Systemic functional linguistics as a resource for teacher education and writing development

Abstract

This article provides an illustrative and necessarily selective review of scholarship in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) since the 1960s, examining two major strands of application within the institution of education: teacher education and writing development. We explore properties of SFL that have been significant in this institutional setting, asking: “What are the properties of SFL being applied in research in teacher education and writing development?” Five foundational properties emerged from the review (i.e. language as meaning-making resource, the cline of instantiation, ontogenesis or the process of learning how to mean, the hierarchy of stratification and the spectrum of different metafunctional modes of meaning). From this basis, we explicate how SFL-based pedagogies promote language learning and literacy practices in these educational domains. The article ends by suggesting how further explorations can be undertaken to enhance understanding of the potential of this social semiotic approach and its applied contributions to solving real-world problems.