Chapter published in:
Usage-inspired L2 Instruction: Researched pedagogyEdited by Andrea E. Tyler, Lourdes Ortega, Mariko Uno and Hae In Park
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 49] 2018
► pp. 267–289
Chapter 12A systemic functional linguistic approach to usage-based research and instruction
The case of nominalization in L2 academic writing
Guillaume Gentil | Carleton University
Fanny Meunier | University of Louvain
The present chapter illustrates how Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) can inform a usage-inspired approach to researching and teaching L2 writing in a postsecondary context. We first outline an SFL perspective to multilingual academic literacy development and then illustrate this perspective by means of longitudinal, corpus data on nominalization use in the English academic writing of francophone university students over four years. By means of quantitative indicators (nominalization frequencies, erroneous forms, measures of L2 proficiency scores and syntactic complexity) and qualitative analyses (of the discourse functions that nominalization serve), we argue that French-speaking writers’ use of nominalization in English indexes both language-specific and language-interdependent aspects of multilingual academic literacy development. We conclude with implications for further SFL-informed research and instruction that aims to promote multilingual academic literacy development by raising crosslinguistic awareness of the forms and functions of nominalization in academic discourse.
Article outline
- Introduction
- An SFL perspective to multilingual academic literacy development
- Nominalization use and academic literacy development
- An exploratory study of nominalization use
- Curricular context and participants
- Data sources
- Operationalizing and counting nominalizations
- Insights from quantitative analyses of nominalization
- Additional insights from finer-grained analyses of two focal learners
- Implications for usage-based theory-building, research, and instruction
-
References
Published online: 13 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.49.12gen
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.49.12gen
References
Bennett, K.
Biber, D. & Conrad, S., Leech, G.
Biber, D., Gray, B., & Poonpon, P.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, E.
Byrnes, H.
Caffarel, A., Martin, J., & Matthiessen, C.
Colombi, C.
Council of Europe
Cummins, J.
(2007) Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 221–240. Available from http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/CJAL/index
Devrim, D. Y.
Gentil, G.
Gebhard, M., Chen, I., & Britton, L.
Gilquin, G., Granger, S., & Paquot, M.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Martin, J.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I .M.
Južnic, T. M.
Liardét, C.
Littré, D.
Lyster, R.
Matthiessen, C. M. I .M.
McNamara, D. S., Louwerse, M. M., Cai, Z., & Graesser, A.
(2005, January 1) Coh-Metrix version 1.4. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from http://cohmetrix.memphis.edu
Meunier, F.
Meunier, F., & Littré, D.
Ortega, L.
Paquot, M.
Rayson, P.
(2009) Wmatrix: A web-based corpus processing environment. Computing Department, Lancaster University. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/
Rundell, M., & Granger, S.
Ryshina-Pankova, M., & Byrnes, H.
Schleppegrell, M. J.
Terblanche, L.
Tyler, A. E.
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Meunier, Fanny, Isa Hendrikx, Amélie Bulon, Kristel Van Goethem & Hubert Naets
Yeh, Ellen
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.