Article published In: Australian Applied Language Studies
Edited by Tim F. McNamara
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 10:2] 1987
► pp. 182–198
The morning news genre
Using a functional grammar to illuminate educational issues
Published online: 1 January 1987
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.10.2.11chr
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.10.2.11chr
Abstract
This paper aims to demonstrate how Halliday’s Functional Grammar (1985) may be used to illuminate educational questions, more specifically to illuminate the study of classroom discourse. Portion of a text from the lower primary school is examined. It is in fact drawn from a Morning News learning activity. It is argued that we can identify a “curriculum genre” in such a text, and that this has certain characteristic elements, giving it a particular schematic structure. These elements are identified, and two aspects of the functional grammar – namely, Theme and transitivity – are used with a view to proving the presence of the schematic structure. Through the examination, it is argued that the meanings children are constrained to make in the Morning News situation are of a limited kind, revealing a great deal about the limitations of much early childhood education.
References (8)
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Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Pappas, Christine C., Maria Varelas, Anne Barry & Amy Rife
Christie, Frances
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