This book traces the history of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and profiles genre-based instructional practices grounded in the SFL tradition. The editors introduce this work of 13 chapters by highlighting the authors' shared commitment to applying their work in linguistics to educational questions. Part 1 traces the development of SFL, beginning with retrospectives by Halliday and Hasan that narrate the exigencies in early-1960s Britain that supported a government-sponsored partnership between linguists and educators. This collaboration resulted in the development of genre-based instruction, a movement in literacy education that subsequently spread to other English-speaking countries and continues to flourish today. Part 2 highlights current trends in SFL within educational systems in Australia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and South Africa. Of particular interest to scholars in SLA, chapters 5 and 6 describe the results of state-supported use of SFL with English language learners in Australian schools. Part 3 highlights the use of SFL within specific academic disciplines, such as history, science, and literature study.
In the United States, where so-called balanced literacy is often discussed and promoted, an articulation of the language-centered, SFL-inspired approach to literacy education seems timely. This work chronicles how the SFL movement has situated itself in the middle ground between authoritarian instruction (e.g., phonics) and progressive instruction (e.g., whole language). Instructors working in the SFL tradition maintain simultaneous perspectives on language as structure and language as social action, and the examples in this book illustrate, with detail and specificity, just exactly how these perspectives are realized in day-to-day, genre-based instruction. In describing these practices, this book provides its readers with one method for working toward balanced literacy in the classroom. Language and literacy graduate students, language teachers, and those interested in international trends in language and literacy are likely to find this work useful and informative.
