124092 VK BEd 09.2: VK Linguistics for Language Teachers (2019S)

Everyone, not only language teachers, has a view on grammar and it is rarely neutral. By placing grammar in a broader framework of language and meaning making, this course wants to debunk the myth of grammar as something that is on the wrong side of meaningful communication. We will study the basics of Systemic Functional Linguistics in order to gain a deeper understanding of how grammar empowers us to pattern words in order to talk about past and future events, express our relationships with others, convey different viewpoints and construct coherent and complete texts, no matter whether spoken or written. After familiarizing ourselves with the foundations of a functional view of language (genre, register, metafunctions of language) we will study different sub-systems of grammar and the choices they afford for expressing our experience of the world. This course will also explore the potential of a functional approach to language structure for the teaching of English and for language education in general.
This course combines mini-lectures, on- & offline assignments, reading-based group work and discussion, and individual research work leading to a presentation and a written project report. BEd students who decide to write their bachelor paper will produce a research paper based on a SFL textual analysis.

Course objectives:
By the end of this course participants will be able to
• explain how cultural and situational contexts affect language choice and use;
• identify the grammatical resources used to express and connect ideas, interact with others, and create coherent texts;
• conduct a functional analysis of first and/or second language discourse
• develop teaching ideas based on systemic functional text analysis