TEACHING LANGUAGE AND TEACHING CONTENT: AN IRRECONCILABLE MISMATCH?

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Lingüística Sistémico Funcional; 2013

Facultad de Letras, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile en Santiago

Taking a systemic functional approach involves asking how people use language and how language is itself structured for use (Eggins, 2003). Answering these questions involves the analysis of complete linguistic interactions and leads to a recognition of the importance of situational and cultural context in understanding why a text means what it does. In the case of content subjects such as History at secondary and post-secondary levels, it is useful to use a model developed within a systemic functional approach to describe how authors use the language to achieve culturally appropriate goals. Through the application of such model, learners can learn about language (esp. lexico-grammar and genres), consciously reflect upon it and thus understand and assimilate content in a new light (Halliday, 1985). Our hypothesis is that through explicit teaching about language as an integral part of a content subject syllabus, students will improve both their writing skills and their critical thinking. Awareness of linguistic features and genres (understanding the latter as register plus purpose (Thompson, 1997) can lead to deeper comprehension as well as effective production of texts. The ultimate aim of this proposal is to provide metalinguistic and metapedagogic tools to help both teachers plan their classroom practices; and students construct, consolidate and express content critically and effectively. Many teachers rule out the inclusion of knowledge about language in the content syllabus as off putting and time-consuming. However, this approach actually poses very little difficulty and can prove not only a time-saving but also a highly rewarding productive way to learn