Teaching of Systemic Functional Linguistics:
Mainland Europe

Austria

Salzburg University

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Belgium

University of Ghent

English Department

Miriam Taverniers
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen

Link to the course homepage:
http://bank.ugent.be/mt/fg

University of Leuven

Kristin Davidse
Liesbet Heyvaert
An Laffut
Jean-Christophe Verstraete

The following SFL courses are on offer during the academic year 1999-2000:

• within the programme ‘Germanic Languages’ (a four-year programme roughly equivalent to a B.A. (Hons))

• F453 English Linguistics II (1st and 2nd term): The aim of this course is to give the students a working knowledge of the most important text-creating devices in English. Among the topics covered are: texture and structure of a text: lexical cohesion, reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction, generic structure; clause complex and process types. The students should be able to apply these analyses to real texts and to interpret the results within a register framework.

• F475 English Theoretical Linguistics (1st term): The aim of this course is to acquaint the students with one specific theoretical-descriptive approach to process-participant configurations in the English clause. The analysis that will be considered is a further development of MAK Halliday’s description of process-participant configurations. The refinements proposed are concerned, amongst others, with the introduction of transitive versus ergative configurations in the three domains of material, mental, and relational processes, and with a more delicate description of the relational domain (various types of identifying, existential and possessive clauses). At the end of the course the students should have gained more insight into the theoretical problems associated with this area such as the formal motivation of the experiential configurations and the status of paradigmatic clausal variants as formal evidence.
 
• F476 English Applied Linguistics (2nd term): The aim of this course is to let the students explore the descriptive construct of ‘collocation’ in depth and, then, let them work with this principle on real language data. First, the development of the concept will be traced, with its origins in the work of Firth, via the important impetus given to the concept by Sinclair, up to recent developments within  COBUILD research. Secondly, the descriptive concepts proposed in the literature (semantic prosody, skew vs equi-probable systems, classification of collocates, etc.) will be applied to concrete concordance data.

• within the postgraduate programme ‘Linguistics’ (a one-year programme comparable to an M.A.):
• Methodological developments in the study of lexical and grammatical meaning (2nd half of 2nd term): The aim of this part of the course is to confront the students with the heuristic value of paradigmatic variants, or agnates, of constructions, and to stimulate reflection about the possibilities and constraints of argumentation based on paradigmatic variants:
• delineation of systemic structural variation;
• identification of verb classes with the same construction potential;
• identification of construction types (and disambiguation of apparent structural identity);
• correlation of structural elements with semantic features.

Denmark

University of Southern Denmark

As members of the local SFL research group (http://www.sdu.dk/sfl) we supervise Ph.D. students and teach various courses in SFL (including multimodality) in the following languages:

• Danish:
  • Thomas Hestbæk Andersen, thandersen@language.sdu.dk
  • Morten Boeriis, boeriis@language.sdu.dk
  • Christian Mosbæk Johannessen, cmj@language.sdu.dk
  • Flemming Smedegaard, fsm@language.sdu.dk
  • Sune Vork Steffensen, vork@language.sdu.dk
• English:
  • Carl Bache, cba@language.sdu.dk
  • Nina Nørgaard, noergaard@language.sdu.dk
• German:
  • Uwe Helm Petersen, uhp@language.sdu.dk
  
  

France

Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest,

David Banks

The linguistics component of our English degree has a good deal of SFL input, particularly in the 3rd year which is specifically SFL based. Teaching is in English. Until recently we were the only university in France with any SFL teaching, but it has recently been introduced at Strasbourg and Reims.

We have a 5th year course (M2 – 2nd year Masters) for students who are potential doctoral candidates. The linguistics option has 2 (out of 4) SFL-based modules. This course in taught in French.

We also have a 5th year vocational course (M2 "Rédacteur-Traducteur") in technical writing and translation. The linguistics component of this course is mainly SFL. This course is taught in Englsh. There are a number of postgraduate students preparing dissertations or theses under the supervision of David Banks.

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Germany

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University of Bremen

English Department

John Bateman: Courses are offered within the English Deparment, but are also open to students from the Linguistics Department, Computer Science and Media-Informatics. Many of the courses are directly built on systemic-functional linguistic approaches and basic knowledge such as transitivity, appraisal and textual organization (theme, cohesion, etc.) are regularlyl covered in the first 4 semesters. Every year there is one compulsory introduction to linguistics course for around 70 students, and this is also very strongly influenced by the systemic perspective.

The degree programme at Bremen is the traditional German one of a Magister divided into a two year foundation phase and a two year further phase for more advanced courses. Students study English with either a further main subject or two further minor subjects. Within English they must study Literature and Social History in addition to Linguistics, but can set their own focus within the last 2 years so that study typically concentrate on one area rather than all three. Since the most usual expectation is still that studying English is Literature based, there are still relatively few students who take up Linguistics within English as their main area. We are trying to counterbalance this tendency by further consolidation across the linguistics offering of the faculty, i.e., including both the Linguistics Department proper (which is currently typology based) andthe linguistics sections of the other modern language departments in a more cohesive structure. This will be facilitated by the gradual move away from the Magister type framework to a more modular organization reminiscent of programmes in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere. There is also a parallel programme for training teachers of English, which follows the Magister structure with the addition of didactics and other practical components specifically for teacher training. A number of larger research proposals are currently being prepared, in areas ranging from multimodal semiotics to human-robot interaction. Systemic, or systemically-inspired, approaches will play central roles in all of these.

Saarland University

Prof. Dr. Erich Steiner (erich@dude.uni-sb.de)
Dr. Robert Spence

Description: SFL is taught regularly in a variety of courses. This is not a "one-theory institution", so SFL is always taught in the context of its applications and of other theories.

Robert Spence writes: "In the first semester of our B.A. course, I offer a Phonetics lecture which is based in part on Halliday and Greaves' "Intonation in the Grammar of English", and also an introductory Language Course which uses Halliday's "Spoken and Written Language" plus Halliday and Hasan's "Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective" as reading material. In the second semester, I offer a course in English Grammar using parts of IFG 2, IFG 3, and Matthiessen's "Lexicogrammatical Cartography". My lectures on Culture Studies are cast within the tradition of British materialism. In the M.A. course for French-speaking students I offer an Introduction to Translation course based on British register theory and SFL."

Technische Universität Darmstadt

Prof. Dr. Elke Teich
Dr. Sabine Bartsch
Monica Holtz
Anke Schulz

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ITALY

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University of Bologna

Prof. Donna Miller (Head of English Language Studies Program) (donnarose.miller@ unibo.it)
Dr. Marina Manfredi (marina.manfredi@unibo.it))
Dr. Mette Rudvin (mette.rudvin@unibo.it)
Dr. Monica Turci (monica.turci2@lingue.unibo.it)

ML: The English language programme was thoroughly revamped as a result of the university reform which came into force in the academic year 2001-2002. It aims at making the theoretical and practical aspects of Functional Grammar accessible to undergraduates beginning from the very first year of their three-year university study in coordinated and cumulative 'mini-courses' of approximately 24 hours each (one 24-hour course taught in each of the three academic years of the undergraduate programme). These 'mini courses' - or 'modules' - focus on the theoretical metalinguistic description of the English language, in the belief that a meta-consideration of how English works can only aid the process of L2 language learning of young adults at the university level. These 'modules' are juxtaposed to the more traditional kind of practical EFL work done by the native speakers who concentrate on practising and perfecting language abilities and competence acquisition.

The first year module introduces the notion of language as social semiotic and a skeletal framework of FG. The syllabus includes as much of the basic description and terminology of the FG model as thought possible, accompanied with clear illustrative examples. A global vision is considered to be fundamental in the first year and more delicate theoretical points are postponed to the second year's module. In the second module, the framework is therefore explored more deeply and the analysis of slightly longer stretches of texts is introduced. APPRAISAL SYSTEMS, introduced in the first year module is also further explored in the second year (Martin 2000; White www.grammatics.com/appraisal). In the third year module, students concentrate on applying FG to the analysis of the wide range of functional text varieties. Lecture notes for the modules are all based on Halliday, 1994, IFG, while in the second and third year modules G.Thompson's Introducing Functional Grammar, 1996, is also required reading.

In addition, the course in English Linguistics, particularly recommended for those students majoring in linguistics and studying English, refines the notions taught in the above-described modules through further study of registers, including verbal art, from the textual but also intertextual perspective.

Texts adopted include:

• Halliday M.A.K. & R. Hasan, Language, context and text. Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, Deakin University Press, 1985/1989; Oxford University Press, 1989.
• Thompson Geoff, Introducing Functional Grammar, Arnold, 1996.
• Butt D., R. Fahey, S. Spinks, C. Yallop, Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer's Guide, National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Sydney, Macquarie University, 1995, 2nd ed.n 2000.

A listing of coursesm including "Introducing Functional Grammar" and "Exploring Functional Grammar" are given here.

Padua University

CT: "The title of the course is "English Linguistics" and it is taught to students majoring in English Language and Literature in the Humanities Faculty. The course is different each year but the approach, and much of the reading material, is systemic. Many of the students who take the course also do their final thesis with me, in many cases creating a corpus and analyzing it in ways they have learned during the course. "

Pavia University

Dr. Maria Freddi (maria.freddi@unipv.it)

Within the degree course in Modern Languages, Maria teaches:

• Grammar between text and context (course code: 53143): The course is designed for students of English as a Foreign Language in the first year of their degree in Modern Languages at the Faculty of Arts. It offers an account of how the English clause works in relation to its context of use, based widely on Halliday's model of grammar. Runs 1st Semester. Website: here

Faculty of Medicine

Dr. Anthony Baldry

Anthony Baldry is an associate professor in English language and translation. He is a leader in the fields of multimodality, multimediality, hypertext development and e-learning. He is one of the main developers of the Multimodal Corpus Analysis System, for annotation of multimedia corpora.

Trieste University

Chris's interests include the theory of translation of film scripts, multimodality.

Elizabeth's interests include discourse analysis, translation and English for specific purposes, language and humour, the secret discourse of foreign policy making and a contrastive analysis of thematic organization in English translations of Italian narrative texts.

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Norway

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University of Oslo

HH: "We teach an SFL course at the University of Oslo, and I have taught the same course at Østfold college. I've set up a homepage for the two courses at http://www.hf.uio.no/~hhasselg/systemic/

Contact:

Hilde Hasselgård Department of British and American studies (http://www.hf.uio.no/iba/) University of Oslo PO box 1003 0315 Oslo Norway

 

Østfold University College

I teach a course titled Systemic-Functional Grammar (Engelsk: Systemisk-funksjonell grammatikk, course code: SFE20811), and it is designed to introduce students to the theory and application of SFG, across a range of text types, including multimodal texts. The module is taught in English, and it's offered to students as part of their second or third year of bachelor study, as part of an English extension course, and as a standalone unit. Course details (in Norwegian) available from here.

PORTUGAL

Lisbon University

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SPAIN

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Universidad de Alcala de Henares

Universidad de Alicante

< Dra. María Martinez Lirola (mlirolaa@yahoo.es)

María teaches the following SFL course:

• The relationship between language, context and text. An introduction to Michael Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (1st semester, 3 credits, 30 hours). Aimed at presenting the postgraduate student with the essentials of SFG. The syllabus will be developed by means of both theoretical and practical lessons. The former will be devoted to lectures on the contents of the programme. The latter will include several tasks: revision of bibliographical readings and exercises intended as examples of the application of this model to the description of English. Objectives: 1) To distinguish between formal and functional approaches to language; 2) To define and apply the fundamental concepts in Systemic Functional Linguistics; 3) To know the historical perspective, the evolution and the social characteristics of SFL; 4)To understand Halliday’s complete model of linguistic description. 5) To apply the ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions to the analysis of texts; 6) To know the different applications of SFL and to be able to use them in the analysis and description of authentic texts.
   

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Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Laura Hidalgo
Ana Llinares
Tom Morton
Susana Murcia Bielsa
Mick O'Donnell
Jesus Romero
Rachel Whittaker

Various courses which include a Systemic-Functional orientation. Explicit SFG courses for 3rd and 4th years, and at Masters level.

A list of undergraduate and doctorl courses is available here.

The following courses are SFL or SFL oriented:

• Discourse Analysis. 4th year, Obligatory. Details here.
• English Language II. 2nd year, Obligatory. Details here.
• Monographic Course on English Linguistics (an overview of the SFL model). 3rd or 4th year, Optional. Details here.

Contact: rachel@uam.es

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Universidad de Castilla La Mancha

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Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Julia Lavid
Jorge Arús Hita
Marta Carretero
Juan Rafael Zamorano

MC: "At this University, one of the most important textbooks is Downing and Locke (1992) "A University Course in
English Grammar", which can be ascribed to systemic linguistics. Following this book, grammar and discourse analysis are taught from a systemic perspective (although it differs from Halliday in certain respects: for instance: Downing and Locke do have a chapter on verb complementation, and the syntactic analysis they propose is significantly different from Halliday). "

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Universidad de Cordoba

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Universidad de Jaen

Dr. Alfonso Rizo-Rodríguez
Dr  Rizo-Rodríguez teaches a course on Systemic-Functional Grammar at the University of Jaen.

Contact:

Dr. Alfonso Rizo-Rodríguez
University of Jaén
E-23071 Jaén
Spain.

Tel. 34 953 212135    Fax 34 953 212197
E-mail: arizo@ujaen.es

Universidad de Valencia