Cover not available

Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 23:1 (2000) ► pp.31–52

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Personal response or critical response in secondary english discussions

A linguistic analysis

 | The University of Melbourne
Published online: 1 January 2000
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.23.1.03lov
Abstract
Whole Class Text Response Discussions (WCTRD) are pervasive in secondary English and represent one site in which students can learn to adopt the habits of critical thought that are promoted in state and national Curriculum documents. In this study, the phasal structures (Gregory and Malcolm 1981) of a variety of such WCTRDs in Australian secondary English classrooms were examined. It was found that teachers in such WCTRDs regularly made limited selections from the available pool of phases, such selections regularly scaffolding a narrow range of literate and moral skills, but offering little support for the development of critical and analytical response. Such results suggest that despite a shift at an academic and professional development level towards more critically-oriented models of text response, day-to-day discursive practice in some secondary English classrooms in Australia is still very much grounded in Reader Response practices (Iser 1978) that contribute to the development of morally compliant citizens. One WCTRD was selected for closer analysis of how the textual, experiential and interpersonal meanings (Halliday 1994) operated to privilege students’ ‘personal response’ over critical response. Through the examination of Transitivity and Conversational Structural choices in particular, a picture was provided of how this WCTRD was structured to encourage students to rehearse previously appropriated ideologies, rather than to critically or analytically interrogate these ideologies.
References (35)
References
Baker, C. (1997) Literacy practices and classroom order. In S. Muspratt, A. Luke, and P. Freebody (eds), Constructing critical literacies, 243–261. St. Leonards, N.S.W., Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benton, M. and Fox, G. (1985) Teaching literature: nine to fourteen. Melbourne, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christie, F. (1995) The Teaching of English literature in secondary school English: a case study (ARC Report Number 1 into the Pedagogic Discourse of Secondary School English). The University of Melbourne.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999) The pedagogic device and the teaching of English. In F. Christie (ed.) Pedagogy and the shaping of consciousness, 156–184. London, Cassell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corcoran, B. (1987) Teachers creating readers. In B. Corcoran (ed.) Readers, texts, teachers, 41–74. New Jersey, Boynton Cook.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992) The making and remaking of readers and writers: a retrospect and prospect. In J. Thomson (ed.), Reconstructing literature teaching: new essays on the teaching of literature, 71–82. Norwood, S.A., AATE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cranny-Francis, A. (1991) The value of genre in English literature teaching. In F. Christie, B. Devlin, P. Freebody, A. Luke, J. Martin, T. Threadgold, and C. Walton (eds) Teaching English literacy: a project of national significance on the preservice preparation of teachers for teaching English literacy, 159–174. Darwin, Centre for Studies of Language in Education, Darwin University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1996) Technology and/or weapon: the discipline of reading in the secondary English classroom. In R. Hasan and G. Williams (eds), Literacy in society, 172–190. London, Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davies, B. (1993) Beyond dualism and towards multiple subjectivities. In L. Christian-Smith (ed.) Texts of desire: essays on fiction, femininity and schooling, 145–173. London, Falmer Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gilbert, P. (1987) Post reader-response: the deconstructive critique. In B. Corcoran (ed.), Readers, texts, teachers, 234–250. New Jersey, Boynton Cook.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gregory, M. and Malcolm, K. (1981) Generic situation and discourse phase. Mimeo: Applied Linguistics Research Working Group. Glendon College, York University, Toronto, CanadaGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994) An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). Melbourne, Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K., and Hasan, R. (1985) Language, context and text. Melbourne, Deakin University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heap, J. (1985) Discourse in the production of classroom knowledge: reading lessons. Curriculum Enquiry 15, 3: 245–279. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horowitz, R. (1994) Classroom talk about text. Journal of Reading 31, 7: 532–538.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hunter, I. (1988) Culture and government: the emergence of literary education. London, Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1994) Four anxieties about English. Interpretations 27, 3: 1–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iser, W. (1978) The act of reading. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamler, B. (1992) The social construction of free writing topic choice in the process writing classroom. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 15, 2: 105–122.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999) The whole class text response discussion genre in secondary English: a case study. Unpublished Ph.D, The University of Melbourne.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Love, K., and Suherdi, D. (1996) The negotiation of knowledge in an adult ESL class. Linguistics and Education 8, 3: 229–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luke, A., P. Freebody, and P. Gilbert (1991) What counts as reading in the secondary school classroom – selective traditions of reading practices and positions. In F. Christie et al. (eds), Teaching English literacy, a project of national significance on the preservice preparation of teachers to teach English literacy. Vol 2: Readings, 113–124. Darwin: Centre for Studies in Language Education, Northern Territory University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Macken-Horarik, M. (1996) Constructing the invisible: specialized literacy practices in junior secondary English. Ph.D., University of Sydney.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mellor, B., A. Patterson, and M. O’Neill (1991) Reading fictions. Scarborough, Western Australia, Chalkface Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mellor, B., and A. Patterson (1994) The reading lesson. Interpretations 27, 3: 20–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merriam, S.B. (1998) Qualitative research and case-study: applications in education. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Misson, R. (1996) What’s in it for me?: teaching against homophobic discourse. In L. Laskey and C. Beavis (eds), Schooling and sexualities: teaching for a positive sexuality, 117–129. Geelong, Deakin Centre for Education and Change.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, W. (1994) Resisting reading within/against post-structuralisms. English in Australia 1091: 7–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morris, A. and N. Stewart-Dore, (1984) Learning to learn from text: effective readings in the content areas. Sydney, Addison Wesley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (1995) “Only your labels split me”: interweaving ethnicity and sexuality in English studies. English in Australia 1121: 33–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomson, J. (1987) Understanding teenagers’ reading. Adelaide, AATE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992) (ed.) Reconstructing literature teaching: new essays on the teaching of literature. Norwood, S.A., AATE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ventola, E. (1987) The structure of social interaction. London, Frances Pinter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Love, Kristina
2006. Appraisal in online discussions of literary texts. Text & Talk - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse Communication Studies 26:2 ► pp. 217 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue