Developing Systemic Functional Linguistics - Theory and Application - Fang Yan
9. Modelling ellipsis in EFL classroom discourse
Developing Systemic Functional Linguistics - Theory and Application - Fang Yan
Yang Xueyan
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Description
As an attempt at the semantics of ellipsis in a specific text type, which in turn is considered a step towards the semantics of text types as well as a way into general semantics, this chapter presents an analysis of ellipsis choices occurring in EFL classroom discourse, offering a description of the different types of elliptical clauses as identified in the analysis, followed by a proposed semantic system of ellipsis specific to EFL classroom discourse, referred to as DALOGIC SEQUENCE. EFL classroom discourse is chosen as the object of analysis both because it is a text type featuring ellipsis, and because classroom discourse has been much studied in the SFL tradition (e.g. Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975; Berry, 1987; Christie, 2002) but not equally so within an EFL context. It is held that a systemic-functional account of ellipsis in EFL classroom discourse has practical implications for the ways EFL teachers ‘manage’ classroom interaction (Allwright and Bailey, 1991; Walsh, 2006).