Language, Context and Text - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2023

Abstract

It is a huge honour and an immense privilege to contribute to this special issue on Michael Halliday’s hitherto unpublished work, “Exploring the ‘language’ part of language education”, not least because the paper was conceptualised in response to what he had observed over a period of three years (1997–2000) as External Examiner for the B.Ed. (Language Education) programme from 1997–2000 at my university – the University of Hong Kong. In this short piece, I will provide the context for Halliday’s paper, which may help readers to better understand the motivation that inspired it and his frequent reference to the Hong Kong situation. I will also draw on the comments he made in his examiner’s reports that are in a way precursors to the expositions in this paper.1^, 2 I will end with my personal reflection on the significance of the paper not only for teacher education but also for education.

Abstract

This paper is based on a series of lectures Halliday presented in the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong in 2005. As Amy Tsui indicates in her companion paper in this issue, it was to have been the first chapter in a book that would also include chapters by other scholars discussing the educational use of some of Halliday’s theoretical and practical proposals, but for various reasons the book did not eventuate. (See also the first sentence of the paper.) One distinctive feature of the paper is its reach over a very large range of concepts in Halliday’s theory. Another is its accessibility for educators looking to find a general introduction to aspects of systemic functional linguistic theory relevant to education. The final section illustrates the analytical use of the theory in various educational contexts through examples of discourse analyses.1

Abstract

This paper was first presented at a language in education conference and workshop held at Murdoch University, Western Australia in December 1989, convened by Michael O’Toole. The conference was one in a series held annually in universities around Australia during the previous decade. It was designed to promote dialogue between leading scholars and other participants, adopting as its theme “Discipline – Dialogue – Difference”. Halliday’s paper was the opening plenary, and it was responded to by Gunther Kress, whose paper follows in this issue.1

Abstract

Kress used the opportunity of responding to Halliday’s paper (see the preceding paper in this issue) to advance ideas which have subsequently been foundational to work in multimodality within the general theoretical of social semiotics.1

This article reviews Empirical evidences and theoretical assumptions in functional linguistics

This article reviews Korean grammar: A systemic functional approach

This article reviews A systemic functional grammar of Chinese nominal groups: A text-based approach