Evaluative stance in humanities: expectations and performances

This chapter reports on research into literacy in the senior secondary school which aims to explore the nature of the literacy requirements for success in the final years of schooling in New South Wales, Australia. In so doing, it also explores how an \u27Appliable Linguistics\u27 can contribute to the understanding of disciplinary difference as reflected in end of school examinations in this context and points towards future directions in applying linguistics to the study of school discourse

Values and attitudes in ancient and modern history

The demanding literacy levels required of senior secondary students are widely acknowledged, yet the area of literacy in the senior secondary high school remains relatively under researched. In particular, there is a lack of detailed studies which aim to differentiate the literacy expectations of different subject areas. A first step in this process is to differentiate the underlying objectives stated for different subjects. This paper will report on preliminary research into the rationales and values statements contained in the Stage 6 Modern and Ancient History syllabi carried out as part of a larger research project investigating the literacy demands of Stage 6 Humanities Subjects in NSW. An Appraisal analysis of these syllabi shows how these subjects argue quite differently for their importance in terms of relevance to and skill building for students. The analysis will indicate how a complex interplay of judgement and appreciation is constructed in these documents and contribute to understandings of difference within the discipline of history in the senior high school

Objectivity and critique: The creation of historical perspectives in senior secondary writing

The increasing literacy demands of senior secondary studies have been noted by government agencies and scholars both in Australia and overseas. Disciplinary differences in writing has similarly received attention, although much of the research in this area has focused on the junior school, or spanned the whole of the secondary context. Less research has been focused specifically on disciplinarity in the senior high school, or on differences within what may often be conceived as a single discipline, such as between writing in Modern and Ancient History. This paper investigates disciplinary difference in the context of senior secondary writing for Modern and Ancient History and the resulting demands on students. It focuses on the different ways that dialogism, or the negotiation of competing knowledge claims, is managed in each subject. The Systemic Functional Linguistic system of engagement is used in a discourse analysis of highly rated student writing to reveal how writers in the histories open up or close down spaces for other voices in their arguments. Analysis illustrates the ways that \u27objective evaluation\u27 is managed, illuminating one aspect of what is valued as appropriate argumentation and raising implications for the way that literacy pedagogy in the senior secondary subjects of Modern and Ancient History is understood

Transformation of text in the English classroom: does \u27context\u27 really matter?

This paper investigates the language demands of creating texts in the English classroom, which involve transformations in context. In particular, it focuses on the tensions inherent in tasks which require more traditional textual analysis to be presented in ways other than traditional \u27essay\u27 format. These tasks are interpreted differently by students and can result in texts which vary in terms of their choice of \u27written-like\u27 or \u27spoken-like\u27 styles. This paper uses data from year nine English students presenting speeches to an imagined jury arguing for Shakespeare\u27s Macbeth\u27s guilt or innocence and explores the implications of shifts along the mode continuum evident in the students\u27 language. It raises the question of the relative importance of transformations of language and context and the extent to which control of mode is valued. Language analysis of student responses focusing on genre, periodicity, use of vocatives and endophoric reference suggests the imagined context required by the task is less important than the literary context in assessing student responses and can act as a distraction. Findings have implications for alignment of teaching and assessment practices in English classrooms

Revisiting mode: Context in/dependency in Ancient History classroom discourse

Over the past decade dialogue between Systemic Functional Linguistics and Legitimation Code Theory about the nature of knowledge (Christie & Martin, 2007; Christie & Maton, 2011) has rekindled interest among the linguists involved in the register variable field (e.g. Martin, 2007; Martin et al., 2010). More recently, as part of an interdisciplinary project focusing on knowledge building in secondary school history and science lessons (Freebody et al., 2008; Martin & Maton, 2013), Maton\u27s work on semantic gravity (Maton in press) has rekindled interest in mode

Retorno al modo: in/dependencia contextual en el discurso de las clases de historia antigua

Este artículo explora el significado de “dependencia contextual” en la lingüística sistémico-funcional (LSF), situándolo en relación con el concepto de “gravedad semántica” en la teoría de códigos de legitimación (LCT, por sus siglas en inglés). Se plantean distintas interpretaciones de lo que es la dependencia contextual desde el punto de vista textual, interpersonal e ideacional, poniendo de relieve las nociones de implicitud, negociabilidad e iconicidad, respectivamente. Para abarcar todos estos recursos se propone el término “presencia”. Este artículo da cuenta de parte del diálogo en curso entre la LSF y la LCT, en el marco de una investigación que aborda el discurso de la historia y la biología en escuelas australianas, en un ejercicio cada vez más productivo de investigación transdisciplinar

Writing their futures: Students\u27 stories of development and difference

This chapter explores the trajectory of development in literacy practices and demands as students progress from late primary through the first four years of secondary school in Australia. It presents a case study located in one particular secondary school and its feeder primary school. We draw on data collected in class observations, student work samples, and interviews with students and teachers to explore the curriculum as it is enacted. The data set reveals several patterns, including disciplinary differences in the reading and writing practices of students, a future-oriented approach to teaching literacy as preparatory for student needs in future schooling and testing, and an explicit focus on teaching certain elements of writing. Analysis also reveals an apparent difference in focus on the teaching, learning, and practising of writing across subjects and years. These findings point to important avenues for future research as well as the urgent need to consider an integrated language pedagogy which is able to account for language choices across modes of speaking, reading, and writing that have fidelity to the disciplines rather than viewing these aspects of language use separately

Jointly constructing semantic waves: Implications for teacher training

This paper addresses how teachers can be trained to enable cumulative knowledge-building. It focuses on the final intervention stage of the Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Schooling (DISKS) project at the University of Sydney. In this special issue, Maton identifies ‘semantic waves’ as a crucial characteristic of teaching for cumulative knowledge-building; and Martin explores a ‘power trio’ of intertwining linguistic resources which contribute to the creation of these waves. This paper draws on these complementary theoretical frameworks from Legitimation Code Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics to explore their implications for teacher training. Specifically, it links one Year 11 Biology teacher\u27s experience of new metalanguage and explicit pedagogy, in teacher training, to first attempts at classroom Joint Construction, a form of collaborative text creation. This paper then raises important issues regarding collaborations concerned with classroom interaction and knowledge-building practices

LCT and systemic functional linguistics: Enacting complimentary theories for explanatory power

publisher versionInterdisciplinarity is the future. Such is the thrust of pronouncements repeatedly heard across the social sciences and humanities. Interdisciplinarity is often equated with intellectually and socially progressive stances and greater responsiveness to business and workplace needs. Yet such axiological and economic benefits are more often assumed or proclaimed than evidenced or demonstrated (Moore 2011). Moreover，what is declared to be 'interdisciplinary' often comprises the appropriation by literary or philosophical discourses of ideas from other fields rather than genuinely interdisciplinary dialogue. Nonetheless，to highlight the vacuity of much written in its name is not to dismiss the potential of interdisciplinarity itself. There are serious ontological and epistemological arguments for bringing disciplines together in substantive research (Bhaskar and Danermark 2006). Simply put，the social world comprises more than the phenomena addressed by any one discipline. Education，for example，involves at least knowledges， knowers， knowing， and the known, implicating insights from, among others，sociology，linguistics，psychology，and philosophy (Maton 2014b: 212-13). This is not to suggest a single study must encompass the disciplinary map in order to recreate reality in its entirety, Rather，it highlights that drawing on more than one disciplinary approach may offer greater explanatory power when exploring a specific problem-situation