Use of SFL to map the role of language (form and function) in learning History in Australian Secondary schools. Consciousness raising- both staff and students. Included ethnographic interviews to identify approx. 100 successful texts for analysis. Genre -purpose -staging. Teaching -learning cycle (deconstruction - work on genre- grammar-lexis - students' writing improved - particularly text structure and organisation.
Parkinson and Musgrave confirm the role of nominalisation and the noun phrase in teaching/learning academic writing. This study seems to lend support to Biber's notion of developmental stages in in use and understanding of noun phrase forms.
A research study which used the tools of functional linguistics to illuminate the writing requirements of the history curriculum in the context of Australian secondary schools. It shows how the resulting linguistic description was integrated into a sequence of teaching and learning activities through collaboration between linguist specialists and content/pedagogic specialists. These activities were designed to facilitate students’ writing skills whilst simultaneously developing their historical knowledge.
Draws on recent developments in sociocultural theories of learning and SFL to analyse and articulare ESL pedagogy, and to present a model of scaffolding resulting from the research.
Use of the tools of SFL to identify the writing requirements of the Australian secondary history curriculum. Subsequent integration of pedagogical practices to facilitate amelioration of text.