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Article In: SFL Appliability, Visibility and Accessibility
Edited by Claudia E. Stoian, Jorge Arús-Hita and Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen
[Language, Context and Text 7:2] 2025
► pp. 234–262

Genre and Cognitive Discourse Functions as lenses on disciplinary language in CLIL contexts

Insights from the UAM-CLIL Project

ORCiD logo with link | Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus, Spain
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
ORCiD logo with link | University of Vienna, Austria
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The application of genre-based pedagogy (GBP) has a long tradition both in L1 educational contexts and more recently in L2 contexts, such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes. In these CLIL contexts, oral and written interaction are not always carried out through full genres. Thus, the concept of Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDFs) (. 2013. A construct of cognitive discourse functions for conceptualising content-language integration in CLIL and multilingual education. EuJAL 1(2), 216–253. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) has been proposed to characterize frequently occurring functional units necessary for learning in classrooms across different disciplines. This paper addresses the roles of genres and CDFs in the analysis of student literacy performance and explores their interplay. Results show that some CDFs are closer to genres than others; for example, the CDF define demonstrates complete stages or functional component, approximating a genre. In contrast, the CDF evaluate, appears in more wave-like structures and is used across genres. We discuss the benefits for educational research of both constructs as tools for analysis and teaching.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Genres and CDFs: Two complementary models
    • 2.1Genre-based pedagogy
    • 2.2Cognitive Discourse Functions
  • 3.UAM-CLIL CDF research
    • 3.1Research context and methodology
    • 3.2CDFs: Analyses and Findings
      • 3.2.1cdf categorise
      • 3.2.2CDF define
      • 3.2.3CDF evaluate
      • 3.2.4CDF explore
    • 3.3Working with teachers on CDFs
  • 4.Discussion: A place for CDFs
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (97)
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