English as Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks contain texts with topics integrated from content areas, such as science. In Thai basic education, learning in content areas is typically done in Thai. Therefore, EFL reading texts provide learners with primary exposure to building content knowledge in English. This raises an issue about how the language of these EFL texts is organised, and if they can help the learners’ transition to university where they are required to read content area texts in English. The paper provides an in-depth demonstration of how linguistic analysis can inform the choice of model texts for teaching EFL reading. It deploys a qualitative linguistic analysis method drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics. The data are the scientific descriptive report texts in EFL textbooks used in a Southern Thailand secondary school. They are compiled in a small corpus, and one text is selected purposively to demonstrate how linguistic analysis can be used to assess the text. The text is analysed using a ‘top-down’ approach, from genre stratum down to the lexicogrammar, with the purpose of examining the text’s ideational, interpersonal, and textual resources to build up scientific knowledge. The findings show that the text does not conform to scientific descriptive reports’ discursive and linguistic features due to its extra stages, incomplete scientific taxonomies, relatively low technicality, low social distance and authority, and incoherent thematic flow. Hence, the quality of the text as a model becomes problematic. Learners learning from these teaching materials may experience challenges when they read authentic science texts at the university level. The paper offers a viable alternative methodological resource for educators to use a systematic, critical and linguistically-grounded evaluation in EFL reading classes.
The present study explores the linguistic complexity (LC) of public legal information (PLI) texts for young persons by deploying the Hallidayan model of lexical density and grammatical intricacy. It examines how the Australian legal statutes’ grammatical intricacy and lexical density are reformulated into PLI texts to make them more accessible for a specific vulnerable group. The findings reveal that although the PLI texts were claimed to be written in plain language, they trade some types of complexity for others. The paper extends Halliday’s model of complexity by adding lower rank complexes and embedded clause complexes as realisations of intricacy and density. It proposes “embedded intricacy” as a feature of a hybrid of spoken and written language. Furthermore, the study suggests reconsidering how law can be recontextualised for young persons in a more accessible way.
For English as a Foreign Language learners, writing is often considered a difficult skill to grasp with. Studies show that both EFL learners and teachers face similar challenges in developing EFL writing ability. This includes inadequate exposure to English, class size, insufficient knowledge of how language works in context, and mother tongue interferences which are believed to be the major challenges for both learners and teachers. This paper reports on an action research project aiming to identify the overall development of pre-service teachers’ skills in writing discussion texts and explore how the Reading to Learn (R2L) intervention helps these teachers develop their control over the target genre. Under the R2L approach, thirty (30) second-year teachers majoring in English language teaching at the Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus involved in the study. Results of the study suggest that the teachers writing skill gap was relatively neutralised after the intervention. In addition, the development of the pre-service teachers’ control over the target genre and language features is evident in text analysis. Upon the intervention, it is found that the teachers developed better control of the features of the discussion genre. Specifically, they developed their control over the stages, phases, appraisal resources, and periodicity which are crucial to establishing well-presented rhetorical features of a discussion text. In relation to the results, some recommendations are proposed for further research, including applying R2L intervention program in the mainstream education in Thailand.
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