Papers by Cassi Liardét
Defining formality: Adapting to the abstract demands of academic discourse
Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Measures of formality have historically been linked to the spoken-written language continuum; how... more Measures of formality have historically been linked to the spoken-written language continuum; however, modern communication increasingly employs the written mode using different degrees of informality (e.g., emails, text messages, etc.). While allowances are made for these varied genres and registers, the use of informal expression in the written mode often impacts the quality of academic discourse. The present study aims to map the linguistic features of formality to describe this elusive, often stylistically mapped objective. A corpus of one hundred forty student essays were analyzed and rated for formality by three English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors. Those texts consistently scored across all three raters as “high” or “low” formality were further analyzed for lexico-grammatical features (e.g., pronoun use, conjunctions, lexical density, etc.) to determine what linguistic features distinguish the different levels of formality. The analysis reveals the most significant contributor to the impression of informality in the learner texts is infelicitous clause-level grammar, followed by grammatical intricacy, informal lexis and human interaction. These descriptions expand current understandings of how formality is defined and the paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations for supporting students and professionals in their development of formal, academic discourse.
Trump vs. Trudeau: Exploring the power of grammatical metaphor for academic communication
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2020
When writing academic texts, students often struggle with the nuances of cohesion, formality and ... more When writing academic texts, students often struggle with the nuances of cohesion, formality and conciseness. To realize these features, research has identified a powerful linguistic resource: grammatical metaphor (GM). Although GMs, and their most popular form, nominalizations, are critical for producing the language valued in academic contexts, there are few models for teaching them. This paper presents an accessible exploration of GM, providing a model for teaching this valuable resource. These activities were taught as a writing workshop to a group of university students who then practiced applying GM to their own writing, capturing their edits using Word’s “Track Changes” functionality. The students’ revisions are discussed in the findings, demonstrating how even within a short workshop, students are able to achieve the condensation and lexical sophistication valued in academic discourse. The paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations for teaching GM and ensuring students apply it effectively, avoiding pitfalls such as ‘over-condensation’.
“So and so” says, states and argues: A corpus-assisted engagement analysis of reporting verbs
Journal of Second Language Writing, 2019
A key feature of academic texts is the heteroglossic interaction that occurs between the writer a... more A key feature of academic texts is the heteroglossic interaction that occurs between the writer and the experts he/she references. When integrating outside experts into their texts, writers often employ integral, author prominent reporting structures, selecting reporting verbs (RVs) to evaluate the veracity and merit of the propositions. This paper examines EAL and English L1 learners’ RV use and compares it with that of experts, providing a corpus-assisted, comparative analysis. It further explores how writers build intertextuality through these RV choices. Using the resources of Appraisal theory, and specifically, the Engagement system, we found that experts tend to favor dialogically contracting RVs (e.g., show and find) that endorse the proposition whereas learners rely heavily on expanding RVs that entertain the evidence as an option to consider (e.g., suggest) or simply attribute it to an outside expert (e.g., state). In particular, both the EAL and English L1 learners strongly rely upon more “neutral” attribute: acknowledge structures (e.g., state, according to), providing no overt indication as to their intersubjective stance on the evidence. These comparative findings provide a roadmap for novice writers to develop authorial stance and adapt to the expert conventions of their given fields.
Defining formality: Adapting to the abstract demands of academic discourse
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2019
Measures of formality have historically been linked to the spoken-written language continuum; how... more Measures of formality have historically been linked to the spoken-written language continuum; however, modern communication increasingly employs the written mode using different degrees of informality (e.g., emails, text messages, etc.). While allowances are made for these varied genres and registers, the use of informal expression in the written mode often impacts the quality of academic discourse. The present study aims to map the linguistic features of formality to describe this elusive, often stylistically mapped objective. A corpus of one hundred forty student essays were analyzed and rated for formality by three English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors. Those texts consistently scored across all three raters as “high” or “low” formality were further analyzed for lexico-grammatical features (e.g., pronoun use, conjunctions, lexical density, etc.) to determine what linguistic features distinguish the different levels of formality. The analysis reveals the most significant contributor to the impression of informality in the learner texts is infelicitous clause-level grammar, followed by grammatical intricacy, informal lexis and human interaction. These descriptions expand current understandings of how formality is defined and the paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations for supporting students and professionals in their development of formal, academic discourse.
Japanese materials scientists' experiences with English for research publication purposes
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2019
The importance of English in the professional lives of multilingual scholars worldwide has been w... more The importance of English in the professional lives of multilingual scholars worldwide has been well documented in recent decades. While the various challenges that ensue have been a central focus in the field of English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP), these experiences vary across multilingual scholars, leaving scope for more nuanced investigations into specific populations. This paper examines Japanese materials scientists' experiences with English as a professional language; particularly, in the publication of their research in English-language journals. Through a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative data sets from a questionnaire and interviews, respectively, this study first investigates junior and senior Japanese materials scientists' writing processes in preparing research articles for publication. It then examines these scientists' perceptions of both the benefits and burdens of using English as a professional language. Finally, it explores their experiences in the English-language publication process, in particular their perception of language errors within the process. Findings from this study illuminate the socially-situated, complex picture of ERPP in the Japanese context, and inform a range of pedagogical implications.
'As we all know': Examining Chinese EFL learners' use of interpersonal grammatical metaphor in academic writing
This article investigates Chinese EFL learners’ use of evaluation and stance in academic texts by... more This article investigates Chinese EFL learners’ use of evaluation and stance in academic texts by exploring their deployment of interpersonal grammatical metaphors (IGM), a construct mapped within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL; Halliday, 1985; e.g., I BELIEVE, IT IS EVIDENT, etc.). The data is drawn from the Chinese Longitudinal Learner Corpus (CLLC), a two-year diachronic study into university learners’ development of academic literacy (Liardet, 2014a). When examining IGM, it is important to distinguish which metaphors of modality achieve the registers valued in academic discourse, namely, epistemic metaphors construed objectively (Hyland, 1998a; Schleppegrell, 2002). In the analysis of the CLLC, a widely used construction emerged, that of AS WE ALL KNOW (e.g., IT IS KNOWN TO ALL, AS WE KNOW, etc.). To account for this construct, an additional axis has been mapped across Halliday’s (1985) model of IGM. Building on SFL’s framework of Appraisal and specifically, the system of ‘engagement’, the axis of expansion is used here to distinguish expressions that expand the ‘dialogic space’ (e.g., IT IS SUGGESTED; Martin & White, 2005; see also, Hyland, 2000, 2002) from those that contract this space (e.g., IT IS CERTAIN). In addition to the Chinese EFL learners’ reliance on such deontic, contracting metaphors, this paper explores their preference for subjective realizations and identifies key areas for pedagogical intervention.
Nominalization and grammatical metaphor: Elaborating the theory
This article presents an elaborated framework for mapping learners’ development of nominalization... more This article presents an elaborated framework for mapping learners’ development of nominalizations, one prominent realization of the linguistic resource, grammatical metaphor (Halliday, 1993; Martin, 2008). The framework emerges from a larger, corpus-assisted analysis of the Chinese Longitudinal Learner Corpus (CLLC), 520 Chinese learner texts collected during the students’ first four semesters of university (Liardét, 2013b, 2014, 2015). Over the past few decades, SFL research has provided rich descriptions of nomi- nalizations (e.g., Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999; Taverniers, 2006); however, little has been done to empirically describe deployment quality and map learners’ development ontogenetically, over time (Baratta, 2010). The proposed framework outlined in this paper seeks to identify how learners develop nominalization proficiency by accounting for intermediate realizations that may otherwise be dismissed as mistakes. These nuanced descriptions are illustrated throughout using excerpts from the CLLC and the paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations for apprenticing learners to advanced nominalization proficiency.
The conversation regarding referencing often focuses on punitive measures to respond to plagiaris... more The conversation regarding referencing often focuses on punitive measures to respond to plagiarism rather than developing appropriate citation practices. Students are required to reference established scholars; however, as learners developing their 'academic voice', many struggle to effectively synthesise the evidence into their arguments. The aim of this study is to investigate how students in an undergraduate academic communication unit integrate evidence using various voice markers (i.e., direct, indirect and external). Using both quantitative and qualitative analyses, this study examines 16 English as a first language (L1) and English as an additional language (EAL) learners' texts to identify the voice types on which students rely. The findings reveal little variation between the referencing practices of the L1 and EAL students. Furthermore, problematic patterns of deployment were identified with each voice type (e.g., 'drop in' quotes, 'tag on' citations) and overall, students demonstrated limited proficiency in their ability to effectively synthesise the evidence to develop their authorial stance. The paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations regarding the role of referencing as an epistemological construction rather than a punitive measure.
Grammatical metaphor: Distinguishing success
This paper presents a systematic analysis of ten first-year university learners' texts. The texts... more This paper presents a systematic analysis of ten first-year university learners' texts. The texts are exposition essays written at the conclusion of the students' first semester of university study and collected as part of the Macquarie University Longitudinal Learner Corpus (MQLLC). The MQLLC is a longitudinal corpus that follows learners from their first year Academic Communication (AC) unit throughout their tertiary careers. These units are taught using a scaffolded, genre-based pedagogy, with explicit instruction of the linguistic resources necessary to navigate the diverse and increasingly specialised demands of ter-tiary study (Rothery & Stenglin, 1995). As part of a larger study into academic literacy development, this small-scale study focuses on learner deployment of grammatical metaphor , a key linguistic resource for achieving the lexical density, text cohesion and condensation valued in academic discourse (Halliday this paper seeks to identify how high performing learners' deployment of grammatical metaphor differs from that of low performing students to elucidate which patterns distinguish success. The paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations for ensuring learners effectively deploy this valuable resource.
This study maps 130 Chinese EFL learners’ development of academic literacy through a focused exam... more This study maps 130 Chinese EFL learners’ development of academic literacy through a focused examination of grammatical metaphor (GM), the key linguistic resource for achieving the language valued in the academy (Christie, 2002a; Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Halliday, 1994). This corpus-assisted, longitudinal study of Chinese learners’ exposition texts combines the delicate descriptions of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) with the empirical resources of Corpus Linguistics, resulting in a detailed mapping of learners’ development informed through a multi-dimensional framework of GM analysis. This close diachronic examination of learners’ use of experiential GM reveals salient patterns of deployment and maps detailed pathways of development. These detailed pathways are informed by quantitative patterns of frequency and variation, and qualitative patterns of metaphorical control, or the degrees of completeness and control over a reconstrual, and metaphorical enrichment, the degrees of technicality, formality and meanings committed to the metaphor (Liardét, 2013, 2014a). The paper identifies the obstacles Chinese EFL learners most frequently face when developing the resources of incongruent language to cohesively structure their texts in nominally-oriented, lexically dense, cause and effect networks, providing insights into how an EFL classroom may better equip learners to develop these critical resources.
A corpus-assisted study of Chinese EFL learners' development of academic literacy
English language instruction in China has grown dramatically in recent decades to now be consider... more English language instruction in China has grown dramatically in recent decades to now be considered one of the largest English as a Foreign Language (EFL) populations in the world (Lam, 2002; Wang & Gao, 2008). As China advances on the world stage, the need for increased proficiency in written, institutionalised discourses expands. However, current English pedagogy often precludes explicit linguistic instruction into the resources necessary to achieve these registers (Hu, 2005). Therefore, the present study seeks to explore learner development through a longitudinal analysis of learner texts.
Using a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theoretical framework, this study aims to identify the ontogenetic development of Chinese EFL learners’ academic literacy through an examination of grammatical metaphor (GM), the key linguistic resource for construing academic registers (Halliday, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2004).
This study follows one hundred and thirty Chinese university learners across four consecutive semesters. The data collected for this analysis comprises the Chinese Learner Longitudinal Corpus, a specialised, diachronic learner corpus consisting of five hundred and twenty exposition essays.
To ensure an empirical analysis of the learner texts, this thesis designs an integrated methodology to examine GM delicately through the qualitative descriptions of SFL and demonstrably, through the computational resources of Corpus Linguistics (CL). Furthermore, this exploration of the Chinese learners’ ontogenetic GM development elaborates the current SFL framework of analysis to include detailed, intermediate stages of GM deployment.
The findings from this adapted examination reveal detailed pathways of development the Chinese EFL learners follow when developing the resources of GM. The thesis concludes with a discussion of these pathways and the pedagogical implications of how an approach to academic literacy in the EFL classroom, informed by SFL and supported by CL methodology, can contribute to a focused syllabus that will empower learners to successfully achieve advanced academic tasks.
A 'speedful' development: Literacy development in Chinese learners of English as a foreign language
Corpus Analysis for Descriptive and Pedagogic Purposes: English Specialised Discourse (Peter Lang Insights Series; provisional title), Nov 2013
This chapter discusses a case study that applies Corpus Linguistics to the investigation of the s... more This chapter discusses a case study that applies Corpus Linguistics to the investigation of the specialized discourse of university writing by Chinese learners of English as a Foreign Language. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics as the theoretical framework of analysis, this study explores learners’ deployment of grammatical metaphor, a key linguistic resource for achieving institutionalized discourse. Specifically, this chapter focuses on Chinese university learners’ deployment of experiential grammatical metaphor, or the ability to reconstrue dynamic meanings statically, coherently and with increasing degrees of technicality.
As a corpus-assisted exploration, this small-scale longitudinal study follows 130 Chinese university English major students across their first four semesters of undergraduate education. Each of the four semesters of data comprises four subcorpora of 130 texts, providing an empirical examination of students’ development. Such an integrated analysis demonstrates how the delicate insights of functional grammatical language descriptions can be supported empirically through quantitative analysis.
This chapter briefly outlines the types of experiential metaphor deployed by the Chinese learners and maps their ontogenetic development through a detailed analysis of the quality and frequency of learners’ deployment. The findings reveal the prevalence and growth of this advanced resource across the learners’ texts followed by an exploration of key areas for further development.
An exploration of Chinese EFL learners’ deployment of grammatical metaphor: Learning to make academically valued meanings
Journal of Second Language Writing, Jun 2013
"This article discusses the semiotic resources of incongruence that Chinese English as a Foreign ... more "This article discusses the semiotic resources of incongruence that Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners use when writing academic texts. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the theoretical framework, this study examines a cross-sectional sampling of Chinese EFL learners’ deployment of grammatical metaphor (GM), a key linguistic resource for achieving academic discourse. Although GM occurs across languages, most research focuses on its use in English among first language learners and its effect on language through the reconstrual of dynamic meanings statically, through increased degrees of technicality, and logical reasoning within the clause. Furthermore, much of the research only accounts for full and appropriate deployment of GM, disregarding incomplete or intermediate realizations as ‘mistakes’ attributed to normal learning processes. The present study, however, aims to expand the theoretical understandings for mapping GM in second and foreign language learning contexts, seeking to identify how such ‘mistakes’ may contribute to and even achieve the linguistic effects of GM necessary for making meanings valued in academic discourse.
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ThispaperreportsonastudyofChinesestudentsofEnglishasaForeign Language(EFL)inaChineseuniversityEng... more ThispaperreportsonastudyofChinesestudentsofEnglishasaForeign Language(EFL)inaChineseuniversityEnglishdepartment.Itusessystemicfunctionallinguisticsasitstheoreticalframeworktotracetheontogenetic developmentofgrammaticalmetaphorinstudents'writing.Thisframework hasbeenparticularlyinfluentialintracingthedevelopmentofadvanced academicliteracyinusersofEnglishasafirstlanguage,emphasizingtheintegral rolegrammaticalmetaphorplaysinthisdevelopmentalprocess(Christieand Abstract ii TableofContents iii Chapter1:Motivationsforthestudy
Presentations by Cassi Liardét
"As we all know": Decoding Chinese EFL learners' use of interpersonal grammatical metaphor
This paper analyses Chinese EFL learners’ overuse of obligation and subjectivity when evaluating ... more This paper analyses Chinese EFL learners’ overuse of obligation and subjectivity when evaluating meanings in academic texts and presents an elaborated theory for mapping interpersonal grammatical metaphors (GM). The data presented here is drawn from the Chinese Longitudinal Learner Corpus (CLLC), a two-year diachronic study into Chinese university EFL learners’ development of academic literacy (Liardét, 2013) . As part of a larger study into learners’ development of academic literacy through their use of GM, the present study focuses on their deployment of interpersonal GM.
In his initial early identification of interpersonal GM, Halliday (1985, 1994) maps modality along axes of explicitness (i.e., congruency) and objectivity (i.e., subjective personal reference, objective impersonal reference; e.g., It is evident, I believe). He further accounts for ‘intermediate implicit-explicit’ GMs, realised as prepositional phrases functioning as circumstances. These intermediate realisations can similarly be construed subjectively (e.g., in my opinion) or objectively (e.g., in all probability; see also, Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).
In the analysis of the CLLC, it became evident that an additional description of interpersonal GM is required to account for the widely used ‘as we all know’ construction (e.g., it is known to all, we know that, as is known to all, etc.). To account for these variations of interpersonal GM deployment, an additional axis has been mapped across Halliday’s (1985) model. This axis of ‘expansion and contraction’ is used here to distinguish expressions that expand the space of negotiation (i.e., the certainty of an expression; e.g., it is evident; see Hyland, 2000, 2002, 2008) from those that contract the space of negotiation. In these ‘as we all know’ constructions, the author refers to an ‘in group’ or exclusive circle of knowledge (‘all know’). If the reader is not privy to this exclusive information, a sense of exclusion is construed, contracting the space of negotiation to only those with the shared knowledge. By referencing this body of shared knowledge, these metaphorical expressions are not inviting input or discussion from a wider community of readers; instead, it is effectively obligating anyone external to this ‘knowledge’ to adhere to it (i.e., if you didn’t already know or agree with this assertion, then you should now).
When examining interpersonal GM as a marker of academic literacy development, it is important to distinguish which metaphors of modality achieve the registers valued in academic discourse (Hyland, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2002). Namely, subjective metaphors (e.g., I believe, I hope) explicitly position the author as the source of the evaluation and construe a tentativeness rather than authority (Schleppegrell, 2004: 183-184). Similarly, contracting metaphors infuse obligation into the text, disallowing any discussion or room for argument. Thus, in the analysis of Chinese EFL learners’ development of academic literacy, these expressions are similarly mapped with subjective metaphors that are less valued in academic registers.
The paper discusses Chinese EFL learners’ reliance on subjective and contracting metaphors and maps the participants’ ‘pathway of development’ across the two-year study. These discussions conclude with pedagogical recommendations for guiding learners to appropriately integrate modality in academic texts.
"So and so" says, states and argues: An engagement analysis of university learners' use of reporting verbs
Academic texts are inherently heteroglossic and tertiary students are required to effectively int... more Academic texts are inherently heteroglossic and tertiary students are required to effectively integrate the voices of established scholars into their writing (Hood, 2008; Martin & White, 2005; White, 2000). However, as learners develop their ‘academic voice’, many struggle to employ appropriate ‘voice’ markers or over-rely on one choice (e.g., ‘says’ or ‘argues’; Hendricks & Quinn, 2000).
This presentation reports on a corpus-assisted engagement analysis of university learners’ use of reporting verbs when explicitly integrating research into their assignments. The texts collected for this project are selected from the Macquarie University Longitudinal Learner Corpus (MQLLC), a diachronic corpus of learner texts gathered from across consecutive semesters of university study. All participants for this corpus are recruited in their first year academic communication unit that provides explicit instruction into referencing practices and specifically, reporting verb structures (e.g., argues, states, suggests, etc.).
The present study examines learners’ use of indirect voice to explicitly name the source of the evidence in the text (e.g., Martin argues…, Halliday concludes…, etc.; Brick, 2009; Hyland, 2008; Swales, 1990; Thompson, 1994). Specifically, it analyses the engagement resources learners’ use to position or situate outside evidence through the deployment of reporting verbs (e.g., the difference between ‘Martin suggests’, ‘Martin claims’ and ‘Martin says’). This research project was initiated from a previous study into university learners’ development of in-text referencing conventions (i.e., indirect, direct quotation and ‘external’ backgrounded referencing devices; Liardét & Black, In Development). This study revealed that when learners deploy indirect voice and use reporting verbs to situate the referenced material, they appear to choose reporting verbs arbitrarily, failing to account for the different options to position the assertions. Namely, learners tend to deploy less evaluative stance verbs such as states or shows in their earlier work before deploying more meaningful constructions in later assignments (e.g., argue, demonstrate, found). Furthermore, some students demonstrate difficulty with the certainty of their reporting verbs, employing overly confident reporting verbs such as proves.
Using a combination of corpus and manual analysis, this study will explore the reporting verb choices learners make and how they develop these resources across a one-semester literacy unit. These findings and discussions conclude with recommendations for teaching evidence integration and the necessary skills for effectively positioning referenced evidence through appropriate and meaningful reporting verb selection.
Academic Literacy and Grammatical Metaphor: Elaborating the theory
ESFLC, Paris, Jul 10, 2015
This presentation reports on a corpus-assisted, longitudinal study of Chinese EFL learners’ devel... more This presentation reports on a corpus-assisted, longitudinal study of Chinese EFL learners’ development of English academic literacy through a focussed analysis of grammatical metaphor (GM). This close examination of GM combines the delicate descriptions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) with the empirical resources of Corpus Linguistics (CL), resulting in a multi-dimensional framework for understanding learners’ ontogenetic development. The elaborated framework first accounts for patterns of reliance, supported quantitatively through frequency and variation analysis, providing insights into learners’ expanding paradigmatic and syntagmatic repertoire of resources (Liardét, 2013; 2014).
It then characterises the quality of GM deployment, identifying patterns of intermediate metaphorical control, or the degrees of completeness and control over a reconstrual, and metaphorical enrichment, the degrees of technicality, formality and meanings committed to the metaphor (Schleppegrell, 2001; Martin & Rose, 2003, 2008; Hood, 2008). Finally, the framework examines GM deployment across whole texts, identifying key patterns of text cohesion, cause and effect orderings, and information condensation, highlighting the contributions of GM deployment to the construction of advanced academic texts (Halliday, 1994; Schleppegrell, 2001). This paper discusses salient patterns of deployment in Chinese learners’ texts and concludes with a detailed mapping of learners’ pathways of GM development.
REFERENCES
-Hood, Sue. 2008. Summary writing in academic contexts: Implicating meaning in processes of change. Linguistics and Education, 19.4:351-365.
-Halliday, Michael A.K. 1994. An introduction to functional grammar. 2nd ed. London: Edward Arnold
-Liardét, Cassi L. 2013. An exploration of Chinese EFL learners' deployment of grammatical metaphor: Learning to make academically valued meanings. Journal of Second Language Writing, 22: 161-178.
-Liardét, Cassi L. 2014. A ‘speedful development’: Academic literacy in Chinese learners of English as a second language. In M. Gotti & D.S. Giannoni (Eds.), Corpus analysis for descriptive and pedagogical purposes (pp. 303-324). Bern: Peter Lang.
-Martin, James R. & Rose, David. 2003. Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. London: Continuum.
-Martin, James R. & Rose, David. 2008. Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.
-Schleppegrell, Mary J. 2001. Linguistic features of the language of schooling. Linguistics and Education, 12: 431-459.
Mapping Academic Literacy: How an integrated SFL-guided pedagogy empowers undergraduate learners—Co-presented with Maria Herke
This paper reports on learners’ development of academic literacy during a one-semester academic l... more This paper reports on learners’ development of academic literacy during a one-semester academic literacy unit piloting an integrated SFL genre-based approach (Martin & Rose, 2005; Rose, 2005; Rose, Gray & Cowey, 1999). The learner texts examined in this study are collected from students enrolled in a frst-year academic communication unit designed to equip university learners to meet the rigors of academic literacy. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics as the theoretical framework of analysis, this study examines learner texts for ideational and textual patterns and identifes how these patterns contribute to the learners’ development of academic discourse. Of particular focus
is the integration of grammatical metaphor (GM) as an empowering resource for construing the lexico-grammatical patterns valued in academic discourse (Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Halliday, 1993; Schleppegrell, 2004; Martin & Rose, 2003, 2008). This paper identifes learners’ control over this key linguistic resource through a close examination of reconstrual quality and the subsequent effects of GM on their texts (Liardét, 2013; 2014). Learner success is further explored through a mapping of these individuals’ writing across the term, highlighting the initial struggles learners demonstrate in their journey of developing this resource. These pathways of development are finally compared and contrasted according to the learners’ diverse language and education backgrounds, with the presenters distinguishing between the patterns found in first language users of English and those of ESL students. These discussions conclude with recommendations for further integration of SFL genre pedagogy and the explicit instruction of GM in an academic literacy unit (Byrnes, Maxim & Norris, 2010; Halliday, 1994; Schleppegrell, 2001).
Academic Literacy: Mapping Development
This paper reports on a corpus-assisted, longitudinal study of Chinese learners' development of E... more This paper reports on a corpus-assisted, longitudinal study of Chinese learners' development of English academic literacy through a focused analysis of grammatical metaphor (GM). This close examination of GM combines the delicate descriptions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) with the empirical resources of Corpus Linguistics (CL), resulting in a multi-dimensional framework for understanding learners' ontogenetic development. The elaborated framework first accounts for patterns of reliance, supported quantitatively through frequency and variation analysis, providing insights into learners' expanding paradigmatic and syntagmatic repertoire of resources. It then characterises the quality of GM deployment, identifying patterns of intermediate metaphorical control, or the degrees of completeness and control over a reconstrual, and metaphorical enrichment, the degrees of technicality, formality and meanings committed to the metaphor (Schleppegrell, 2001; Martin & Rose, 2003, 2007; Hood, 2008). Finally, the framework examines GM deployment across whole texts, identifying key patterns of text cohesion, cause and effect orderings, and information condensation, highlighting the contributions of GM deployment to the construction of advanced academic texts (Baratta, 2010; Halliday, 1994; Martin, 1989; Schleppegrell, 2001). This paper discusses salient patterns of deployment in Chinese learners' texts and concludes with a detailed mapping of learners' pathways of GM development.
A corpus-assisted study of Chinese EFL learners' development of academic literacy
A corpus-assisted study applying Systemic Functional Linguistic theory to Chinese EFL learners’ o... more A corpus-assisted study applying Systemic Functional Linguistic theory to Chinese EFL learners’ ontogenetic development of grammatical metaphor to map their development of academic literacy.
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Papers by Cassi Liardét
Using a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theoretical framework, this study aims to identify the ontogenetic development of Chinese EFL learners’ academic literacy through an examination of grammatical metaphor (GM), the key linguistic resource for construing academic registers (Halliday, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2004).
This study follows one hundred and thirty Chinese university learners across four consecutive semesters. The data collected for this analysis comprises the Chinese Learner Longitudinal Corpus, a specialised, diachronic learner corpus consisting of five hundred and twenty exposition essays.
To ensure an empirical analysis of the learner texts, this thesis designs an integrated methodology to examine GM delicately through the qualitative descriptions of SFL and demonstrably, through the computational resources of Corpus Linguistics (CL). Furthermore, this exploration of the Chinese learners’ ontogenetic GM development elaborates the current SFL framework of analysis to include detailed, intermediate stages of GM deployment.
The findings from this adapted examination reveal detailed pathways of development the Chinese EFL learners follow when developing the resources of GM. The thesis concludes with a discussion of these pathways and the pedagogical implications of how an approach to academic literacy in the EFL classroom, informed by SFL and supported by CL methodology, can contribute to a focused syllabus that will empower learners to successfully achieve advanced academic tasks.
As a corpus-assisted exploration, this small-scale longitudinal study follows 130 Chinese university English major students across their first four semesters of undergraduate education. Each of the four semesters of data comprises four subcorpora of 130 texts, providing an empirical examination of students’ development. Such an integrated analysis demonstrates how the delicate insights of functional grammatical language descriptions can be supported empirically through quantitative analysis.
This chapter briefly outlines the types of experiential metaphor deployed by the Chinese learners and maps their ontogenetic development through a detailed analysis of the quality and frequency of learners’ deployment. The findings reveal the prevalence and growth of this advanced resource across the learners’ texts followed by an exploration of key areas for further development.
"
Presentations by Cassi Liardét
In his initial early identification of interpersonal GM, Halliday (1985, 1994) maps modality along axes of explicitness (i.e., congruency) and objectivity (i.e., subjective personal reference, objective impersonal reference; e.g., It is evident, I believe). He further accounts for ‘intermediate implicit-explicit’ GMs, realised as prepositional phrases functioning as circumstances. These intermediate realisations can similarly be construed subjectively (e.g., in my opinion) or objectively (e.g., in all probability; see also, Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).
In the analysis of the CLLC, it became evident that an additional description of interpersonal GM is required to account for the widely used ‘as we all know’ construction (e.g., it is known to all, we know that, as is known to all, etc.). To account for these variations of interpersonal GM deployment, an additional axis has been mapped across Halliday’s (1985) model. This axis of ‘expansion and contraction’ is used here to distinguish expressions that expand the space of negotiation (i.e., the certainty of an expression; e.g., it is evident; see Hyland, 2000, 2002, 2008) from those that contract the space of negotiation. In these ‘as we all know’ constructions, the author refers to an ‘in group’ or exclusive circle of knowledge (‘all know’). If the reader is not privy to this exclusive information, a sense of exclusion is construed, contracting the space of negotiation to only those with the shared knowledge. By referencing this body of shared knowledge, these metaphorical expressions are not inviting input or discussion from a wider community of readers; instead, it is effectively obligating anyone external to this ‘knowledge’ to adhere to it (i.e., if you didn’t already know or agree with this assertion, then you should now).
When examining interpersonal GM as a marker of academic literacy development, it is important to distinguish which metaphors of modality achieve the registers valued in academic discourse (Hyland, 1998; Schleppegrell, 2002). Namely, subjective metaphors (e.g., I believe, I hope) explicitly position the author as the source of the evaluation and construe a tentativeness rather than authority (Schleppegrell, 2004: 183-184). Similarly, contracting metaphors infuse obligation into the text, disallowing any discussion or room for argument. Thus, in the analysis of Chinese EFL learners’ development of academic literacy, these expressions are similarly mapped with subjective metaphors that are less valued in academic registers.
The paper discusses Chinese EFL learners’ reliance on subjective and contracting metaphors and maps the participants’ ‘pathway of development’ across the two-year study. These discussions conclude with pedagogical recommendations for guiding learners to appropriately integrate modality in academic texts.
This presentation reports on a corpus-assisted engagement analysis of university learners’ use of reporting verbs when explicitly integrating research into their assignments. The texts collected for this project are selected from the Macquarie University Longitudinal Learner Corpus (MQLLC), a diachronic corpus of learner texts gathered from across consecutive semesters of university study. All participants for this corpus are recruited in their first year academic communication unit that provides explicit instruction into referencing practices and specifically, reporting verb structures (e.g., argues, states, suggests, etc.).
The present study examines learners’ use of indirect voice to explicitly name the source of the evidence in the text (e.g., Martin argues…, Halliday concludes…, etc.; Brick, 2009; Hyland, 2008; Swales, 1990; Thompson, 1994). Specifically, it analyses the engagement resources learners’ use to position or situate outside evidence through the deployment of reporting verbs (e.g., the difference between ‘Martin suggests’, ‘Martin claims’ and ‘Martin says’). This research project was initiated from a previous study into university learners’ development of in-text referencing conventions (i.e., indirect, direct quotation and ‘external’ backgrounded referencing devices; Liardét & Black, In Development). This study revealed that when learners deploy indirect voice and use reporting verbs to situate the referenced material, they appear to choose reporting verbs arbitrarily, failing to account for the different options to position the assertions. Namely, learners tend to deploy less evaluative stance verbs such as states or shows in their earlier work before deploying more meaningful constructions in later assignments (e.g., argue, demonstrate, found). Furthermore, some students demonstrate difficulty with the certainty of their reporting verbs, employing overly confident reporting verbs such as proves.
Using a combination of corpus and manual analysis, this study will explore the reporting verb choices learners make and how they develop these resources across a one-semester literacy unit. These findings and discussions conclude with recommendations for teaching evidence integration and the necessary skills for effectively positioning referenced evidence through appropriate and meaningful reporting verb selection.
It then characterises the quality of GM deployment, identifying patterns of intermediate metaphorical control, or the degrees of completeness and control over a reconstrual, and metaphorical enrichment, the degrees of technicality, formality and meanings committed to the metaphor (Schleppegrell, 2001; Martin & Rose, 2003, 2008; Hood, 2008). Finally, the framework examines GM deployment across whole texts, identifying key patterns of text cohesion, cause and effect orderings, and information condensation, highlighting the contributions of GM deployment to the construction of advanced academic texts (Halliday, 1994; Schleppegrell, 2001). This paper discusses salient patterns of deployment in Chinese learners’ texts and concludes with a detailed mapping of learners’ pathways of GM development.
REFERENCES
-Hood, Sue. 2008. Summary writing in academic contexts: Implicating meaning in processes of change. Linguistics and Education, 19.4:351-365.
-Halliday, Michael A.K. 1994. An introduction to functional grammar. 2nd ed. London: Edward Arnold
-Liardét, Cassi L. 2013. An exploration of Chinese EFL learners' deployment of grammatical metaphor: Learning to make academically valued meanings. Journal of Second Language Writing, 22: 161-178.
-Liardét, Cassi L. 2014. A ‘speedful development’: Academic literacy in Chinese learners of English as a second language. In M. Gotti & D.S. Giannoni (Eds.), Corpus analysis for descriptive and pedagogical purposes (pp. 303-324). Bern: Peter Lang.
-Martin, James R. & Rose, David. 2003. Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. London: Continuum.
-Martin, James R. & Rose, David. 2008. Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.
-Schleppegrell, Mary J. 2001. Linguistic features of the language of schooling. Linguistics and Education, 12: 431-459.
is the integration of grammatical metaphor (GM) as an empowering resource for construing the lexico-grammatical patterns valued in academic discourse (Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Halliday, 1993; Schleppegrell, 2004; Martin & Rose, 2003, 2008). This paper identifes learners’ control over this key linguistic resource through a close examination of reconstrual quality and the subsequent effects of GM on their texts (Liardét, 2013; 2014). Learner success is further explored through a mapping of these individuals’ writing across the term, highlighting the initial struggles learners demonstrate in their journey of developing this resource. These pathways of development are finally compared and contrasted according to the learners’ diverse language and education backgrounds, with the presenters distinguishing between the patterns found in first language users of English and those of ESL students. These discussions conclude with recommendations for further integration of SFL genre pedagogy and the explicit instruction of GM in an academic literacy unit (Byrnes, Maxim & Norris, 2010; Halliday, 1994; Schleppegrell, 2001).