Writing about acquired disciplinary knowledge: on contextual relevance

Voices and Views: English language issues from different perspectives

Facultad de Lenguas

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2019; p. 212 - 255

This work explores written text production about acquired disciplinary knowledge in the context of assessment at university. The analysis focuses on the contextual appropriateness of texts written in examinations, considering their relevance in relation to the demands of task instructions. The objects of analysis are texts produced in the Grammar II course by students in the teaching, translation and research-oriented English study programs at Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Drawing on the theoretical and methodological tools of the Sydney School (Martin & Rose, 2008; Rose & Martin, 2012), which relies on the general conceptual framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1985; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), the study describes the contextual features that impose restrictions on students written texts and analyzes the generic configuration of the responses to determine whether they achieve their goals. The findings show that the unexpected structural configuration of the responses and the lack of expected phases in the textual development are visible sources of ineffectiveness. As was hypothesized, the inability to adapt the acquired conceptual constructs to the demands of the new context seems to be a major source of failure. Although the study has been carried out in a foreign language and in a specific field, it has been based on the belief that many of the problems observed are also present in texts produced in other disciplines and in the L1. The results of these explorations are expected to contribute to a thorough understanding of the complexities involved in writing about disciplinary knowledge in different contexts and thus enrich pedagogical interventions.