Debates and discussions
Geoff Williams
English Department
University of Sydney
e-mail: Geoffrey.Williams@english.su.edu.au
At the beginning of this year we began a project with
eleven-year-olds, investigating whether they might learn to use
systemic functional grammar in various school literacy tasks. The
orientation is to using the grammar rather than just to making
analyses. Joan Rothery and the class teacher, Ruth French, are
collaborating with me in developing the project.
The initial aims of the project are to:
i identify elements of systemic functional grammar which might be
included in the English curriculum of the upper primary school;
ii test the feasibility of children learning to use selected
elements of the grammar by trialling teaching strategies through
work in English;
iii develop a stronger theoretical account of explicit teaching
of grammatical knowledge than is currently available in
educational linguistics
The children have so far learned to analyse texts for clause
boundaries, Theme/Rheme patterning and experiential constituents.
Analysis has been introduced in the context of usual literacy
work; for example, description of Theme and Rheme was introduced
when the children were discussing the writing of procedural texts
and the analysis subsequently extended when they were write
recounts. The uses of transitivity analyses have been mainly
developed through their reading of a feminist text concerned with
gender stereotypes in domestic work. The children looked
particularly at ways in which the patterning of grammatical roles
for the characters changed over the text to effect the
development of character.
There is a range of data, which we are currently analysing. It
includes videos and transcripts of key lessons, extensive samples
of draft and final copy writing from the class and a parallel
class in the same school which has not been introduced to the
grammar, interviews with the children about their uses of the
grammar and their reaction to learning it, and formal tests of
their grammatical knowledge.
Initial results are very positive. There is a strong sense of the
children's enjoyment of this work, contrary to the popular
stereotype. They are very playful about their learning and enjoy
testing the limits of the grammar! Many children are, on their
own evidence using knowledge of Theme/Rheme to edit draft
writing. Visual images of grammatical relations seem to play a
key mediating role. There is a considerable shift evident in what
the children understand a grammar to be. At the beginning of the
year those few who knew anything about grammar talked exclusively
about rules, correctness, being right etc. They were also quite
puzzled about whether grammar only had to do with writing, or was
also concerned with speech. They now often spontaneously employ
terms such use, variation and meaning.
The pilot project was funded by a small Australian Research
Council Institutional Grant in 1994. We have applied for further
funding from this source for 1995.
We aim to produce an initial report on the first stage by March,
95.