SFL Perspective Research Articles

COMPARING LEXICAL DENSITY IN TEACHER TALKS: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND HIGHER EDUCATION LEVEL

Teacher talk must be specific, clear, concise, and comprehensible for students as the target interlocutors. This study aimed to characterize lexical density in teacher talks of elementary school teachers and university lecturers during teaching. A qualitative descriptive technique was used involving lexico-grammar analysis from an SFL perspective. The subjects of this study were three elementary school teachers (6th-grade teachers) and three university lecturers (English lecturers) who were voluntarily recorded during their teaching time; once for each. Hence, the object of this study is the transcriptions of teacher talks from these six research subjects which were then analyzed using documentation techniques of data analysis namely selection, categorization, classification, identification, and verification. The results show that the lexical density used in elementary school teacher talk is 42.65% (low) and that one employed at the university level is 36.76% (low). Unexpectedly, the rate for elementary school is somewhat higher than that for the university level. This case appears to have an intervening aspect because the elementary school is an international school. It is learned that an educational institution—regardless of its level—with a distinct learning target would certainly influence the lexical density employed in the teachers’ spoken discourse during classes.

Managing Harvesting for Forest Sustainability in Malaysia: An SFL Perspective

Forest management practices have been addressed widely in the forestry discipline but are rarely considered from a linguistic perspective. Linguistic exploration of the construction of meaning in forest discourses helps provide greater detail on how forest resources are governed through the forest management practices carried out by forestry professionals. This study adopted the approach from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar to examine how lexicogrammatical resources are used by forestry professionals to institutionalise their narrative on sustainable forest management practices. Six field inspection reports issued by the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia were selected as data for analysis. The reports were examined as a genre to ascertain their generic structure and the elements they contained. The findings show that the reports provide essential information concerning various aspects of forest management best practices, including technical information of the forest areas, their geographical and topographical conditions within and around the areas, the distribution of tree stands and other equally important aspects including their environmental, socio-economic and economic values. This paper suggests that a linguistic orientation employed in uncovering forestry matters such as the field inspection report allows concrete evidence of how forest management practices are communicated, especially in written reports and whether these practices are aptly represented through their language use.

Examining evaluative language used in assessment feedback on business students’ academic writing

Written assessment feedback in higher education has been examined from different perspectives. However, there is limited empirical evidence of how tutors use language to provide assessment feedback on students’ assessed academic writing. By deploying the rarely used Appraisal framework in Systemic Functional Linguistics, this innovative study examined the use of evaluative language by tutors in feedback on undergraduate business students’ academic writing in two assignments at a distance university. The data consisted of 16 tutor assessment feedback summaries on eight students’ written assignments and interviews with those students. The Appraisal system of Attitude ( Judgement, Appreciation and Affect ) was used to analyse the evaluative language of the summaries. The analysis of student interviews provided insights into their perceptions of tutor feedback, complementing the linguistic analysis. The findings suggest that tutors’ evaluative language was primarily used to judge students rather than to appreciate the assignment, and show their emotional reactions, potentially owing to the distance learning context. Additionally, while most of the feedback was perceived positively, students found certain types of tutor feedback less helpful. The paper has implications for moving assessment feedback research forward through applying the Appraisal framework, improving assessment strategies and tutor formative feedback practices in writing assessment. • Examines feedback summaries on distance undergraduate students’ assignments. • Investigates innovatively evaluative language in feedback summaries through an SFL Perspective (Appraisal framework). • Feedback summaries focus on students’ writing behaviour rather than their assignments. • Tutor’s choice of evaluative language can affect student learning experiences.

Process Switching and Its Meaning towards Transgender Identity: An SFL Perspective

<div class="WordSection1"><p>This SFL study attempts to scrutinise the process-type switching and its underlying meanings in the cyber-based interactive responses towards an issue of transgender. The issue is confined to the suspected genital reconstruction surgery of an Indonesian celebrity that becomes viral and triggers public debate on social media. 254 Indonesian clauses of interactive comments addressing the issue of transgender identity on a YouTube video of more than 2 million views were analysed. Prompting and replying responses were investigated for their categorization of process types by employing the tables of analysis adapted from the experiential meaning framework of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004). The analysis reveals some occurrences of process type switching in the interactive responses among responders in addressing the Indonesian sensitive and viral issue of transgender identity. In responding to the prompting comments, responders tended to employ relational and material clauses to establish values, evidences, and impacts in objective ways while they also used mental and verbal processes to affect one another in subjective ways. This Hallidayan study hints that the process switching among responders in addressing the issue of transgender is associated with the strategies for maintaining and spreading their ideology by confirming, strengthening, adding, and even arguing.</p></div>

Learning How to Re-Mean : Developing Paraphrasing Materials from an SFL Perspective

Learning How to Re-Mean : Developing Paraphrasing Materials from an SFL Perspective

Exploring the Construal of Ideational Meaning in “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” by Iqbal and its Translation by Ishrat: An SFL Perspective

Exploring the Construal of Ideational Meaning in “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” by Iqbal and its Translation by Ishrat: An SFL Perspective

Actor and Goal Representation in the Transitivity System of Undergraduate Theses and Journal Research Articles: an SFL Perspective

AbstractThe current study scrutinizes the representation of actors and goals of transitivity system in the introduction sections of theses (ISoT) composed by undergraduate students in reference to that of the introduction sections of research articles (ISoRA) considered as the target writings in the academic discourse of knowledge building. 738 English ranking clauses from 10 English-field ISoT and 694 from 10 ISoRA of TESOL Quarterly were analysed for their material processes as well as their participants and circumstances. The analysis was executed with the tables of analysis adapted from Halliday’s experiential meaning framework. The analysis reveals that in the material processes of ISoRA previous studies and previous researchers instead of current studies and current researchers are more frequently employed as actors. Contrary, in their ISoT counterpart, the latter outnumber the former. The analysis also finds that goals in the material processes of ISoT in comparison with its ISoRA counterpart still lack previous findings. Overall, the representation of actors and goals in the material processes of ISoT still needs lexical resources that underpin the process of knowledge building. This has been confirmed by the tendency of actors and goals of ISoT to represent its study undertaken, compared with its ISoRA counterpart focusing more on previous related studiesKeywords: actors, goals, material process, transitivity system, ISoT, ISoRA

Causal relations on a cline of explicitness: an SFL perspective

This paper is an attempt to categorize cause-effect relations in English in terms of explicitness on the basis of realisation and choice. Specifically, making use of SFL’s concept of grammatical metaphor and the dimension of delicacy, I suggest that cause-effect relations can be placed on a cline with respect to how explicitly they encode logico-semantic meaning.

Generic Complexity in Bachelor’s Theses by Chinese English Majors: An SFL Perspective

For Chinese English majors, bachelor’s theses are regarded as the most substantial piece of writing in their undergraduate study. However, in the field of EAP/ESP and genre research, thesis writing at the undergraduate level has been relatively neglected. From the perspective of genre in Systemic Functional Linguistics, the macrostructure of a bachelor’s thesis constitutes a macrogenre which combines more than one elemental genre to accomplish complex goals. An understanding of the deployment of elemental genres in this macrogenre can further help reveal the rhetorical values circulating in this thesis writing community. Based on the genre taxonomy developed by SFL genre theorists (e.g., Rose, 2010, 2015a, 2015b), this study analysed the genre deployment of 40 highly-rated bachelor’s theses written by English majors at a Chinese university, triangulated with semi-structured interviews with thesis writers and advisors. The results show that the 40 theses contained 776 shorter texts instantiating 22 types of elemental genres across 7 genre families. Specifically, reports were most extensively used by the thesis writers to transmit their received disciplinary knowledge. Arguments and text responses, though ranking lower in number, were essential to the writers’ projection of evaluative meanings and authorial selves. Stories, chronicles, explanations, and procedural genres were deployed sporadically, but empowered the writers to perform a constellation of social roles . The findings of this study may assist novice thesis writers by heightening their genre awareness, and more practically, increasing their knowledge on the specific types of elemental genres over which they need control to produce a rhetorically well-developed bachelor’s thesis. This paper then concludes with implications for teaching and researching thesis writing in non-English dominant contexts.

Interpersonal Meaning in Doctors’ Interrogatives From the Respective of Systemic Functional Grammar

Objectives : To carry out a systemic functional research on the interpersonal meaning realized in Chinese doctor-patient conversations from the perspective of doctors’ choice of interrogative. Methods: Data were randomly collected from conversations between doctors and outpatients in one hospital in China, while being analyzed in terms of the interpersonal meaning from the SFL perspective. Statistical analysis was conducted by using SPSS 17.0. Results: (1) Interrogatives are also favored in doctor-patient conversations in China as compared with findings from other studies (Brody, 1992; Smith, et al., 1998; Meeuwesen, et al, 2007), but Chinese doctors dominate in the whole process of diagnosis and treatment, exerting great influence on the patient. (2) Yes-no interrogatives are favored more by doctors practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine than by those in other clinic departments. (3) Both yes-no interrogatives and alterative interrogatives can be quickly responded to, but doctors in China usually ignore this, unaware of the importance of building harmonious interpersonal relationships. Practice implications: This research may enhance the efficiency of treatment and decrease medical disputes caused by bad communications.

Development of Secondary School Students’ Generic Structure Execution in Personal Experience Recount Writing Texts through SFL Genre-based Approach

This paper is a partial fulfillment of the dissertation undertaken with the case study of teaching writing recounts for the EFL Thai upper secondary school students with SFL genre-based approach at Hunkhapittayakom Secondary School, Hunkha District, Chainat Province, Thailand, the second semester of the academic year 2015. This study focused on the analysis of students’ generic structure development of recount writing texts through SFL perspective. Teaching of personal experience recount genre using the teaching-learning cycle of the SFL genre-based approach was employed to 26 Mattayom Suksa five students. The analysis of the students’ pretest writing texts showed that they could not control the structures of their texts in that these writing texts were non-conformed to the stages of recount writing, and the themes were sidetracked from the topic. However, when these students were exposed writing with the SFL genre-based approach, the analysis demonstrated that their personal experience recounts were positively developed with a higher degree of generic structure construction in terms of conformity when compared to the modeling texts of the literature review and the pretest texts at the commencement of the course. It was observable that all students could expand communicative details and dialogic expansion in their final personal experience recount texts from such the orientation stage, the series of the events and the re-orientation stage with some CODA, argumentative elaboration. This is argued that SFL genre-based approach helps promote the students’ understanding and writing ability about the meaning, purpose and organization of the personal experience recount texts insofar that they could independently execute the similar texts themselves in a more degree. The study suggested that the SFL genre-based approach should be promoted continuously to develop writing skill of secondary school students in all levels of education related or in other similar contexts.

Recount Text in SFL Perspective: Pedagogical Implication based on Student’s Writing Analysis

AbstractRecount can be considered as one of the easiest types of text that can be written by students. This might be the reason why the text is learned in both junior and senior high school level. However, there are still a lot of students who cannot produce the text well. This study was aimed to analyze student’s recount text based on three metafunctions in SFL perspective. It is expected that by identifying students’ problems, teachers can decide and design appropriate pedagogical plan. The result of the study reveals that the student’s major problems in producing recount text are the use of subject and verb tense (interpersonal metafunctions), the generic structure of the text, the use of conjunctions, the grammatical errors, and L1 interference. Therefore, considering the problems found in the student’s recount text, POWER strategy is proposed as one of strategies can be applied by teachers in teaching writing, particularly teaching recount text. Keywords: recount text, systemic functional linguistics, metafunction, POWER strategy

The semiotic sense of context vs the material sense of context

This paper investigates the relationship between culture and language through analyzing material and semiotic features in a context of language-in-use. The paper first discusses what is meant by ‘material’ and ‘semiotic’ context from an SFL perspective. It then investigates the way in which these two ‘senses’ of context may converge within a specific instance, affecting interaction in a subtle way and together construing a cultural phenomenon.

TRANSITIVITY IN WASIAT RENUNGAN MASA PENGALAMAN BARU AND ITS RELEVANCE TO INDONESIAN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: SFL APPROACH

Abstract
 
 This research describes the transitivity realized in Wasiat Renungan Masa Pengalaman Baru and its relevance to Indonesian language learning at SMA (Senior High School) according to Systemic Functional Linguistic approach. The research was designed by employing qualitative descriptive research method. The data was collected with the application of documentation method and note-taking technique. The data was analyzed with the use of identification technique, which covers identification on the words, phrases, and clauses based on the classification of realized processes according to SFL perspective. The result of data analysis was presented using description technique by elaborating the analyzed data. The finding showed that among 112 clauses obtained, the dominant type of process was material process by number realization is 100 (49.29%), mental process is 49 grains (22.68%), rational process is 11 gains (5.11%), behavior process is 10 grains (17.60%), existential process is 8 grains (3.70%). 
 
 Keywords: Transitivity, Wasiat Renungan Masa Pengalaman Baru, SFL

Persuasive Style and its Realization Through Transitivity Analysis: A SFL Perspective

Leech & Short (2007) claim that examining the language of a literary text can lead to a fuller understanding of the text and thus appreciation of the writer's artistic achievement. Accordingly, this paper explores the relationship between linguistic structures and socially constructed meaning in a literary text. Drawing on Halliday's transitivity framework rooted in Systemic Functional Linguistics, the paper particularly attempts to reveal the persuasive style of the short story entitled ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell (1945) from a semantic-grammatical point of view. In effect, it seeks how the persuasive style is realized through the process types (material, mental, verbal, existential, relational, and behavioral) which are part of the ideational function. To this end, the verbal phrases (process types) of this story were analyzed and the results indicated that the material process was the most frequent one among the processes. The mental, verbal, existential, behavioral, and relational processes respectively followed the material process; although, as far as frequency was concerned, a drastic difference was observed between the material process and the rest of the processes. Following the persuasive style of this story, the characters were assumed to be convinced to choose some actions and avoid others. The high frequency of the material process types revealed that they certainly did what they were told to; in other words, their persuasion was expressed through acting upon what they were asked to. The conclusion drawn is that to persuade others, confronting them with the possibilities and expanding their understanding of themselves and their lives via asking them to act upon the advice and make the changes themselves (the material process) prove to be effective than involving their emotions (the mental process) and pushing certain words into their minds (the verbal process).

Culpability across borders: print media of the DSK affair from an SFL perspective

Abstract This article explores the interactions between culture, linguistic choices and hard news journalistic practices, focusing on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) affair of 2011 as the basis for a comparative analysis across three cultures: France, America and Guinea. The present study is motivated by the growing application of linguistic approaches to media studies and cross-cultural research, whose findings affirm the position that language is a resource capable of articulating and reproducing beliefs, judgments and even ideologies about social realities. Through the lens of systemic functional linguistics, patterns of linguistic choices that vary across the French and English language corpus are identified and then analysed with reference to the key discourses generated by the DSK affair. The results demonstrate the value of grammatical description in unveiling cultural, societal and individual ideologies that ordinarily have limited scope for expression in the hard news genre. Consequently, these findings suggest a tension between the presupposed neutrality of the legal process and the power of the media’s rhetoric in its capacity as an additional yet covert trial participant.

Genres and registers of student report writing: An SFL perspective on texts and practices

Academic literacies research has tended to focus on writers in context, while systemic functional linguistic research has tended to focus on texts in context. While literacy practices and written texts may be usefully analysed independently, this paper describes how an investigation of genres of academic writing in the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus draws on an exploration of the social context of assessed student writing in order to support the analysis of texts with an IMRD (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion) type structure as members of either the Research Report or Methodology Recount genre family. It also illustrates how register analysis in SFL allows the analyst to gain insights into disciplinary contexts and ideologies through a comparison of extracts from the methods sections of corpus linguistics, psychology and chemistry assignment texts. The paper not only shows how research into writing practices and participant perspectives is combined with text analysis in one project, but also argues that an understanding of both is essential for the application of research findings in teaching EAP.