Contribution to Book
The evaluation of causal discourse and language as a resource for meaning
Functional perspectives on education and discourse
(2004)
Abstract
Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has produced a volume of work that has made significant advances in the analysis of discourse, including discourse in education. Halliday’s distinctive view of linguistics is concerned with texts in social contexts and is oriented to the description of language as a resource for meaning rather than with language as a system of rules (Halliday & Martin, 1993). SFL has major implications for the assessment of discourse, particularly in the important area of assessing learners of English as a Second Language in tertiary education, an area which test developers have a strong interest in improving. Halliday’s rich perspective on discourse sets standards of adequacy for the assessment of discourse in general and of scientific discourse in particular. Do present language evaluation theories and practices meet these standards? To address this question, we examined the evaluation of causal explanations, an essential part of academic literacy, and found disturbing issues in both theory and practice which seriously question the adequacy of present models designed to assess competence in a second language.
Publication Date
2004
Editor
J. Foley
Publisher
Continuum
Publisher Statement
Copyright Bloomsbury 2004
Citation Information
Bernard Mohan and Tammy Slater. "The evaluation of causal discourse and language as a resource for meaning" LondonFunctional perspectives on education and discourse (2004) p. 255 - 269 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tammy_slater/8/