Meaning in EFL textbooks delivered to Chilean public schools: knowledge construction from a Systemic Functional approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35588/ayr.v5i1.5968Keywords:
textbooks, English as a Foreign Language, ideational meaning, knowledge, lexical complexity, Systemic Functional LinguisticsAbstract
This study examines the knowledge built through the 1st and 2nd-grade English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks used in Chilean public schools. From a linguistic perspective, knowledge is addressed as meaning, developed through the selection of linguistic resources that a given language offers. Textbooks are fundamental in teaching and learning a foreign language, because they provide a great part of these resources; consequently, it is essential to understand how meaning begins to be built and develops through the curriculum. With that aim, with a mixed-method approach and from a Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective, we examined the lexical resources employed in textbooks that contribute to the construction of meaning. We conducted discourse analysis to identify the relations among lexical items and the kind of knowledge they build. Corpus analysis was used to estimate how lexical complexity increases from one level to the next. We found that the two books build commonsense knowledge, corresponding to what children know about the world in their mother tongue. We also found that lexical complexity increases from one book to the other, thus enlarging learners’ repertoire of words in English.
Downloads
References
Ansary, H., & Babaii, E. (2002). Universal characteristics of EFL/ESL Textbooks: A step towards systematic textbook evaluation. The Internet TESL Journal, 8(2), 1-9.
Arellano, R. (2018). A corpus linguistics application in the Analysis of textbooks as national teaching instruments of English as a second language in Chile. Revista Electrónica “Actualidades Investigativas en Educación”, 18(1). https://doi:10.15517/aie.v18i1.31807
Barboza, G. (13 de julio de 2015). Sus libros de texto para inglés… ¿escritos por autores fantasma? El País. https://www.elpais.cr/2015/07/13/sus-libros-de-texto-para-ingles-escritos-por-autores-fantasma/
Bergsleithner, J. M. (2019). The role of prior knowledge in depth of processing during written production. SLR Handbook of Classroom Learning: Processing and Processes. Routledge.
Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education 20(2), 157-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425699995380
Cárcamo, B. (2018). Types of listening comprehension promoted in the Chilean EFL textbook global English. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 20(1), 49-61. https://doi.org/10.14483/22487085.12313
Christie, F. (2000). Pedagogic discourse in the post-compulsory years: Pedagogic subject positioning. Linguistics and Education, 11(4), 313-331.
Christie, F. (2012). A language theory for educational practice. In F. Christie, Language education throughout the school years: A functional perspective (pp. 1-31). Wiley-Blackwell.
Cobb, T. (2023). Compleat lexical tutor [computer program]. https://www.lextutor.ca/
Crossley, S., Salsbury, T., Titak, A., & McNamara, D. (2014). Frequency effects and second language lexical acquisition. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 19(3), 301-332. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19.3.01cro
Dalton-Puffer, C. (2007). Discourse in content and language integrated learning (CLIL). John Benjamins.
De Bartolo, A., & Marcuso, C. (2021). The promotion of intercultural understanding in English language teaching textbooks. Educazione Linguistica Language Education, 10(3), 411-433. https://doi.org/10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2021/03/004
EDECSA. (2017). Proyecto de usabilidad de textos escolares en enseñanza básica. Ministerio de Educación.
Eggins, S. (2012). Introduction to systemic functional linguistics. Bloomsbury.
Garton, S., & Graves, K. (2014). Identifying a research agenda for language teaching materials. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 654-657. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43649908
Ghazi-Saidi, L., & Ansaldo, A. I. (2017). Second language word learning through repetition and imitation: Functional networks as a function of learning phase and language distance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00463
Gray, J. (2010). The global coursebook in English language teaching. In D. Block & D. Cameron (Eds.), Globalization and Language Teaching (pp. 151-167). Routledge.
Gray, J., & Block, D. (2013). All middle class now? Evolving representations of the working class in the neoliberal era: The case of the ELT textbooks. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English language teaching textbooks: Content, consumption, production (pp. 45-71). Palgrave Macmillan.
Halliday, M. (1975). Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of language. Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M., & Matthiessen, M. (2014). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.). Routledge.
Harwood, N. (2013). Content, consumption, and production: Three levels of textbook research. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English language teaching textbooks: Content, consumption, and Production (pp. 1-41). Palgrave Macmillan.
Hunston, G. (2013). Corpus Approaches to evaluation: Phraseology and evaluative language. Routledge.
Johansson, V. (2008). Lexical diversity and lexical density in speech and writing: A developmental perspective. Working papers/Lund University, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, 53, 61-79.
Jones, P., Matruglio, E., & Rose, D. (2021). Investigating pedagogic discourse in late primary and junior secondary English. In P. Jones, E. Matruglio & C. Edwards-Groves (Eds.), Transition and continuity in school literacy development (pp.145-168). Bloomsbury.
Kachru, B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. In R.
Quirk & H.G. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures (pp. 11-30). Cambridge University Press.
King, P. (2007). Estudio multidimensional de la oralidad a partir de los textos escolares para la enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera. Revista Signos, 40(63), 101-126. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-09342007000100006
Kirkgöz, Y. (2009). Evaluating the English textbooks for young learners of English at Turkish primary education. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1(1), 79-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2009.01.016
Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Longman.
Lewis, M. (2002). The lexical approach. The state of ELT and a way forward. Cambridge University Press.
Lizasoain, A. (2019). Construcción del conocimiento en el aula de inglés como lengua extranjera en un contexto de enseñanza media en Chile: Análisis del discurso pedagógico desde un enfoque sistémico funcional [Doctoral dissertation, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile]. Repositorio Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. https://doi.org/10.7764/tesisUC/LET/26882
Lu J., Liu Y., An L., & Zhang Y. (2022) The cultural sustainability in English as foreign language textbooks: Investigating the cultural representations in English language textbooks in China for senior middle school students. Front Psychol, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944381
Machado Oliveira, M., & Angelim Rossa, A. (2015). Vocabulary and collocations teaching in EFL textbooks. Lambert Academic Publishing.
Martin, J. (1992). English text. System and structure. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Martin, J. (2008). Construing knowledge: A functional linguistic perspective. In F. Christie & J. Martin (Eds.), Language, knowledge and pedagogy (pp. 34-64). Continuum.
Martin, J. (2016). Meaning matters: a short history of systemic functional linguistics, WORD, 62(1), 35-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2016.1141939
Martin, J., & Rose, D. (2007). Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. Continuum.
Martin, J., & Rose, D. (2008). Genre relations. Mapping culture. Equinox.
Maton, K., & Muller, J. (2007). A sociology for the transmission of knowledges. In F. Christie & J. Martin (Eds.), Language, knowledge and pedagogy (pp. 14-33). Continuum.
Maton, K. (2014). Seeing knowledge and knowers: Social realism and legitimation code theory. In K. Maton (Ed.), Knowledge and Knowers (pp. 1-22). Routledge.
Matthiessen, M. C. M. I., Wang, B., & Ma, Y. (2020). Applying systemic functional linguistics to educational linguistics: Some reflections. Educational Linguistics Studies, 2, 1-23. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335722673
McCabe, A. (2017). Systemic functional linguistics and language teaching. In T. Bartlett & G. O’Grady (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of systemic functional linguistics (pp. 591-604). Taylor & Francis Group.
Ministerio de Educación. (2023). Textos escolares SIGE. Ayuda Mineduc atención ciudadana. Recuperado 22 de enero de 2023 de https://www.ayudamineduc.cl/ficha/textos-escolares-sige-4
Nation, P. (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 59 (82).
Nation, P. & Waring, R. (1997). Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists. In N. Schmitt and M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition, and pedagogy (pp. 6-19). Cambridge University Press.
Neary-Sunquist, C. (2015). Aspects of vocabulary knowledge in German textbooks. Foreign Language Annals, 48(1), 68-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12126
Nordlund, M. (2016). EFL textbooks for young learners: A comparative analysis of vocabulary. Education Inquiry, 7(1), 47-68. https://doi.org/10.3402/edui.v7.27764
Painter, C. (2008). Language for learning in early childhood. In F. Christie & J. Martin (Eds.), Language, knowledge and pedagogy (pp. 131-155). Continuum.
Richard-Amato, P. (2010). Making it happen. From interactive to participatory language teaching: Evolving theory and practice (4th ed.). Pearson Longman.
Rose, D. (2006). A systemic functional approach to language evolution. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 16(1), 73–96. https://doi:10.1017/S0959774306000059
Rose, D., & Martin, J. (2012). Learning to write, reading to learn. Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney school. Equinox.
Rose, D. (2014). Analysing pedagogic discourse: An Approach f genre and register. Functional Linguistics 1(11), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-014-0011-4
Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Sheldon, L. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237-246. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/42.4.237
Shin, G. & Jung, B. (2021). Input–output relation in second language acquisition: Textbook and learner writing for adult English-speaking beginners of Korean. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 45(3), 347-370. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.20049.shi
Soaje, R. (2018). Textos escolares: consideraciones didácticas. Educación y educadores, 21(1), 73-92. https://doi.org/10.5294/edu.2018.21.1.4
Soaje, R., & Orellana, P. (2013). Textos escolares y calidad educativa. Estudio de la calidad de textos escolares entregados por el MINEDUC. Editorial Universitaria.
Stubbs, M. (2004). Language corpora. In A. Davies & C. Elder (Eds.), The Handbook of Applied Linguistics (pp.106-132). Blackwell Publishing.
Sugiura, R., Imai, N., Hamilton, M., Dean, E., & Ashcroft, R. (2020). Input and Output in Japanese High School Government-Approved English Textbooks. Journal of Higher Education Tokai University 21, 1-16. http://www.jhe.u-tokai.ac.jp/jhe21_1.pdf
Tayyebi, G., Khalili, M., Teimouri, S., & Mahdi, S. (2014). EFL Textbook evaluation from EFL learners’ perspectives. International Journal of Modern Management & Foresight, 1(6), 187-195.
Thoms, J. (2012). Classroom discourse in foreign language classroom: A Review of the literature. Foreign Language Annals, 45(SI), 8-27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2012.01177.x
Toledo-Sandoval, F. (2020). Local culture and locally produced ELT Textbooks: How do teachers bridge the gap? System, 95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102362
Tosi, C. (2011). El texto escolar como objeto de análisis. Un recorrido a través de los estudios ideológicos, didácticos, editoriales y lingüísticos. Lenguaje, 39(2), 469-500.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Andrea Lizasoain, Jorge Vargas Mutizabal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
