Linguistic Tools for Supporting Emergent Critical Language Awareness in the Elementary School

Abstract

In a design-based professional development initiative, language-focused activities supported by SFL metalanguage enabled primary school children who were learning English as an additional language to begin to develop awareness of themselves as readers in dialogue with authors and as readers positioned in particular ways by what they read. Professional development prepared their teachers to support discussion about interpersonal meaning in the language of stories and informational texts. By exploring, interpreting, and evaluating attitudes in texts, and then presenting their own views in writing, the children began to develop the critical and evaluative perspectives needed for success in secondary and tertiary contexts.