Developing Teacher Capacity for Serving ELLs' Writing Instructional Needs: A Case for Systemic Functional Linguistics

Aguirre-Muñoz, Zenaida; Park, Jae-Eun; Amabisca, Anastasia Aimee; Boscardin, Christy

doi:10.1080/15235880802640755

Cited by 46 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Previous studies on student writing, such as those by Mohammad and Hazarika (2016) and Al Badi (2015), have noted that learners understanding of language use in academic writing tasks is inadequate. Aguirre-Muñoz, Park, Amabisca, and Boscardin (2009) found that learners tend to "produce mere recounts of temporal events, lacking analysis of the events in terms of how they reveal character traits. This is evidenced by the overuse of action verbs (and underuse of mental verbs) and lack of modality" (p. 300).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

Nagao¹

2017

IES

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This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL in a single EFL classroom (CoP). The participants' genre understanding and meaning-making decisions when writing discussion essays were studied over two semester-long courses. To do so, their developmental changes were analyzed using pre-and post-instructional writing tasks. In particular, their ability to convey interpersonal meaning, such as through the use of modal verbs, was examined and compared between the pre-and post-tasks. To triangulate the findings, participants' genre awareness in relation to discussion essays was also examined using in-depth qualitative analysis of their self-reflective texts and peer assessments, based on a grounded theory approach. In the pre-writing task, it was apparent that the learners lacked understanding of the components of discussion essay writing. However, analysis of their post-instructional tasks revealed that most had begun to apply the language components required to convey interpersonal meaning in their discussion genre texts. These results suggest that the changes in learner's genre awareness and knowledge affected the lexicogrammatical features they used when writing discussion essays. Thus, this study concludes that applying the SFL framework to writing instruction enhanced EFL learners' awareness of textual meaning and their understanding of the function of discussion essay texts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

Nagao¹

2017

IES

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“…Genre-based pedagogy supports explicitly teaching academic registers that students need. Particularly, it consists of teaching linguistic features employed in specific academic genres that students are usually involved in (Aguirre-Muñoz, Park, Amabisca, & Boscardin, 2009). The increasing number of learners of English for Academic Purposes has led to a similar expansion in the number of EAP teachers.…”

Section: Jomaa and Aliamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, this recognition has resulted in new developments in EAP materials and teacher training courses (Hyland & Hamp-Lyons, 2002). This raises the need to train teachers/instructors and equip them with the grammatical elements that constitute an academic language in order to cope with the challenges faced by non-native speakers in writing academically (Aguirre-Muñoz, Park, Amabisca, & Boscardin, 2009). Hence, training teachers to teach citations explicitly can be achieved through several stages.…”

Section: Jomaa and Aliamentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Analyses of Metadiscourse Markers in L2 Students’ Academic Writing

Jomaa

Alia

2019

SSRN Journal

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Stance in general and metadiscourse markers, in particular, have attracted the interest of several studies. Therefore, this study explores the use of metadiscourse in the second language (L2) academic writing by English as a foreign language (EFL) postgraduates in one of the Malaysian public universities. We analyzed the frequency and wordings of modality within the citations of the literature review chapters of 20 Ph.D. theses employing the Systemic Functional Linguistics. Data were analyzed manually utilizing the technique of quantifying the findings to highlight the similarities and differences in using metadiscourse markers. The findings revealed the dominance of full declarative clauses in both Applied Linguistics and Information Technology. Besides the Finite Modal Operators, Mood Adjuncts and Comment Adjuncts were also used to demonstrate modality with a variety in their stance, degrees, and frequencies. Pedagogically, these findings could help supervisors in identifying the implications of their students' writings. In addition, students can be directed towards reading EAP textbooks and materials that are dedicated to areas of academic writing, metadiscourse markers, and citations.

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“…Introducing teachers to the precepts of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) could provide them with tools and a common language that they could employ while teaching writing through genres. Engaging teachers in a more thorough-going analysis of the stages of each genre and how these stages are achieved might help teachers provide more specific and substantive feedback to their students (Aguirre-Muñoz et al, 2008). Rather than teaching students to memorize a list of key words associated with the text type of compare and contrast, teachers could engage students in a thorough-going analysis of texts in which comparison is used effectively.…”

Section: Genre Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing Instruction for English Learners: Examining Instructional Practices in Fourth-Grade Classrooms

Fitts

Bowers

Keisler

2016

NABE Journal of Research and Practice

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This qualitative study examined writing instruction in two linguistically diverse fourth-grade classrooms in order to determine the genres taught and the instructional practices favored by teachers. Researchers observed writing instruction and interviewed teachers in a culturally and linguistically diverse elementary school in Southern California to study how teachers worked with children to develop their capacity to negotiate different writing tasks. Findings revealed that students were engaged in content-area expository writing, and the writing assignments were influenced by assessment requirements. Both teachers evidenced explicit instruction of academic language, attention to genres, and scaffolding for writing. Observations revealed that teachers tended to focus their feedback on word and sentence level discourse during classroom instruction. For lengthier pieces, teachers used mentor texts and heavy scaffolding to ensure that every student in the class would be able to produce the writing required. Implications for professional development are discussed.

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Developing Teacher Capacity for Serving ELLs' Writing Instructional Needs: A Case for Systemic Functional Linguistics

Cited by 46 publications

References 18 publications

Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

Functional Analyses of Metadiscourse Markers in L2 Students’ Academic Writing

Writing Instruction for English Learners: Examining Instructional Practices in Fourth-Grade Classrooms

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