Foreign Language Teaching Applications and Systemic Functional Linguistics
Systemic Functional Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching - Anne McCabe
Anne McCabe [+]
Saint Louis University
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Description
Chapter 2 reviews the applications of SFL to foreign language teaching. These applications have mainly been in the realm of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), including English for Academic Purposes (EAP), based in good measure on Halliday, et al.’s (1964) introduction of the notion of register. After detailing the aspects of SFL that have been applied to ESP/EAP (such as Theme/Rheme and thematic patterning, grammatical metaphor, appraisal), the chapter will take a short tour through SFL-informed genre-based pedagogy (GBP) and Reading-to-Learn (RtL); while these pedagogical applications of SFL theory have taken place mainly in second language contexts, especially those where children are faced with having to learn the additional language for purposes of schooling, they are relevant to some foreign language contexts, especially more content-based approaches such as content-and-language-integrated-learning (CLIL). The chapter will also review other SFL-based applications toteaching in foreign language contexts, for example through an examination of Tajino’s (2018) “meaning-based pedagogic grammar” (MAP grammar), which is an attempt at using SFL to teach the linguistic system at early levels of foreign language learning, and through the burgeoning work in applying SFL descriptions and pedagogy to languages other than English (Colobmi, 2009; Huang & Mohan, 2009; Troyan, 2021).