Cover not available
Article published In:
Language, Context and Text
Vol. 4:1 (2022) ► pp.2–25

Lessons learnt applying a systemic functional model to teaching and learning in school contexts over the last thirty years

A personal account

| Lexis Education, Australia
| Lexis Education, Australia

In this paper we look back at our work over the last thirty years as education consultants in a range of educational contexts in which we sought to promote an explicit, language-based approach to teaching and learning. We trace our pathway from the earliest days of meeting systemic functional theory and its potential application in education to recent times where we now are able to offer a suite of professional development programmes designed to build the capacity of teachers and students to understand how language works to make meaning. We reflect on the many challenges of re-contextualising such an elaborate model of language in educational contexts: challenges that embrace the pedagogical, the political and the logistical among others. The intent is to highlight the affordances we have seen while working closely with teachers over the years in the hope that others will be inspired to continue the work.

Keywords: literacy education, teacher professional development, pedagogical grammar, metalinguistic development, English as a second language, systemic functional linguistics, classroom applications of functional grammar, genre, multisemioticity, language-based pedagogy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The developmental phase
    • 2.1What was learnt from the early days?
      • 2.1.1Need for a meaningful theoretical framework that could be drawn on in schooling contexts
      • 2.1.2Maintaining high challenge and high support
      • 2.1.3Development of the first iteration of the Language and Literacy Course: Classoom applications of functional grammar
  • 3.Extending the scope of the work: Implementing a train-the-trainer model
    • 3.1A rationale for the train-the-trainer model
    • 3.2Growing interest outside the state of South Australia
    • 3.3Language and learning development continuum
    • 3.4The influence of functional language models of curricula in other Australian states
    • 3.5The importance of teacher action research
    • 3.6Evolving beyond the Australian context
      • 3.6.1An effect of government departments monetising their intellectual property
      • 3.6.2Increasing social capital within schools
      • 3.6.3The comprehensive content
      • 3.6.4Advantages of a modular structure
      • 3.6.5Internal and external evaluation and tertiary accreditation
    • 3.7What has driven renewal of content?
      • 3.7.1Addressing multisemioticity
      • 3.7.2Addressing the range of students
      • 3.7.3New contexts for delivering courses
  • 4.Move to whole school approaches
    • 4.1The changing face of the Australian curriculum
    • 4.2How is the work being sustained?
      • 4.2.1Whole school approaches supported by post-course support
      • 4.2.2Need for research to build up more data on success
  • 5.Summary
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 April 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.21013.dar
References
Ashton, Rose
1999 Last night, Mrs Shepherd ate worms: Teaching circumstances with fun. English as a Second Language Educators’ Journal 15 (2). 10–12.Google Scholar
Athanasopoulos, Vicki & Debbie Sandford
1997 Teaching the argument genre in a Year 6–7 class. English as a Second Language Educators’ Journal 13 (1). 10–12.Google Scholar
Baker, Graeme & Rosemary McLoughlin
1994 Writing in the subject areas: A professional development programme for secondary subject teachers. Melbourne: Literacy and Learning Program, Catholic Education Office, Melbourne and Directorate of School Education, Victoria.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Basil
1999 Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Braddock, Richard, Richard Lloyd-Jones & Lowell Schoer
1963 Research in written composition. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Bruner, Jerome
1985 Vygotsky: A historical and conceptual perspective. In James V. Wertsch (ed.), Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives, 112–114. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Christie, Frances & James R. Martin
(eds.) 1997 Genres and institutions: Social processes in the workplace and school. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Clayton, Jean & Graham Taylor
1994 Evaluation of ESL in the Mainstream: NLLIA-South Australian Teaching and Curriculum Centre (NLLIA-SATC). Adelaide: NLLIA-SATAC.Google Scholar
Comber, Barbara
(ed.) 1998 A project designed to examine the work of the South Australian community of teacher-researchers. Practitioner Research Communication and Mentoring Program Grant, Spencer Foundation, USA. Adelaide: University of South Australia.Google Scholar
(ed.) 2000 Doing teacher research: Documenting, disseminating and connecting. Practitioner Research Communication and Mentoring Program Grant, Spencer Foundation, USA. Adelaide: University of South Australia.Google Scholar
Cope, Bill & Mary Kalantzis
(eds.) 1993 The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing. London: The Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Custance, Bronwyn, Brian Dare & John Polias
2006 Teaching ESL students in mainstream classrooms: Language in learning across the curriculum. South Australia: Department of Education and Children’s Services.Google Scholar
2011 How language works: Success in literacy and learning. Melbourne: Lexis Education.Google Scholar
Dare, Brian & John Polias
1998 Language and literacy: Classroom applications of functional grammar. South Australia: Department of Education and Children’s Services.Google Scholar
2001 Learning about language: Scaffolding in ESL classrooms. In Jenny Hammond (ed.), Scaffolding: Teaching and learning in language and literacy education, 91–109. Newtown, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association.Google Scholar
2013 Literacy for learning. South Australia: Department for Education and Child Development.Google Scholar
2015 Teaching young children in English in multilingual contexts. South Australia: Department for Education and Child Development.Google Scholar
2020a 3L: Language and literacy for learning. Melbourne: Lexis Education.Google Scholar
2020b Teaching English in multilingual classrooms. Melbourne: Lexis Education.Google Scholar
In press. Our own double helix: The power of teachers and students understanding how language works in schooling contexts. In David Caldwell, John S. Knox & James R. Martin eds. Appliable linguistics and social semiotics: Developing theory from practice numbers London Bloomsbury
Deacon, Terrence
2010 Language and complexity: Evolution inside out. Plenary presentation, International Systemic Functional Congress: University of British Columbia. Available at [URL]
Doidge, Norman
2007 The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
2010 Interview. The Sydney Writers’ Festival, July 2010.Google Scholar
Forey, Gail
2020 A whole school approach to SFL metalanguage and the explicit teaching of language for curriculum learning. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 441. 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forey, Gail & Eric L. M. Cheung
2019 The benefits of explicit teaching of language for curriculum learning in the physical education classroom. English for Specific Purposes 541. 91–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forey, Gail & John Polias
2017 Multi-semiotic resources providing maximal input in teaching science through English. In Ana Llinares & Tom Morton (eds.), Applied linguistics perspectives on CLIL, 109–131. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
French, Ruth
2010 Primary school children learning grammar: Rethinking the possibilities. In Terry Locke (ed.), Beyond the grammar wars: A resource for teachers and students on developing language knowledge in the English / literacy classroom, 206–229. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
2012 Learning the grammatics of quoted speech: Benefits for punctuation and expressive reading. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 35 (2). 206–222.Google Scholar
2013 Teaching and learning functional grammar in junior primary classrooms. PhD dissertation. University of New England, Australia.
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1975 Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of language. London: Edward Arnold. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
2014 Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th edition). London & New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hasan, Ruqaiya & Geoff Williams
(eds.) 1996 Literacy in society. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Hillocks, George
1984 What works in teaching composition: A meta-analysis of experimental studies. American Journal of Education 931. 133–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Humphrey, Sally
2017 Academic literacies in the middle years: A framework for enhancing teacher knowledge and student achievement. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther, Carey Jewitt, Jon Ogborn & Charalampos Tsatsarelis
2001 Multimodal teaching and learning: The rhetorics of the science classroom. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Mariani, Luciano
1997 Teacher support and teacher challenge in promoting learner autonomy. Perspectives, a Journal of TESOL-Italy 221. 5–19.Google Scholar
Martin, James R.
1997 Analysing genre: Functional parameters. In Frances Christie & James R. Martin (eds.), Genres and institutions: Social processes in the workplace and school, 3–39. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
1999 Mentoring semogenesis: ‘Genre-based’ literacy pedagogy. In Frances Christie (ed.), Pedagogy and the shaping of consciousness: Linguistic and social processes, 123–155. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
2006 Metadiscourse: Designing interaction in genre-based literacy programmes. In Rachel Whittaker, Mick O’Donnell & Anne McCabe (eds.), Language and literacy: Functional approaches, 95–122. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Martin, James R. & David Rose
2008 Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Mincham, Lexie
1992 Assessing the English language needs of ESL students. In Chrystine Bouffler (ed.), Literacy evaluation: Issues and practicalities, 46–57. Newtown, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association.Google Scholar
Painter, Clare
1996 The development of language as a resource for thinking: A linguistic view of learning. In Ruqaiya Hasan & Geoff Williams (eds.), Literacy in society, 50–85. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Perry, Bruce & Maia Szalavitz
2006 The boy who was raised as a dog and other stories from a child psychiatrist’s notebook: What traumatized children can teach us about loss, love and healing. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Polias, John
2003 ESL Scope and Scales. Adelaide, South Australia: DECS Publishing. Available at [URL]
2010 Pedagogical resonance: Improving teaching and learning. In Caroline Coffin (ed.), Grammar and the curriculum, 42–48. London: National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC).Google Scholar
2016 Apprenticing students into science: Doing, talking, and writing scientifically. Melbourne: Lexis Education.Google Scholar
2017 Language across the curriculum professional development. Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. [URL]
2021 Language and learning development continuum. Melbourne: Lexis Education. Available at [URL]
Polias, John & Brian Dare
2006 Towards a pedagogical grammar. In Rachel Whittaker, Mick O’Donnell & Anne McCabe (eds.), Language and literacy: Functional approaches, 123–143. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Polias, John & Gail Forey
2016 Teaching through English: Maximal input in meaning making. In Donna R. Miller & Paul Bayley (eds.), Hybridity in systemic functional linguistics: Grammar, text and discursive context, 42–49. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Pomagalska, Dorota
2019 Evaluation of the whole-school implementation of a language-based pedagogy at Southern Secondary College. Melbourne: Lexis Education. Available at [URL]
2020 Outcomes of a functional grammar-based pedagogy in an intensive English language school. Melbourne: Lexis Education. Available at [URL]
Pryor, Ginny
1999 Introducing functional grammar in a New Arrivals classroom. English as a Second Language Educators’ Journal 15 (3). 4–9Google Scholar
Rose, David & James R. Martin
2012 Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar
Rothery, Joan
1996 Making changes: Developing an educational linguistics. In Ruqaiya Hasan & Geoff Williams (eds.), Literacy in society, 86–123. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Russo, Lina
2002 Recipe for success: Using functional grammar in English and Italian. Melbourne: Lexis Education. Available at [URL]
Vygotsky, Lev S.
1978 Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Walsh, Paddy
2006 The impact of genre theory and pedagogy and systemic functional linguistics on National Literacy Strategies in the UK. In Rachel Whittaker, Mick O’Donnell & Anne McCabe (eds.), Language and literacy: Functional approaches, 159–176. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
White, Peter R. R., Giuseppe Mammone & David Caldwell
2015 Linguistically based inequality, multilingual education and a genre-based literacy development pedagogy: Insights from the Australian experience. Language and Education 29 (3). 256–271. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Williams, Geoff
2000 Children’s literature, children and uses of language description. In Len Unsworth (ed.), Researching language in schools and communities, 111–129. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
2004 Ontogenesis and grammatics: Functions of metalanguage in pedagogical discourse. In Geoff Williams & Annabelle Lukin (eds.), The development of language: Functional perspectives on species and individuals, 241–267. London and New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
2005 Grammatics in schools. In Jonathan J. Webster, Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen & Ruqaiya Hasan (eds.), Continuing discourse on language (Volume 11), 281–310. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Williams, Geoff, Joan Rothery & Ruth French
1994 Children’s development of knowledge about language. Paper presented at the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Conference, University of Queensland, Australia.
Williams, Geoff & Ruth French
1995 The Haberfield Grammar Club. Paper presented at the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Williams, Monica
1999 Does the teaching of Systemic Functional Linguistics make narrative writing more spine chilling? English as a Second Language Educators’ Journal 15 (1). 23–27.Google Scholar