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Heidi Byrnes

Georgetown University

Foreign/second language acquisition as meaning-making: A systemic-functional approach

This colloquium explores the nature of synchronous CMC in specific L2 learning environments from a variety of SLA perspectives that include interactionist, psycholinguistic, sociocultural, and international concerns. The data come from native speaker/learner and learner/learner exchanges both at home and abroad using textual, audio and, in some cases, video channels.

Papers

Genre and language learning: a social-semiotic perspective
James R. Martin, University of Sydney

The literacy initiatives of the so-called ' Sydney School ' take genre as point of departure, within the meaning-focused theory of language known as systemic functional linguistics. This paper will review the theory/practice dialectic which has emerged from these interventions in first and foreign/second language development programs.

Staging instruction at the intermediate level: Genre, dialogicality, voice
Heidi Byrnes, Georgetown University

The paper will explore the potential of SFL for addressing key affective and knowledge-oriented concerns for intermediate level adult L2 learning: engaging with texts as situated cultural artefacts; engaging with others through spoken interaction, story-telling, and narrative; developing a competent non-native voice within the L2 cultural and language system.

Grammar as a gateway into discourse: a systemic functional approach to Subject, Theme and Logic
Kazuhiro Teruya, University of New South Wales

The paper will illustrate the grammar as a meaning making resource for early intermediate to advanced adult learners, in particular, in the environment of clause combining where different functions such as Subject and Theme are unified to construct a rhetorically-oriented language logic, which in turn offers a gateway into discourse. Examples from Japanese.

A systemic-functional approach to the teaching of Spanish for heritage speakers in the U.S.
M. Cecilia Colombi, The University of California, Davis

This paper examines the use of genre/register theory to develop academic literacy in Spanish for heritage speakers. SFL regards language as a resource for making meaning considering the context in the construal of discourse. Explicit instruction of genre/register theory promotes students' awareness of lexicogrammatical features of academic language.