Meaningful form: transitivity and intentionality

Saraceni, Mario

doi:10.1093/elt/ccl052

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…'Focus on form' was the result of attempts to find a middle-way between form-focused and meaning-focused instruction, both of which had been deemed by many to be insufficient at promoting acceptable language acquisition (Fotos, 1994;Ellis, 2003Ellis, , 2006Davies, 2006;Saraceni, 2007).…”

Section: Focus On Form (Fonf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Controversies in Teaching Grammar: A Case for the Iranian High School Students

Boroujeni¹

2012

TPLS

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. What has remained controversial is 'how to teach grammar to help L2 learners acquire it. The present study was designed on a qualitative-quantitative survey basis using a semi-structured interview and questionnaire on the effectiveness of different approaches in teaching grammar which was administered to 128 students and 5 EFL instructors in four high schools in Isfahan province, the city of Falavarjan. The results of the study revealed that the students and instructors preferred 'focus on form (FonF)' instructional method. The results also demonstrated that some of the participants favored a teacher fronted classroom with an emphasis on explicit grammar instruction. The results of the study is in line with the related literature in grammar teaching approaches that 'focus on form' (FonF) acts as a middle-way between the two extremes of (FonFs) and 'focus on meaning (FonM)'. Moreover, the role of L1 in the grammar instruction cannot be stigmatized as unworthy of consideration without providing enough empirical evidence. The overall results suggest that the treatment of grammar with a 'one -size -fits-all' methodology instead of utilizing a balanced perspective based on the needs and context of the learners is not expected to yield sufficient result in any language teaching contexts.

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Section: Focus On Form (Fonf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Controversies in Teaching Grammar: A Case for the Iranian High School Students

Boroujeni¹

2012

TPLS

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“…There are clear examples of how ESL teachers can work with authentic materials in their classrooms, particularly in relation to analyses of authentic newspaper articles. About 13 years ago, Saraceni (2008) put forward a framework to raise ESL students' awareness of the semantic value of the grammatical system of transitivity through the analysis of short texts, as a means of getting students to become more critical in their approach to reading. Transitivity is the study of "what people are depicted as doing and refers, broadly, to who does what to whom, and how" (Machin & Mayr, 2012, p. 104), which explains the semantic value of a clause in relation to participants, processes, and circumstances (Bloor & Bloor, 2013).…”

Section: Utiliser Des Matériaux Authentiques Dans La Classe D'anglais Langue Seconde (Als) Peut Développer La Pensée Critique (Pc) Des éTmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Transitivity is the study of "what people are depicted as doing and refers, broadly, to who does what to whom, and how" (Machin & Mayr, 2012, p. 104), which explains the semantic value of a clause in relation to participants, processes, and circumstances (Bloor & Bloor, 2013). Saraceni's (2008) framework specifically aimed to engage ESL students with sentences in authentic texts and reflect on questions such as: "Are the verbs transitive or intransitive? ", "Do the verbs refer to intentional or unintentional actions?…”

Section: Utiliser Des Matériaux Authentiques Dans La Classe D'anglais Langue Seconde (Als) Peut Développer La Pensée Critique (Pc) Des éTmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting ESL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Through a Transitivity Analysis of Authentic Materials

Velasco¹

2021

TESL Canada

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Using authentic materials in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom can develop students’ critical thinking (CT) skills, expose them to more realistic English, and support their motivation. Carrying out text analyses of authentic materials in the ESL classroom can also help students become more critical in their approach to reading. Grounded in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) concepts, this paper puts forward a series of text analysis tasks, so ESL teachers can introduce their adult students to the concepts of transitivity and intentionality found in opposing newspaper articles dealing with conflict. Overall, these analyses show how the active voice can highlight the semantic value of intentionality via material processes, and how writers use strategies such as passivization and fronting of items in clauses to emphasize the responsibility for wrongdoing when reporting news. The analyses also show that context is important in determining degrees of intentionality, and intentionality can be attributed to the material processes of human actors portrayed as non-human actors. Understanding these concepts can help adult ESL students become better critical readers/thinkers. Utiliser des matériaux authentiques dans la classe d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) peut développer la pensée critique (PC) des étudiants et les exposer à un anglais plus réaliste et soutenir leur motivation. Effectuer des analyses de textes de matériaux authentiques dans la classe d’ALS peut aussi aider les étudiants à devenir plus critiques dans leur approche de la lecture. Enraciné dans les concepts de la linguistique systémique fonctionnelle (LSF), cet article présente une série d’exercices d’analyse de texte, de façon à ce que les enseignants d’ALS puissent présenter à leurs étudiants adultes les concepts de transitivité et d’intentionnalité qu’on retrouve dans des articles de presse contradictoires qui traitent du conflit. Dans l’ensemble, ces analyses montrent comment l’utilisation de la voix active peut mettre en lumière la valeur sémantique de l’intentionnalité par l’entremise de processus matériels, ainsi que la façon dont les écrivains utilisent des stratégies comme la passivisation et la mise en avant d’éléments dans les propositions pour accentuer la responsabilité d’actes répréhensibles quand ils font un reportage. Les analyses montrent également que le contexte est important pour déterminer les degrés d’intentionnalité et que celle-ci peut être attribuée aux processus matériels des acteurs humains dépeints comme des acteurs non-humains. Comprendre ces concepts aide les étudiants adultes d’ALS à devenir de meilleurs lecteurs ou penseurs critiques.

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“…During the past decades grammar has moved from a position of central importance in language teaching to pariah status, and back to a position of renewed importance (Celce-Murcia, 1991). Saraceni (2008) asserts that although it seems that the role of grammar instruction in SLA was decreasing with the rise of communicative methodologies in the late 1970s, its place in SLA still continues to be discussed. Over the recent decades the developments about grammar instruction has been highly questioned due to consistent succession of new language acquisition methods.…”

Section: Review Of the Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Processing Instruction and Traditional Instruction on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Ability

Hashemnezhad¹,

Zangalani²

2012

ELT

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The aim of the present paper was to investigate the effects of processing instruction and traditional instruction on Iranian EFL learners' writing ability. Thirty participants who were non-randomly selected out of 63 Intermediate EFL learners, taking English courses in a language institute in Khoy-Iran, participated in this quasi-experimental study. All the participants were female with the age range of 18-24. The participants were randomly assigned into two experimental groups of processing instruction and traditional instruction. Two different instructional packages were used as treatment and two free writing tasks were employed as pre-test and post-test in this study. The results revealed that although both instructions had positive effects on Iranian EFL learners' writing ability, processing instruction group performed significantly better than traditional instruction. Some pedagogical implications of the findings were presented. The results might be helpful in syllabus design and teaching methodology.

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Meaningful form: transitivity and intentionality

Cited by 9 publications

References 5 publications

Investigating Controversies in Teaching Grammar: A Case for the Iranian High School Students

Investigating Controversies in Teaching Grammar: A Case for the Iranian High School Students

Promoting ESL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Through a Transitivity Analysis of Authentic Materials

The Effects of Processing Instruction and Traditional Instruction on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Ability

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