Event

Graduate Seminar Workshop: Systemic Functional Linguistics and Education

Saturday, April 30th, 2005, 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Speaker: Ryoko Saigusa, Interlanguage Service System Inc.; Patrick Fulmer and Ruriko Suganuma, Showa Women's University; Alfredo A. Ferreira, Hitotsubashi University

You are invited to TC-Tokyo's first annual graduate seminar workshop. The theme for the workshop is Systemic Functional Linguistics and Education. It will include workshop presentations by 3 graduates of the Teachers College M.A. in TESOL program, who have applied the concepts of SFL to their university classrooms in diverse ways.

• The Incorporation of Appraisal Analysis in a Newspaper Reading Class
  Ryoko Saigusa, Interlanguage Service System Inc.
  The presentation introduces ways to incorporate appraisal analysis in a tertiary level newspaper reading class. An innovative teaching style using one framework from appraisal will be suggested. Distinguishing the register between news stories and editorials is an advanced skill for many EFL students. Thus, the appraisal framework can be used as a device to teach the nuance of implicit subjectivity. The mask of a seemingly factual type of writing can be removed to reveal its subjectivity under the lenses of appraisal. In this presentation, the speaker will demonstrate how the appraisal framework can be used to create critical reading tasks.
• Inviting Student Review in Interpreting Tenor Relations in a Writing Talk Task
  Patrick Fulmer and Ruriko Suganuma, Showa Women’s University
  In presenting a practical application of SFL to classroom learning, the presenters will linguistically detail a first year university small group's "successful" EFL writing talk task resolution and the interpersonal "struggle" developing in it. They will demonstrate how inviting student review of their shared teaching learning refined the first author's initial interpretation of what transpired in their small group's talk task and why. Subsequent shared analysis and interview with the participating students very differently characterizing this "struggle" suggests a possibly more insightful alternative to customary teacher "interpretation at best" of the successes learners may be "accomplishing together" in their small group talk work.
• Japanese Semiotic Vernaculars in ESP Multiliteracies Projects
  Alfredo A. Ferreira, Hitotsubashi University
  In this workshop we consider the implications of multimodal discourse analyses of tourism promotion projects produced by college ESP students in Japan. Visual, linguistic and kinetic text elements were found in combinations reflecting the cultural multiplicity of students' literacy practices. For instance Japanese writing and more traditional visual directionality are mixed with English language and associated organizing elements. Ferreira also presents the results of related experimental research into the effects of explicit teaching of selected Japanese vernaculars. Workshop participants are invited to discuss issues in foreign language education such as multimodal and multilingual creativity, critical pragmatism and two way cultural induction.

Organization: Teachers College Columbia University Japan (TC Columbia)

Cost: free, but reserve by email to office@tc-japan.edu

Venue: Teachers College, Columbia University, Tokyo, Mitsui Seimei Bldg 4F, 2-21-2 Misaki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, (03)3221-9771

Location: Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan

Contact TC Columbia

Teachers College Columbia University Japan Tokyo Office

Work phone: 03-3221-9771