Thesis advisor: Maria E. Brisk / This descriptive case study examines the role that Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory of language can play in making academic language more transparent and accessible to linguistically diverse students. In an urban fourth grade classroom composed of both bilingual and monolingual students, I incorporated key concepts of SFL into writing instruction on personal narrative and scientific explanation texts. Specifically, instruction explored the context, purpose, and tenor of each genre and scaffolded students' development of appropriate structure and useful language tools. Classroom instruction and student writing were examined using selective coding, constant comparison, and triangulation to make meaning from the data. Analysis of student writing in relation to SFL-influenced instruction revealed significant growth in areas of structure and language. In this case, SFL provided the researcher and classroom teacher with a useful theory of language and purposeful meta-language to identify and describe the functional elements of two genres to students from diverse literacy backgrounds. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Maria E. Brisk / The Writing Development of Procedural and Persuasive Genres: A Multiple Case Study of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students Margarita Zisselsberger María Estela Brisk, Dissertation Director Abstract In this dissertation study, I examine the writing development of five culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in an elementary classroom, where English is the language of instruction. Interest in written literacy for monolingual and bilingual learners has increased as a result of high-stakes testing, No Child Left Behind, and state adoption of the Common Core Standards. Additionally, National Assessment of Educational Progress (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007) shows that CLD students score significantly lower on writing performance tasks than their mainstream English-speaking Caucasian peers. This study seeks to better understand the process by which CLD students develop the specific characteristics of procedural and persuasive writing given the instruction in these genres. This year-long qualitative research study used a multiple case-study design (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006; Merriam, 1998) and included classroom observations, videotaped examples of the nexus between classroom instruction and student writing, the collection of students' writing samples, student interviews, and formal and informal teacher interviews. For this study, I followed one fifth-grade teacher and five of her students as they worked on the two genres. Guided by systemic functional linguistic theory--a linguistic theory that reveals features that encase cultural and social expectations, making the language demands of schooling explicit--the analysis examined students' writing development in the two genres, the context and process of their development in the genres, and an in-depth examination of the impact of the context and process on their procedural and persuasive writing pieces. The results suggest that CLD students' writing development is multifaceted and complex. CLD students' writing development of procedural and persuasive writing was mediated by interrelated factors: the individual student, the peers, the teacher, and the texts themselves. I discuss the role of each of the mediating factors and argue for adopting a model of writing that incorporates a combination of genre- and process- writing theories with a particular understanding of the unique nuances pertinent to CLD students. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Patrick J. McQuillan / Though writing is an essential life skill (National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2004, 2005), time spent writing in classrooms across the US is brief (Applebee and Langer, 2006; Applebee and Langer, 2011; Graham and Perin, 2007; National Commission on Writing, 2003). Furthermore, writing achievement of English learners (ELs) who represent nearly five million US students (Mather and Foxen, 2010) is often lower than other sub-groups (Fry, 2007, 2008). As such, using case study research (Stake, 2000, 2003) this study explored three sixth-eighth-grade teachers' experiences with an initiative to enhance writing instruction through the use of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), an approach that emphasizes writing for multiple purposes and the explicit teaching of language (Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Derewianka, 1990, 1999). SFL-informed instruction is an emerging strategy used to enhance the writing of ELs in US schools (see Brisk, Hodgson-Drysdale, and O'Connor, 2011; Brisk and Zisselsberger, 2010; Gebhard, et al., 2007; Schleppegrell and Go, 2007). A key argument of this ethnographic study is that the shape of the degree to which these three teachers took up a new way of teaching writing can be explained along a series of continua, consisting of the following five dimensions: cultivation of caring relationships with students, recognition of the needs of ELs, view of writing, commitment to professional growth, and commitment to collaboration and a number of related sub-dimensions. Another finding relates to the affective dimensions of teaching and learning, attention to which appeared to enhance teachers' enactment of SFL. Implications of these findings benefit teacher educators and professional development providers committed to enhancing writing instruction in US schools and speak to the field of educational reform more broadly by offering insight into multiple dimensions that influence teachers' uptake of a change endeavor. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Dennis Shirley / The ability to express meaning in prose is a foundational skill in our society. Given the importance of being a competent writer, concern with the quality of writing instruction is a recurring theme among American educators (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Gilbert & Graham, 2010; National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2004, 2006). Research shows that teachers are unprepared to teach writing (Gilbert & Graham, 2010) and devote limited amounts of time to it (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Gilbert & Graham, 2010). In addition, national assessment data indicates that most students are not proficient writers (Salahu-Din, Persky & Miller, 2008). An embedded case study design (Yin, 2009), using mixed methodology (Greene & Caracelli, 2003a, 2003b; Hesse-Biber, 2010), was employed to determine whether a school-university partnership enacted systemic functional linguistics theory guided writing intervention changed fourth and fifth grade teachers' writing instruction over the course of three years in an urban elementary school. The study further investigated changes to 41 fourth and 27 fifth graders' writing performance during the third year of the invention. Examination of the relationship between students' performance in writing and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test in English language arts was conducted. The study also explored how teachers articulated their experiences with the partnership. Findings showed the content of teachers' instruction changed involving the use of metalanguage and the teaching of genre, language, and tenor. Similarly, instructional strategies evolved regarding negotiating field and deconstruction of text. Findings also indicated a significant improvement in writing performance for all students, and bilingual students had more growth over time than monolingual peers. Also, a moderate positive relationship existed between writing performance and MCAS performance, which suggests understanding of genre may support reading comprehension. Overall, teachers positively experienced the partnership and found value in the professional development. Implications of these study findings will benefit teacher education, administrators and policymakers, and allow for improved school-university partnerships. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Esta tese investiga, sob a perspectiva da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional (HALLIDAY e MATTHIESSEN, 2004,2014), os processos de retextualização empregados por estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira na produção de textos em contextos acadêmicos. O conceito retextualização (MARCUSCHI, 2001) constitui-se na produção de um novo texto a partir de um ou mais texto(s)-fonte e trata-se de prática comum em contextos acadêmicos. Tem-se como objetivo verificar as operações de retextualização relacionadas às metafunções da linguagem – ideacional, interpessoal e textual - e como essas se materializam nos respectivos sistemas léxico-gramaticais e no gênero específico no qual se enquadram. O corpus constituise de retextualizações produzidas a partir de diferentes texto(s)-fonte. Os resultados indicam que as estratégias de retextualização estão intimamente relacionadas ao conhecimento da função que etapas e fases dos gêneros desempenham na construção de significados. Procurase contribuir para as práticas de escrita em ILE em contextos acadêmicos, oferecendo uma abordagem sistêmico-funcional dos processos de retextualização envolvidos no desenvolvimento dessa habilidade. / This study investigates, under the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics (HALLIDAY and MATTHIESSEN, 2004, 2014), the retextualization processes learners of English as a Foreign Language use when writing texts in academic contexts. Retextualization (MARCUSCHI, 2001) is understood as the production of a new text based on one or more source-texts and is a recurrent practice in academic contexts. The study investigated the processes of retextualization related to the metafunctions of language –ideational, experiential and textual- and their realization in the respective lexicogrammar structures as well as in the specific genre to which they are related. The corpus comprises retextualizations produced from different source-texts. The results indicate that the retextualization strategies are intimately connected to the knowledge of the function the stages and phases of the genres play in the construction of meaning. The purpose of the study is to contribute to writing practices of English as a Foreign Language in academic contexts, putting forward a systemic-functional approach to the retextualization processes involved in the development of writing skills.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo apresentar a implementação de uma proposta de ensino de leitura e de escrita, a partir dos pressupostos da Linguística Sistêmico-funcional de Halliday (HALLIDAY, 2014, 2008, 1978) e da Teoria de Gêneros, proposta pela Escola de Sidney (MARTIN; ROSE, 2008, 2012). A implementação visa a investigar como a Pedagogia de Gêneros, baseada no Ciclo de Aprendizagem, pode auxiliar nos processos de letramento em sala de aula. Procura-se compreender o funcionamento do Ciclo de Aprendizagem para o desenvolvimento da leitura e da escrita de notícia jornalísticas, discutir quais dificuldades ou facilidades os sujeitos apresentaram e analisar os textos produzidos pelos aprendizes. A Usina do Texto, projeto oferecido aos alunos do sexto ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola da rede municipal de ensino de Porto Alegre, foi o ambiente no qual foi implementada a metodologia prevista no Ciclo de Aprendizagem e nos ciclos de interação. O projeto tem como base teórica os pressupostos a Pedagogia de Gêneros da Escola de Sidney e constituiu-se como o contexto da presente pesquisa. A partir de uma pesquisa qualitativa-interpretativa, procurou-se compreender o funcionamento do Ciclo de Aprendizagem no desenvolvimento da leitura e da escrita das notícias. As análises dos textos produzidos pelos alunos auxiliaram na análise proposta e é estabelecida a partir da noção do Contexto de Cultura, gênero, e do Contexto de Situação, registro. Desta forma, como resultado das observações e das análises textuais, percebe-se que os aprendizes mobilizam os recursos contextuais, semânticos e disponíveis, abordados ao longo das etapas do Ciclo de Aprendizagem. Acredita-se que esta pesquisa possa contribuir nas discussões teóricas sobre gênero sob o viés da Escola de Sidney. / This dissertation aims to present the implementation of a proposal for teaching reading and writing, based on the premises of Halliday's Systemic-functional linguistics (HALLIDAY, 2014, 2008, 1978) and Genres Theory proposed by the Sydney School (MARTIN; ROSE, 2008, 2012). The implementation aims to investigate how the Genres Pedagogy, based on the Learning and Teaching Cycle, can support in the processes of literacy in the classroom. The search is to understand the Learning and Teaching Cycle functioning for the reading and writing of journalistic news development, to discuss what difficulties or facilities the subjects presented and to analyze the texts produced by the learners. The Usina do Texto, a project offered to the students of the sixth year of elementary school in Porto Alegre municipal school system, was the environment in which the methodology precribed in the Learning and Teaching Cycle and in the interaction cycles was implemented. The project is based on the presuppositions of Genres Pedagogy of Sydney School and was constituted as the context of the present research. Based on a qualitative-interpretive research, the aim was to understand the functioning of the Learning and Teaching Cycle in the development of reading and writing of news. The analyzes of the texts produced by the students assisted in the proposed analysis and is established from the notion of the Context of Culture, genre, and the Context of Situation, register. Thus, as a result of the observations and of the textual analyzes, it is perceived that the learners mobilize the contextual and semantic available resources, addressed throughout the sta0ges of the Learning and Teaching Cycle. It is believed that this research can contribute to the theoretical discussions about genre under the bias of Sydney School.

A motivação inicial deste trabalho foi o interesse pelo desenvolvimento de estratégias argumentativas mais eficazes de ensino de produção textual na escola básica, no âmbito dos gêneros organizados segundo modo argumentativo. Além disso, motivou-nos também a percepção de que um grande número de alunas leem, hoje, crônicas voltadas para o público feminino, tendo seu discurso altamente influenciado pelo conteúdo ideológico-comportamental por elas veiculado o que acaba se refletindo nos textos que escrevem nas aulas de redação. Esse fato chamou nossa atenção, o que nos levou a perceber, também, a vendagem em massa de livros de autoajuda para mulheres. Percebemos que, ao examinarmos as escolhas linguísticas de um discurso de autoajuda, poderíamos trazer à tona algumas crenças e alguns valores, subjacentes à mensagem relativa à experiência de ser mulher e invisíveis para quem aceita esse tipo de discurso como algo natural. Analisaremos então - tendo como suporte teórico a Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional proposta por Halliday, no escopo da transitividade cinco crônicas voltada para o público feminino, com características dos discursos de autoajuda, em cujos textos se vê um grande quantitativo de estratégias argumentativas (algumas clichês) para o convencimento do leitor, estratégias essas apoiadas nas escolhas linguísticas de seus autores, cujo objetivo claro é a produção de determinados sentidos / The initial motivation of this work was the interest by the development of the most efficient text productions strategies on elementary and high school. Furthermore prompted us, that a large number of female students read crhonichals directed to women audience, having their speech heavily influenced by behavioral- ideological content conveyed by them which is reflected in the texts they write in writing production classes. We realized that when we examine the grammatical choices of a self-help text could bring out some beliefs and some values that belongs to the message, and would say invisible to those who accept this type of speech as something natural. Thinking this way, we form our corpus from five chronics for the female audience, because we believe that this specimen contained a lot of characteristics that also appeared in texts belonging to what we call self-help and we will analyze them supported by Systemic Functional Linguistics proposed by Halliday. Our goal is therefore to characterize self-help women's texts chronics as argumentative structure very similar to argumentative structure of the proverbs, establishing the necessary links between the use of clichés phrases and their persuasive objectives facing to women in general and evaluate the argumentative strategies used by the authors of self-help books as exemplars for the production of argumentative texts in school. With this, we hope we contributed to form critical readers able to realize the common sense and the cliché in argumentative texts such as texts of self-help books and to form producers of argumentative clear objectives and effective texts in view of the communicative goal of its author

This thesis is concerned with explicating the role of language in mobilising action through management emails. Situated within the context of organisational change in a globalised manufacturing business, the project is framed by behavioural observations from management scholars Palmer and Hardy (2000) of mobilisation strategies that utilise linguistic resources since they: (a) involve a sense of obligation or inclination in directives; (b) show how co-operation will produce mutual benefits; (c) construct desired actions as legitimate, beneficial or inevitable; and (d) use past or anticipated meanings, for or against certain actions. Systemic Functional Linguistics is the underlying framework employed to provide a theoretically principled account of the intuitively derived observations from Palmer and Hardy (2000) which are applied to a sample of twenty-seven email texts, through corpus- and text-based analysis. A major finding is that the representation of action is enacted interpersonally through the verbal group. This view complements experientially dominated accounts of the verbal group which focus on the tense system. Further, action is found to be motivated through the negotiation of evaluative stance. By relating the grammar of the verbal group as well as other resources to the discourse semantics of Appraisal, modulation (of obligation or inclination) is found to be enabled by both negative as well as positive judgements of capacity. Specifically, judgements of capacity are re-interpreted as invocations of high obligation as managers seek to mobilise (further) positive performance. The analysis demonstrates that elements in the verbal group (complex) and Appraisal co-opt action through enabling positioning of the writer, in terms of assessing and grading categorical meanings, manipulating interpersonal time, or foregrounding solidarity. A significant contribution to the thesis is an extension of the system of GRADUATION: FOCUS (Hood, 2004a) through the demonstration of how resources of the verbal group negotiate expectations of appearances and achievements. This study has also extended the resources of GRADUATION: FORCE by applying it to the management context. The practical contribution of the study is that these insights may more explicitly inform management training and enable managers to participate more effectively within their community of practice.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis is concerned with the realm of the interpersonal: broadly, those linguistic phenomena involved in the negotiation of social relations and the expression of personal attitudes and feelings. The initial contention is that this realm has been consistently marginalised not only within linguistic theory, but more broadly within western culture, for cultural and ideological reasons whose implications extend into the bases of classical linguistic theory. Chapter 1 spells out the grounds for this contention and is followed by two further chapters, constituting Part I: Language and Social Relations. Chapter 2 identifies and critiques the range of ways in which the interpersonal has been conventionally interpreted: as style, as formality, as politeness, as power and solidarity, as the expressive, etc. This chapter concludes with an argument for the need for a stratified model of language in order to deal adequately with these phenomena. Chapter 3 proposes such a model, based on the systemic-functional approach to language as social semiotic. The register category tenor within this model is extended to provide a model of social relations as a semiotic system. The basis for the identification of the three tenor dimensions, power, distance and affect, is the identification of three modes of deployment or realisation of the interpersonal resources of English in everyday discourse: reciprocity, proliferation and amplification. Parts II and III turn their attention to one significant issue in the negotiation of social relations: address. The focus is explicitly on Australian English, but there is considerable evidence that most if not all of the forms discussed in Part II occur in other varieties of English, especially British and American, and that some at least of the practices discussed in Part III involve the same patterns of social relations with respect to the tenor dimensions of power, distance and affect. Because most varieties of contemporary English do not have a set of options for second-person pronominal address, as is the case in many of the world's languages, English speakers use names and other nominal forms which need to be described. Part II is descriptive in orientation, providing an account of the grammar of VOCATION in English, including a detailed description of the nominal forms used. Chapter 4 investigates the identification and functions of vocatives, and includes empirical investigations of vocative position in clauses and vocative incidence in relation to speech function or speech act choices. Chapter 5 presents an account of the grammar of English name forms, organised as a paradigmatic system. This chapter incorporates an account of the processes used to produce the various name-forms used in address, including truncation, reduplication and suffixation. Chapter 6 consists of an account of non-name forms of address, organised in terms of the systemic-functional account of nominal group structure. This chapter deals with single-word non-name forms of address and the range of nominal group structures used particularly to communicate attitude, both positive and negative. Part III is ethnographic in orientation. It describes some aspects of the use of the forms described in Part II in contemporary address practice in Australia and interprets such practice using the model of social relations as semiotic system presented in Part I. The major focuses of attention is on address practice in relation to the negotiation of gender relations, with some comment on generational relations of adults with children, on class relations and on ethnic relations in nation with a diverse population officially committed to a policy of a multiculturalism. Part III functions simultaneously as a coda for this thesis, and a prologue for the kind of ethnographic study that the project was originally intended to be, but which could not be conducted in the absence of an adequate linguistically-based model of social relations and an adequate description of the resources available for address in English.

<p>This work focuses on the socio-technical aspects of artificial intelligence, namely how (specific types of) intelligent systems function in human workplace environments. The goal is first to get a better understanding of human needs and expectations when it comes to interaction with intelligent systems, and then to make use of the understanding gained in the process of designing and implementing such systems.</p><p>The work presented focusses on a specific problem in developing intelligent systems, namely how the artefacts to be developed can fit smoothly into existing socio-cultural settings. To achieve this, we make use of theories from the fields of organisational psychology, sociology, and linguistics. This is in line with approaches commonly found in AI. However, most of the existing work deals with individual aspects, like how to mimic the behaviour or emulate methods of reasoning found in humans, whereas our work centers around the social aspect. Therefore, we base our work on theories that have not yet gained much attention in intelligent systems design. To be able to make them fruitful for intelligent systems research and development, we have to adapt them to the specific settings, and we have to transform them to suit the practical problems at hand.</p><p>The specific theoretical frameworks we draw on are first and foremost activity theory and to a lesser degree semiotics. Activity theory builds on the works of Leont'ev. It is a descriptive tool to help understand the unity of consciousness and activity. Its focus lies on individual and collective work practise. One of its strengths, and the primary reason for its value in AI development, is the ability to identify the role of material artefacts in the work process. Halliday's systemic functional theory of language (SFL) is a social semiotic theory that sets out from the assumption that humans are social beings that are inclined to interact and that this interaction is inherently multimodal. We interact not just with each other, but with our own constructions and with our natural world. These are all different forms of interaction, but they are all sign processes.</p><p>Due to the obvious time and spatial constraints, we cannot address all of the challenges that we face when building intelligent artefacts. In reducing the scope of the thesis, we have focused on the problem of explanation, and here in particular the problem of explanation from a user perspective. By putting social theories to work in the field of artificial intelligence, we show that results from other fields can be beneficial in understanding what explanatory capabilities are needed for a given intelligent system, and to ascertain in which situations an explanation should be delivered. Besides lessons learned in knowledge based system development, the most important input comes from activity theory.</p><p>The second focus is the challenge of contextualisation. Here we show that work in other scientific fields can be put to use in the development of context aware or ambient intelligent systems. Again, we draw on results from activity theory and combine this with insights from semiotics.</p><p>Explanations are themselves contextual, so the third challenge is to explore the space spanned by the two dimensions ability to explain and contextualisation. Again, activity theory is beneficial in resolving this issue.</p><p>The different theoretical considerations have also led to some practical approaches. Working with activity theory helps to better understand what the relevant contextual aspects of a given application are and helps to develop models of context which are both grounded in the tradition of context aware systems design and are plausible from a cognitive point of view.</p><p>Insights from an analysis of research in the knowledge based system area and activity theory have further lead to the amendment of a toolbox for requirements engineering, so called problem frames. New problem frames that target explanation aware ambient intelligent systems are presented. This is supplemented with work looking at the design of an actual system after the requirements have been elicited and specified. Thus, the socio-technical perspective on explanations is coupled with work that addresses knowledge representation issues, namely how to model sufficient knowledge to be able to deliver explanations.</p>