What is SFL?
SFL as a model of language was elaborated through the 1980s and 1990s by Martin and his students as they developed discourse semantics resources for analyzing meaning beyond the clause.
How can SFL be used in Teacher Education?
There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to SFL inclusion in teacher education, but some principles derived from SFL in teacher education literature may enable teacher educators to consider how this theory of language and pedagogical framework can be used in teacher education programs.
Who is studying SFL at the University of Massachusetts?
Holly Graham is a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research centers on the use of SFL in teaching English language arts to secondary students in the US. Wawan Gunawan is a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
What is an SFL perspective of grammar?
In contrast, an SFL perspective of grammar focuses on the relationship between form and function and conceives of grammar as a resource for making meaning in context. Halliday writes:
What does SFL stand for in education?
systemic functional linguisticsIntroduction. Halliday's systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a theory of learning to mean (Halliday, 1993).
What subject is SFL?
English Studies, School of Languages and Social Sciences Text and Discourse Analysis (overwhelmingly SFL)
Why is SFL important?
SFL can offer teachers a deeper insight into English grammar, not just the topics explored above, but also such topics as nominalization (nouns formed from verbs, a feature of advanced language), lexical cohesion (the ways lexicon is used to achieve cohesion in writing or speaking), and modality and its role in ...
What is SFL according to Halliday?
Systemic functional linguistics is the study of the relationship between language and its functions in social settings. Also known as SFL, systemic functional grammar, Hallidayan linguistics, and systemic linguistics.
What could be the benefit of doing SFL discourse analysis?
Consequently, discourse analysis—along with SFL—provide an excellent means to discover and analyze texts used in read- ing classes and to identify linguistic characteristics of texts that were affecting students' reading levels.
Who developed SFL?
linguist Michael HallidaySystemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a school of linguistics originally developed by the British linguist Michael Halliday. Its basic concern is to develop analytic categories for language that capture “the relationship between language and social structure” (Halliday & Hasan, 1985, p. 10).
Who is major proponent of SFL?
SFL grew out of the work of JR Firth, a British linguist of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, but was mainly developed by his MAK Halliday, who studied under him.
What is tenor in SFL?
In systemic functional linguistics, the term tenor refers to the participants in a discourse, their relationships to each other, and their purposes.
What is transformational generative grammar with examples?
Transformational-generative-grammar definition Transformational generative grammar is a set of grammar rules that are used when basic clauses are combined to form more complex sentences. An example of transformational generative is the idea that sentences have surface structure and deep structure levels. noun.
What is SFL in education?
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL), a meaning-based theory of language, has been used throughout the world as a discourse analytic approach and, more recently, as a framework for implementing pedagogy in the classroom. SFL has much to offer teachers as a pedagogical approach. The integration of SFL into teacher education ...
What is SFL in language?
SFL as a model of language was elaborated through the 1980s and 1990s by Martin and his students as they developed discourse semantics resources for analyzing meaning beyond the clause. A level of genre was added to the model with the goal of specifying how a given culture organizes meaning potentials into recurrent configurations of meaning and through stages in each genre. The idea of stages comes from the notion that we have to move in steps to achieve overall goals within a written text or spoken interaction.
What is SFL in linguistics?
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) is a meaning-based theory of language that sees language as the realization of meaning in context. A language is a resource for making meaning, and meaning resides in systemic patterns of choice. According to SFL, the grammar of a language represents system networks, ...
How does academic language construct disciplinary knowledge?
Academic language constructs disciplinary knowledge in complex clause structures. Academic language is difficult for all students and is the kind of language students learn at school, different from the everyday language they use for spoken communication (Schleppegrell, 2004 ). In order for teachers and students to understand how content is constructed through academic language, they must know how to identify and use these complex clause structures. For example, academic language used to represent and teach subject matter dissociates actors from actions with the construction of “things” through the use of nominalization, a resource used in many academic and scientific genres (e.g., Halliday & Martin, 1993; Martin, 1993; Schleppegrell, 2004; Unsworth, 1999 ).
Is there a one size fits all approach to SFL?
There is no “ one-size-fits-all” approach to SFL inclusion in teacher education, but some principles derived from SFL in teacher education literature may enable teacher educators to consider how this theory of language and pedagogical framework can be used in teacher education programs.
What is SFL in linguistics?
Halliday's systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a theory of learning to mean ( Halliday, 1993 ). It explains how learners use the meaning-making resources available to them in the immediate and broader cultural contexts in which they participate to accomplish social, cognitive, and political work in and out of school (e.g., Christie and Martin, 1997, Martin and Rose, 2008, New London Group, 1996 ). These semiotic resources include the use of talk, gestures, images, and print to realize meanings that construct social dynamics (e.g., social distance and power), the mode through which interactions take place (e.g., face to face, online, in print), and the nature of the ideas being constructed (e.g., everyday topics or more discipline-specific ones; Halliday, 1993, Martin, 2009, Martin and Rose, 2008 ).
What is the Hallidayan perspective of learning?
A Hallidayan perspective of learning maintains that as individuals learn language in the home, then printed language in primary school, disciplinary discourses in secondary schools, and professional knowledge in post-secondary and work-related contexts, they are simultaneously learning language, “through” language, and “about” language in ways that expand their meaning-making repertoires ( Halliday, 1993, p. 113). In explaining how oral language, disciplinary literacies, and professional knowledge develop, a Hallidayan perspective theorizes that the meaning potential of one's semiotic system increases through three metafunctions that construct meanings sensitive to the contexts in which they are used. These metafunctions comprise ideational, interpersonal, and textual resources. The ideational represents experience; the interpersonal enacts self/other dynamics in social interactions; and the textual manages the flow of information to make discourse coherent. Halliday maintains that as we get older, not only do we physically and cognitively mature, but also the cultural contexts in which we interact expand and become more diverse. As a result, the ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions realized through language and other semiotic means expand and become more syntagmatically and paradigmatically diverse, creating more meaning potential and choice within the system.
What is SFL in teaching?
Description of SFL. SFL is a rich and expansive theory of language that allows teacher educators to go beyond the narrow bounds of traditional grammar instruction focused on syntax and rules to a broader, more holistic concept ...
What is SFL in ESL?
This paper1 examines some uses of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in teacher preparation and offers some ideas and activities for ESL classrooms. The paper begins with a rationale for the use of SFL in teacher training and language teaching, followed by a description of Hallidayan systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and its application to pedagogy, as represented by the work of Rose, Martin, Butt, Lock, and others. It examines certain aspects of grammar from an SFL perspective and provides an example of a project that was completed by teacher learners, including related activities for the classroom.
What is SFL in linguistics?
SFL has been prominent in computational linguistics, especially in Natural Language Generation (NLG). Penman, an NLG system started at Information Sciences Institute in 1980, is one of the three main such systems, and has influenced much of the work in the field. John Bateman (currently in Bremen, Germany) has extended this system into a multilingual text generator, KPML . Robin Fawcett in Cardiff have developed another systemic generator, called Genesys. Mick O'Donnell has developed yet another system, called WAG . Numerous other systems have been built using Systemic grammar, either in whole or in part.
Where did SFL originate?
He developed the theory in the early sixties (seminal paper, Halliday 1961), based in England , and moved to Australia in the Seventies, establishing the department of linguistics at the University of Sydney. Through his teaching there, SFL has spread to a number of institutions throughout Australia, and around the world.
What is system network in SFL?
Central to SFL is the use of 'system networks', an inheritance network used to represent the choices present in making an utterance. The 'choices' in this network are called 'features'. e.g., a simplified lexico-grammatical network.
What is systemic functional linguistics?
Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a theory of language centred around the notion of language function. While SFL accounts for the syntactic structure of language, it places the function of language as central (what language does, and how it does it), in preference to more structural approaches, which place the elements ...