A functional approach to evaluating content knowledge and language development in ESL students’ science classification texts

Huang, Jingzi; Morgan, Glenn

doi:10.1111/1473-4192.00046

Cited by 20 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…An approach to discourse analysis called Knowledge Structure Analysis, based on Mohan's framework, has been utilized to analyze students’ written discourse in science (e.g. Huang 2000; Huang and Morgan 2003; Mohan et al ms.), oral discourse in mathematics (Huang and Normandia 2003; Huang, Normandia and Greer 2005), and both oral and written discourse in the context of learning Chinese as a foreign language (Mohan and Huang 2002). In Knowledge Structure Analysis, researchers examine the construction of the target meaning, or the lack of it, by identifying the knowledge structures entailed in a written text, following the criteria summarized in Table 1.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In systemic functional analyses of discourse (see Christie and Rothery 1989; Martin 1992; Halliday 1994), reference (Halliday 1994) is concerned with the ways in which the participants are introduced into a text (in the form of noun phrases or nominal groups) and how they are subsequently identified or referenced; transitivity involves examining “what's going on” in language and thus looks most closely at the verb choices; the study of conjunctions looks at the logical relationships between clauses; and lexis is concerned with lexical selection for realizating meaning in a given text. Existing studies (Huang 1995; Mohan and Huang 2002; Huang and Morgan 2003) reveal that different knowledge structures are linguistically constructed in a systematic way through distinct linguistic features, as shown in Table 2.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning the language of mathematics: a study of student writing

Huang

Normandia

2007

Int J Applied Linguistics

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning the language of mathematics: a study of student writing

Huang

Normandia

2007

Int J Applied Linguistics

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“…Halliday, 1985;Reid, 1991;Givon, 1990;Dalrymple, 2001;Huang and Morgan, 2003). The works of these scholars are considered a revolt against the formalized view of language, which is presented by the structural and the transformational schools of grammar.…”

Section: Pedagogical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Functional Approach to Second Language Instruction

Ahmed

2013

WJEL

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This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of the functional approach to second language instruction in acquiring grammatical accuracy. In other words, the second language instruction that is semantically, interactionally (i.e. the meaning-oriented and interaction-oriented instructional techniques) and structurally based (i.e. the rule-oriented instructional techniques) enhances the acquisition of grammatical accuracy more effectively than the structural approach. The reason for such an investigation has resulted from the fact that many instructors of English use the structural and traditional approaches in teaching grammar. The consequence of using such approaches is the decline of English language among university students. Another reason for this investigation is the globalization of all the aspects of today's life which involves second/ foreign language learners to cope with the discourse of modern civilization, so that they can acquire the cross-cultural understanding worldwide through the multimedia and the other communication channels. This step can be achieved by the functional approach to second/ foreign language instruction. To verify the hypothesis, both the qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used to elicit the required data. The subjects of the study were the students majoring in English at the University of Nyala in Sudan. The data which was collected from the subjects, has been analyzed statistically by using a T-test. The results of the investigation have revealed that the functional approach to second language instruction is more effective in acquiring the grammatical accuracy than the structural approach. The study concludes with pedagogical implications and recommendations for the application of the functional approach in second/ foreign language learning/ teaching.

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“…Four steps are usually involved in this analysis: (1) introduce a text and identify the KS that it represents; (2) present a graphic representation of the KS in the text; (3) specify the main semantic relation or relations that serve to construct the KS in the discourse example; and (4) indentify the key linguistic features that express the knowledge structure in the discourse, with particular attention to reference, transitivity, conjuction and lexis. To serve the purpose of this paper, detailed discourse analysis of linguistic devices which serves to reveal a change in linguistic sophistication as a result of the instructional process is provided in a separate paper (see Huang & Morgan, 2003). Based on individual text analysis, a quantitative comparison of all students' writing at the initial and final stages of learning was made in terms of definition of terms, elaboration of terms, and use of examples in order to reveal the students' improvement in knowledge construction and social language development for a particular discourse in school science.…”

Section: Socializing Into Science Through Academic Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the teaching of these linguistic features was relevant to the students' needs, both the teaching and learning became efficient. The result of the process is the appearance of the students' newly gained or reconstructed knowledge and relatively successful use of associated linguistic features (detailed analysis of students' written discourse for linguistic sophistication is provided in Huang & Morgan, 2003) in many of the students' third drafts.…”

Section: Socializing Into Science Through Academic Writing 113mentioning

confidence: 99%

Socialising ESL Students into the Discourse of School Science through Academic Writing

Huang¹

2004

Language and Education

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This paper takes the view of 'language socialization' (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) to examine, through a case study of a secondary ESL science class, the instructional process that aims at facilitating the integration of specific science content learning and the construction of a particular kind of written discourse typically found in school science. The main question addressed in the paper is: How do classroom instructional activities for the development of academic writing socialize students into the world of school science in a content-based language program? The discussion focuses on the whole learning process through analyzing the data collected at different learning stages. The analysis on students' socialization into the science Discourse reveals how integration of content and language may be explicitly highlighted by teachers for students. Initial conflicts between the students' and target ways of thinking and writing are presented with a description of how conflicts are constantly negotiated through interactions with, through, and about written texts. By focusing on the process instead of one piece of product, the study has managed to go further to examine the role played by classroom instruction in integrating the students' academic content learning and written discourse construction.Keywords: English for academic purpose, integration of language and content, ESL in secondary school Is John your student? He can't follow in my class. His lab report is so poorly written. He needs your help. (A secondary school science teacher talking to an ESL teacher about an ESL student) I am the ESL teacher. I can teach you how to write in English, but not a lab report. (A secondary school ESL teacher talking to an ESL student who has trouble doing his lab report assigned by his science teacher) Those teaching at the secondary level are probably familiar with the above scenarios. Though the two teachers have different opinions about their own job description, one thing in common in their belief system is that language is one generic thing that stands alone in isolation from concrete meaningful social practices. Thus it is simply natural that language teachers take care of students' language development and subject area teachers take care of subject area content learning. When students have troubles using their English to handle academic tasks, they are the students of English or ESL teachers; when teaching students the English language, language teachers do not have to concern themselves about how students would use English to engage in specific academic tasks.In this paper, I will take a different perspective about language, a sociocultural one, to report on a case study which reveals that language and subject area content learning are not separate. Through the analysis of the instructional process that engages students in a particular kind of academic writing, I intend to show that instructional activities, when carefully contrived, may make the integration of language and content explicit and systematic for students. ...

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A functional approach to evaluating content knowledge and language development in ESL students’ science classification texts

Cited by 20 publications

References 14 publications

Learning the language of mathematics: a study of student writing

Learning the language of mathematics: a study of student writing

The Functional Approach to Second Language Instruction

Socialising ESL Students into the Discourse of School Science through Academic Writing

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