Mitigating Suburban English Writing Teachers’ Constrained Professional Development Through Distance Education: One Case Study

Abstract

This study reports on how a Chinese suburban English writing teacher responded to systemic functional linguistics (SFL)-based distance education. The study draws on qualitative content analyses of the teacher’s reflections, interviews, and classroom interactions. The results show that through SFL-based distance education, the teacher, interacting with his agency, overcame multiple constraints and developed academically in terms of how to understand valued academic writing. Additionally, the teacher also harnessed this newfound knowledge to support students’ socialization into academic English discourse. The study concludes the effectiveness of SFL-based distance education for English writing teachers in similarly constrained contexts, which could be enhanced by teachers’ agency. Implications of the study include synergizing the SFL-based curriculum with distance teacher education so that language educators can better assist students in gaining the knowledge needed for navigating academic English literacy.

Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Responses to a Systemic Functional Linguistics Pedagogical Unit: An Experience in a Public University in Colombia

“…These findings are consistent with those of other studies such as the ones conducted by Fenwick (Zhang, 2018), and at times even resistant to their complexity (de Oliveira & Avalos, 2018;Correa & Echeverri, 2017), and the need to give them time and sustained support. They also echo results from Gebhard et al (2013) in the sense that they confirm that psts' conceptualizations of grammar not only do shift through time, as psts get engaged in the different text analysis and production activities that usually make part of these language courses, but become more functional and situated.…”

“…The caution to incorporate sfl theories of language is, however, very visible in English as a foreign language (efl) tpps, both worldwide and in Colombia. Indeed, worldwide, in the last ten years, we can only find a handful of studies where sfl is being used in these programs (see Aidinlou, 2012;Emilia & Hammied 2015;Zhang, 2018). Of these studies, two focus on the effectiveness of sfl knowledge on the reading comprehension of Iranian psts (Aidinlou, 2012), and on whether sfl genre-based instruction can help psts develop their writing ability in English (Emilia & Hammied, 2015).…”

“…Of these studies, two focus on the effectiveness of sfl knowledge on the reading comprehension of Iranian psts (Aidinlou, 2012), and on whether sfl genre-based instruction can help psts develop their writing ability in English (Emilia & Hammied, 2015). Only one study focuses on efl psts' responses to sfl instruction (Zhang, 2018).…”

Exploring the relationship between college students’ writing anxiety and the pedagogical use of online resources

“…At the same time, when conducting research, the instructor strictly followed the ethical standards endorsed by the department and university. The online resources were twofold: one was about sample texts (see Zhang, 2018); the other was about the SFL perspective on writing, meaning that students were instructed to read knowledge about SFL's constructs from the online resources and were encouraged to link it to writing samples (see Zhang, 2018). The resources included verbal materials and audio materials that can be accessed on the internet for free.…”

Yabancı dil olarak Türkçe öğretiminde uzaktan eğitim derslerine ilişkin deneyimler

“…Uzaktan eğitimin teknolojik yeterliklere katkı sunması ve deneyimlerin sürece etkileri, uzaktan eğitimin öğrencilere sunduğu katkılar bağlamında değerlendirilebilir. Zhang (2018) Çin'de İngilizce eğitimi veren öğretmenler için İngilizce okuryazarlık bağlamında hizmet içi programın etkilerini araştırmıştır. SFL tabanlı öğretim kapsamında katılım açısından pratik ve esnek bir program düzenlenmiştir.…”