Beverly Derewianka

Associate Professor, Faculty of Education & Director, TESOL Program, University of Wollongong

Key Indicators of Development in Adolescent Writing

This paper will report on the early stages of a research project which seeks to identify the key indicators of development in adolescent writing by making explicit the linguistic demands of secondary schooling and investigating how students of different ages and backgrounds respond to these demands.

The study emerges from research undertaken within the Systemic Functional tradition over the past 20 years into language and literacy development over the years of schooling from kindergarten to Year 12 (eg Christie 1998a, 1998b, 2002, 2003; Christie & Martin 1997; Christie & Misson 1998; Derewianka 1996, 2002, 2003; Halliday 1996; Hasan & Williams 1996; Martin 2002). This work has had a significant impact internationally and is recognised as being at the leading edge in the field (Hyland 2002; Johns 2002).

While all the above-mentioned studies have provided valuable insights into the language demands of secondary schooling, none has yet attempted a comprehensive and systematic study of all the features thus far identified and how they are employed by students of different ages and backgrounds in different contexts.

This paper will share work in progress, particularly in terms of the development of the analytical framework allowing the identification of key linguistic resources, including various types of grammatical metaphor, which can contribute to the success or failure of students in secondary schooling

References:

Christie, F. (1998a) 'Science and apprenticeship: the pedagogic discourse' in JR Martin & R Veel (eds) The Language of Science. London: Routledge, 152-177.

Christie, F. (1998b) 'Learning the literacies of primary and secondary schooling' in F. Christie & R. Misson (eds.) Literacy and Schooling. London: Routledge, 47-73.

Christie, F. (2002) ‘The development of abstraction in adolescence in subject English’ in Schleppegrell, M. & Colombi, M. (eds) Developing Advanced Literacy in First and Second Languages, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Christie, F. (2003) ‘Initial literacy: extending the horizon’. In J. Bourne & E. Reid (eds.) World Yearbook of Education 2003. Language Education. London & NY: Kogan Paul, 91-99.

Christie, F. & Martin, J.R. (eds.) (1997) Genre and institutions: social processes in the workplace and school. London: Continuum.

Christie, F. & Misson, R. (1998) Literacy and Schooling. London: Routledge.

Derewianka, B. (1996) Language Development in the Transition from Childhood to Adolescence: The role of grammatical metaphor, PhD Thesis, Department of English and Linguistics, Macquarie University

Derewianka, B. (2002) ‘Functional Grammar for Teachers’ in G. Bull and M. Anstey (eds) The Literacy Lexicon NSW: Pearson

Derewianka, B. (2003) ‘Grammatical Metaphor in Adolescence’ in L. Ravelli (ed), Grammatical Metaphor New York: Benjamins

Halliday, M. (1996) Literacy and linguistics: a functional perspective, in Hasan, R. & Williams, G. (eds) (1996) Literacy in Society, London: Longman.

Hasan, R. & Williams, G. (eds) (1996) Literacy in Society, London: Longman.

Hyland, K. (2002) Genre: Language, context and literacy, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, Vol 22: 113-135.

Johns, A. (ed) (2002) Genre in the Classroom, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Martin, J.R. (2002) ‘Writing History: Construing time and value in discourses of the past’ in Schleppegrell, M. & Colombi, M. (eds) Developing Advanced Literacy in First and Second Languages, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.