterly 50 (4). 792–816. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hyland, Ken
2003 Genre-based pedagogies: A social response to process. Journal of Second Language Writing 121. 17–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanoksilapatham, Budsaba
2005 Rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles. English for Specific Purposes 241. 269–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liardét, Cassi
2013 An exploration of Chinese EFL learners’ deployment of grammatical metaphor: Learning to make academically valued meaning. Journal of Second Language Writing 221.161–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liardét, Cassi & Sharyn Black
2019 “So and so” says, states and argues: A corpus-assisted engagement analysis of reporting verbs. Journal of Second Language Writing 441. 37–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manchón, Rosa
2011 Learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language. Amsterdam: John Benjamin. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mar-Molinero, Clare
2008 Language authority in global Spanish. International Multilingual Research Journal 21. 27–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, James R.
1992 English text: System and structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993 Genre and literacy-modelling in educational linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 131. 141–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997 Analysing genre: functional parameters. In Frances Christie & James R. Martin (eds.), Genre and institutions: Social processes in the workplace and school, 3–39. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
2002 Writing history: Constructing time and value in discourse of the past. In Mary Schleppegrell & María C. Colombi (eds.), Developing advanced literacy in first and second languages, 87–118. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Martin, James R. & David Rose
2007 Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2008 Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Ortega, Lourdes
2003 Syntactic complexity measures and their relationship to L2 proficiency: A research synthesis of college-level L2 writing. Applied linguistics 241. 492–518. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Interlanguage complexity: A construct in search of theoretical renewal. In Bernd Kortmann & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi (eds.), Linguistic complexity: Second language acquisition, indigenization, contact, 127–255. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oteíza, Tesesa & Derrin Pinto
2008 Agency, responsibility and silence in the construction of contemporary history in Chile and Spain. Discourse & Society 19 (3). 333–358. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oteíza, Teresa & Mariana Achugar
2018 History textbooks and the construction of dictatorship. In Eckhardt Fuchs & Annekatrin Bock (eds.), Palgrave handbook of textbook studies, 305–318. New York: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ramzan, Yuko & Elizabeth Thompson
2013 Modelling writing: Using the genre approach in the Japanese as a foreign language classroom. In Elizabeth Thomson & William Armour (eds.), Systemic functional perspectives of Japanese: Descriptions and applications, 254–283. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar
Ravelli, Louise
2004 Familiar territory, shifting grounds: Aspects of organization in written texts. In Louise Ravelli & Rod Ellis (eds.), Analysing academic writing: Contextualized frameworks, 104–130. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Rose, David & James R. Martin
2012 Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School. Sheffield: Equinox.Google Scholar
Ryshina-Pankova, Marianna
2015 A meaning-based approach to the study of complexity in L2 writing: The case of grammatical metaphor. Journal of Second Language Writing 291. 51–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ryshina-Pankova, Marianna & Heidi Byrnes
2013 Writing as learning to know: Tracing knowledge construction in L2 German compositions. Journal of Second Language Writing 221. 179–197. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schleppegrell, Mary
2004 The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Academic language in teaching and learning. The Elementary School Journal 112 (3). 409–418. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 The role of metalanguage in supporting academic language development. Language Learning 63 (1). 153–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sheldon, Elena
2018 Knowledge construction in academia: A challenge for multilingual scholars. London: Peter Lang. [URL]. DOI logo
2020 We cannot abandon the two worlds, we have to be in both: Chilean scholars’ views on publishing in English and Spanish. Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes 1 (2). 119–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Teruya, Kazuhiro
2006 Grammar as a resource for the construction of language logic for advanced language learning in Japanese. In Heidi Byrnes (ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky, 109–133. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Tinsley, Teresa
2011 Language in the education system; Why Spanish? In Philip Powell Davies (ed.), Word for word: The social, economic and political impact of Spanish and English, 107–118. Madrid: Santillana.Google Scholar
Velázquez-Mendoza, Omar
2015 The role of grammatical metaphor in the development of advanced literacy in Spanish as a first, second, and heritage language. Functional Linguistics 2 (7). 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yasuda, Sachiko
2015 Exploring changes in FL writer’s meaning-making choices in summary writing: A systemic functional approach. Journal of Second Language Writing 271. 105–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar