Young writers ‘learning to mean’: from classroom discourse to personal intentions

Drawing on writing conversations with L1 writers, writing in UK primary and secondary English language classrooms, this paper considers evidence for how ‘learning to mean’ develops: a term coined by Halliday emphasising language awareness as a semiotic resource. The research was undertaken in classrooms adopting a pedagogy previously shown to be effective (Myhill et al 2012) that explicitly highlights the effect of linguistic choices, thus is faithful to the Hallidayan intention to foreground meaning. The examples of young writers ‘learning to mean’ reported here are often unconscious, fleeting and partial: indicating the complexity for young writers in articulating this understanding and for teachers in supporting it. Nevertheless there is evidence that young writers are using language choices purposefully to create meaning. The study was longitudinal with data collected over a three year period, enabling the exploration of changing patterns of student talk about their own writing. Key themes that emerged from the qualitative data analysis are that 1) rhetorical choices are being articulated; often in relation to word choice, 2) there was a growing awareness of the reader, 3) there is an emerging consciousness that their own choices as a writer can create a literary ‘effect’ and 4) an increasingly visible ability to articulate this effect. The paper will argue that the discourses of the classroom can shape, limit and enable the move from dependence to independence, as young writers learn how to use linguistic resources to express personal writing intentions. The article aims to contribute to a theoretical understanding of how an awareness of how language shapes meaning develops and a pedagogic understanding of how best to support this development.