Developing Teacher Capacity for Serving ELLs’ Writing Instructional Needs: A Case for Systemic Functional Linguistics

The growth in the ELL population over the last decade has presented many challenges for teachers.  Many schools are in need of training to adequately meet the needs of English Language Learners.   This article notes the increasing need for developing linguistic skills, especially the learning of academic language.   One concern mentioned in the article is that while attempting to make content comprehensible to students, instructors may not be exposing students to enough academic language which is key to Ell’s success in school.  The article suggests that it is necessary for teachers to learn and develop methods for teaching academic language.   Using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as a guide, the researchers present the effectiveness of professional development in the linguistic features of academic language to address this issue.

Researchers blame the achievement gap between ELLs and native English speakers in part on the lack of instructional focus on academic language.  One of the needs is writing instruction that explicitly focuses on language to develop skills in academic areas to help them reach more advanced levels of English proficiency.   Students will need these skills to demonstrate proficiency on standardized tests.  In trying to shelter instruction, educators must be careful not to reduce opportunities for ELLs to develop academic language.

Researchers of this article also make a distinction between oral discourse, which relies on shared experiences and a different set of language structures, and language in academic texts, which requires a separate set of skills in order to gain meaning from them.  Explicitly teaching these differences to students will increase an awareness of the expectations of their learning.

Aguirre-Muñoz, Z., Amabisca, A., Boscardin, C.K., Park, J., (2009). Developing teacher

        capacity for serving ELLs’ writing instructional needs: A case for systemic functional 

         linguistics.  Bilingual Research Journal: The Journal of the National Association for             Bilingual Education, 31:1-2, 295-322, Retrieved from   

        http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15235880802640755