Cover not available

Article published In: Language, Context and Text
Vol. 1:1 (2019) ► pp.148–193

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

Disciplinary registers in a first-year program

A view from the context of curriculum

ORCiD logo with link | University of British Columbia
ORCiD logo with link | University of British Columbia
Published online: 4 February 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00007.fer
Abstract
With notable exceptions, few studies of teaching and learning of scholarly registers and genres to users of English as an additional language focus on curriculum. For a contextualized understanding of register-curriculum relations, this study investigates disciplinary registers in the Academic English Program at Vantage College, a new alternative-entry, first-year program at the University of British Columbia, Canada. In integrating content and language instruction, the curriculum adopts systemic functional linguistics as the informing theory of language. Program registers and their relations are investigated using 2015. Register in the round: Registerial cartography. Functional Linguistics 2 (9). 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar context-based register typology. This novel case study highlights register-curriculum relations in key aspects, including discipline-specific variation in register instruction, planned learning trajectories, faculty collaborations, and relations between English for general and specific academic purposes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Register: definition and rationale
  • 3.The setting: a program for first-year international students at a Canadian university
  • 4.Registers of the VC Academic English Program
  • 5.Registers in focus: descriptive report, chemistry lab report, and podcast
    • 5.1Description in the foundational writing course in Science and Applied Science streams
    • 5.2Lab report writing in the chemistry VANT140 course in applied sciences
    • 5.3Analysis of a podcast episode using sociological concepts in VANT 140 Management
  • 6.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
References (64)
References
Arts Instructional Support and Information Technology. 2016. Alfredo Ferreira in Vantage College uses CLAS for linking language in math practice. Retrieved from [URL]
Bernstein, Basil. 1990. The structuring of pedagogic discourse, volume 4 of Class, codes and control. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, Donna M., Marguerite A. Snow & Marjorie B. Wesche. 1989. Content-based second language instruction. New York: Newbury House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, Donna M., & Marguerite A. Snow (eds.). 2017. The content-based classroom: New perspectives on integrating language and content (2nd edition). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Byrnes, Heidi, Hiram H. Maxim & John M. Norris. 2010. Realizing advanced L2 writing development in a collegiate education: Curricular design, pedagogy, assessment. Modern Language Journal, supplement, 941. 1–202. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christie, Frances & Beverly Derewianka. 2008. School discourse: Learning to write across the years of schooling. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coffin, Carolyn. 2006. Historical discourse: The language of time, cause, and evaluation. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Systemic functional linguistics: A theory for integrating content-language learning (CLIL). In Ana Llinares & Tom Morton (eds.), Applied linguistics perspectives in CLIL, 91–103. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Connelly, Michael F. 1980. Teachers’ roles in the using and doing of research and curriculum development. Journal of Curriculum Studies 12 (2). 95–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dreyfus, Shoshana J., Sally L. Humphrey, Ahmar Mahboob & James R. Martin. 2016. Genre pedagogy in higher education: The SLATE project. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duff, Patricia A. 2010. Language socialization into academic discourse communities. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 301. 169–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferreira, Alfredo A. 2016. Grammatical metaphor and the social genesis of abstraction in the writing of apprentice scholars using English as an additional language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of British Columbia, Canada.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018. Catalyzing EAP students’ language knowledge in student-led research projects on disciplinary writing. Presentation at The association of B.C. teachers of English as an additional language (BC TEAL) conference . May, 2018, Vancouver, Canada.
Ferreira, Alfredo A., John Pringle & Sandra Zappa-Hollman. 2018. Findings from refocusing the foundation of L2 science writing instruction on description. Paper presented at the 2018 International systemic functional congress . Boston, USA.
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1978. Language as a social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004[1980]. Three aspects of children’s language development: Learning language, learning through language, learning about language. In Yetta M. Goodman, Myna M. Haussler & Dorothy S. Strickland (eds.), Oral and written language development: Impact on schools. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday. 2004. The language of early childhood, volume 4 in the collected works of M. A. K. Halliday, 308–326. Edited by Johnathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989. Some grammatical problems in scientific English. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 61. 13–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1998. Things and relations: Regrammaticising experience as technical knowledge. In James R. Martin & Robert Veel (eds.), Reading science: Critical and functional perspectives on discourses of sciences, 185–235. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005[2002]. Computing meanings: Some reflections on past experience and present prospects. In Guowen Huang & Zongyan Wang (eds.), Discourse and language functions, 3–25. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Reprinted in Michael A. K. Halliday, Computational and quantitative studies, volume 6 in the collected works of M. A. K. Halliday, 239–267. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K., & James R. Martin. 1993. Writing science: Literacy and discursive power. London: Falmer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 2014. Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th edition). London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hasan, Ruqaiya. 2005. Semiotic mediation and three exotropic theories: Vygotsky, Halliday and Bernstein. In Ruqaiya Hasan’s Language, society and consciousness, volume 1 in the collected works of Ruqaiya Hasan, 130–156. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005[1973]. Code, register and social dialect. In Basil Bernstein (ed.), Class, codes and control (2nd volume), 253–292. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Reprinted in Ruqaiya Hasan’s Language society and consciousness, volume 1 in the collected works of Ruqaiya Hasan, 160–193. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Humphrey, Sally, James R. Martin, Shoshana J. Dreyfus & Ahmar Mahboob. 2010. The 3 × 3: Setting up a linguistic toolkit for teaching academic writing. In Ahmar Mahboob & Naomi K. Knight (eds.), Appliable linguistics, 185–199. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyland, Ken. 2004. Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
James, Mark A. 2006. Transfer of learning from a university content-based EAP course. TESOL Quarterly 40 (4). 783–806. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jones, Alan. 2010. Why are logical connectives sometimes detrimental to coherence? In Ahmar Mahboob & Naomi K. Knight (eds.), Appliable linguistics, 200–220. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther R., & Theo van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd edition). London & New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehki, Priyanka, Meghan Allen, M., Fok-Shuen Leung, Brett Gilley, Georg Rieger & Joanne A. Fox. 2017. The development and delivery of a research course for first-year international students. Essays in Teaching and Learning, X1. 143–154. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lemke, Jay. 1993. Discourse, dynamics, and social change. Cultural Dynamics 6 (1). 243–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llinares, Ana, Tom Morton & Rachel Whittaker. 2012. The roles of language in CLIL. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lukin, Annabelle, Alison R. Moore, Maria Herke, Rebekah Wegener & Canzhong Wu. 2011. Halliday’s model of register revisited and explored. Linguistics and the Human Sciences 4(2). 187–213. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, James R. & David Rose. 2005. Designing literacy pedagogy: scaffolding democracy in the classroom. In Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian Matthiessen & Jonathan J. Webster (eds.), Continuing discourse on language: A functional perspective (first volume), 251–280. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. 2006. Educating for advanced language capacities: Exploring the meaning-making resources of languages systemic-functionally. In Heidi Byrnes (ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky, 31–57. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Meaning in the making: Meaning potential emerging from acts of meaning. Language Learning 591. 211–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015. Register in the round: Registerial cartography. Functional Linguistics 2 (9). 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. & Kazunori Teruya. 2015. Registerial hybridity: Indeterminacy among fields of activity. In Donna Miller & Paul Bayley (eds.), Permeable contexts and hybrid discourses, 205–239. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCabe, Anne & Christopher Gallagher. 2008. The role of the nominal group in undergraduate academic writing. In Carys Jones & Eija Ventola (eds.), From language to multimodality: New developments in the study of ideational meaning, 189–208. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Ryan T. & Silvia Pessoa. 2016. Role and genre expectations in undergraduate case analysis in information systems. English for Specific Purposes 441. 43–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Corpus-driven study of information systems project reports. In Vaclav Brezina & Lynne Flowerdew (eds.), Learner corpus research: New perspectives and applications, 112–133. New York & London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murphy, Michael & Gabriel Potvin. 2016. Integration of chemical engineering education and English language training for first-year international students: A collaborative approach. CSChE Conference. Quebec City, QC.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Helping EAL science and engineering students write better lab reports. Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL) Canada Conference, Niagara Falls, ON.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nesi, Hilary, & Sheena Gardner. 2012. Genres across the disciplines: Student writing in higher education. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ortega, Lourdes. 2015. Syntactic complexity in L2 writing: progress and expansion. Journal of Second Language Writing 291. 82–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ravelli, Louse J. 2004. Signalling the organization of written texts: Hyper-themes in management and history essays. In Louise J. Ravelli & Robert A. Ellis (eds.), Analysing academic writing: Contextualised frameworks, 104–130. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ravelli, Louise J. & Robert Ellis (eds.). 2004. Analysing academic writing: Contextualized frameworks. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rose, David. 2014. Analysing pedagogic discourse: An approach from genre and register. Functional Linguistics 11. 1–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Samson, Natalie. (2017, November). Podcasting goes to school. University affairs. Retrieved from [URL].
Schleppegrell, Mary J. 2004a. The language of schooling: A functional linguistics approach. Mahwah. New Jersey: Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004b. Technical writing in a second language: The role of grammatical metaphor. In Louise J. Ravelli & Robert Ellis (eds.), Analysing academic writing: Contextualised frameworks, 172–189. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stoller, Fredricka L., James K. Jones, Molly S. Costanza-Robinson & Marin S. Robinson. 2005. Demystifying disciplinary writing: A case study in the writing of chemistry. Across the disciplines, 2: Special issue on the linguistically diverse student. Retrieved from [URL].
Swales, John. 1990. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Research genres: Explorations and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swales, John & Christine B. Feak. 2000. English in today’s research world: A writing guide. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (2nd edition). Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teruya, Kazunori. 2007. A systemic functional grammar of Japanese. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wignell, Peter F. 2007. On the discourse of social science. Darwin, NT: Charles Darwin University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Geoff. 2016. Social justice, social class, and literacy development: Thinking beyond ‘scaffolding’. Public lecture at the Department of Language and Literacy Education (LLED), October 24, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zappa-Hollman, Sandra. 2017. Collaboration between language and content university instructors: How can we make it work? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics , Portland, OR.
. in press. Collaborations between EAP and disciplinary instructors: Factors and indicators of positive partnerships. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
Zappa-Hollman, Sandra & Michael Murphy. 2017. Assessment in adjunct courses: What and how? Paper presentation at The Association of B.C. Teachers of English as an Additional Language (BC TEAL) Conference, Vancouver, BC.
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Williams, James Dale
2024. Performance Operating Units and Meaning: Fusion Theory and Writing Pedagogy. Science Journal of Education 12:2 ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Ferreira, Alfredo Afonso
2020. Sociocultural development in the spectrum of concrete and abstract ideation. Mind, Culture, and Activity 27:1 ► pp. 50 ff. DOI logo
French, Ruth
2019. Reflection literacy. Language, Context and Text. The Social Semiotics Forum 1:2 ► pp. 260 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 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