The purpose of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of Halliday’s linguistic theory known as Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in analysing qualitative data. In order to do…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of Halliday’s linguistic theory known as Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in analysing qualitative data. In order to do this, it initially presents an overview of SFL, and then explains how and why four linguistic features namely, nominalisation, grammatical metaphor, thematic structure and lexical density are useful in examining qualitative data. The paper also discusses three social metafunctions of language known as the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual metafunctions which are significant for understanding and interpreting texts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs SFL as the main theoretical framework to discussing the usefulness of this linguistics theory in qualitative data analysis.
Findings
SFL can be seen as a paradigm shift in linguistic theory moving away from the traditional focus on syntax to the inclusion of the interface between language and pragmatics. The focus of SFL is language in use. It deals with texts in social contexts, which is the main focus in qualitative data analysis. Thus, SFL provides both research tools and theoretical insights for understanding and interpreting texts.
Originality/value
This paper provides significant insights into language which are crucial for understanding and interpreting texts in social contexts.
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Behnam Forouhandeh, Rodney J. Clarke and Nina Louise Reynolds
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as an underlying model to examine the similarities/differences between spoken and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as an underlying model to examine the similarities/differences between spoken and written peer-to-peer (P2P) communication.
Design/methodology/approach
An embedded mixed methods experimental design with linguistically standardized experimental stimuli was used to expose the basic linguistic differences between P2P communications that can be attributed to communication medium (spoken/written) and product type (hedonic/utilitarian).
Findings
The findings show, empirically, that consumer’s spoken language is not linguistically equivalent to that of written language. This confirms that the capability of language to convey semantic meaning in spoken communication differs from written communication. This study extends the characteristics that differentiate hedonic from utilitarian products to include lexical density (i.e. hedonic) vs lexical sparsity (i.e. utilitarian).
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study are not wholly relevant to other forms of consumer communication (e.g. viral marketing). This research used a few SFL resources.
Practical implications
This research shows that marketers should ideally apply a semantic approach to the analysis of communications, given that communication meaning can vary across channels. Marketers may also want to focus on specific feedback channels (e.g. review site vs telephone) depending on the depth of product’s details that need to be captured. This study also offers metrics that advertisers could use to classify media and to characterize consumer segments.
Originality/value
This research shows the relevance of SFL for understanding P2P communications and has potential applications to other marketing communications.
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Sonya Fox and Beryl Exley
The recent focus on literacy in Social Studies has been on linguistic design, particularly that related to the grammar of written and spoken text. When students are expected to…
Abstract
The recent focus on literacy in Social Studies has been on linguistic design, particularly that related to the grammar of written and spoken text. When students are expected to produce complex hybridized genres such as timelines, a focus on the teaching and learning of linguistic design is necessary but not sufficient to complete the task. Theorizations of new literacies identify five interrelated meaning making designs for text deconstruction and reproduction: linguistic, spatial, visual, gestural, and audio design. Honing in on the complexity of timelines, this paper casts a lens on the linguistic, visual, spatial, and gestural designs of three pairs of primary school aged Social Studies learners. Drawing on a functional metalanguage, we analyze the linguistic, visual, spatial, and gestural designs of their work. We also offer suggestions of their effect, and from there consider the importance of explicit instruction in text design choices for this Social Studies task. We conclude the analysis by suggesting the foci of explicit instruction for future lessons.
David Walters, Michael Halliday and Stan Glaser
Business operates everywhere in an environment that is both dynamic and challenging: markets have globalised (supply markets and customer markets); technology has become all…
Abstract
Business operates everywhere in an environment that is both dynamic and challenging: markets have globalised (supply markets and customer markets); technology has become all embracing (this includes product and process technology) and relationships with suppliers, customers and competitors are undergoing constant change (often influenced by external forces such as technology). A new business model is emerging, one in which competitive advantage is based upon managing processes that facilitate rapid and flexible responses to ‘market’ change and one in which new capabilities are based upon developing unique relationships with partners (suppliers, customers, employees, shareholders, government and, often, with competitors), an understanding of, and the ability to use and to manage the new technology and to understand the impact of knowledge creation and its distribution.
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David Walters, Michael Halliday and Stan Glaser
This paper attempts to answer the questions raised in a previous paper by the authors (“Creating value in the ‘new economy”’, Management Decision, Vol. 40 No. 8) which dealt with…
Abstract
This paper attempts to answer the questions raised in a previous paper by the authors (“Creating value in the ‘new economy”’, Management Decision, Vol. 40 No. 8) which dealt with how business has had to reevaluate the importance of its assets in the “new economy”. The present paper now addresses the questions of how these changes affect traditional marketing delivery structures and mechanisms and, more importantly, how these changes affect the cost of marketing and the estimation of value that marketing delivers. The disciplines of marketing are such that a major role can be played in exploring the likely scenarios that will optimise competitive advantage.
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The purpose of this article is to introduce qualitative research in literacy that has been significant in educators understanding difference in young people’s literacy learning.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to introduce qualitative research in literacy that has been significant in educators understanding difference in young people’s literacy learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach has been to select influential investigations that have impacted over time and to summarise the insights provided.
Findings
This article foregrounds research that helps educators understand learner difference as positive resources and that contests approaches which perpetuate deficit discourses.
Originality/value
The article offers a distinctive and selective reading of literacy studies to highlight and remind readers of what is known about language and literacy learning that should not be ignored in designing further research nor in interpreting existing studies.
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This paper describes oral language as a multi-faceted and unconstrained phenomenon, including its social purpose in societies and the implications of this for education. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper describes oral language as a multi-faceted and unconstrained phenomenon, including its social purpose in societies and the implications of this for education. It provides a critique of the concepts of oral language which have come to dominate literacy and language education policy across the Organisation of Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD) in Anglophone countries like Australia. This paper synthesises the interdisciplinary evidence regarding the nature of oral language from the broad field of “language sciences” and explains the implications of this for literacy education. The paper includes recommendations for educational research, school leaders and policymakers.
Design/methodology/approach
A synthesis of interdisciplinary evidence from across the “language sciences” is outlined, drawing on Aristotle’s notion of sound with meaning. The evidence highlights the emphasis given to “sound” and “meaning” within various perspectives and shows that meaning is essential to oral language and provides a lens with which to evaluate educational policy and practice.
Findings
Findings from a synthesis of evidence across the language sciences and research on school-based practice suggest a number of implications for policy and practice in linguistically diverse settings. Firstly, phonological awareness through musical and drama processes can be applied in the early years of oral language development. Secondly, that oral language is a complementary communicative tool rather than an isolated practice. Finally, that oral language for the classroom may better reflect language’s social purpose to coordinate around meaning.
Originality/value
This paper is an important clarifier at a time when the place of oral language has become constrained within particular educational models in the Anglosphere. This paper highlights that oral language is a basis for learning to read and write throughout the schooling years, but also in life in the ongoing generative work that language allows and demands.
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This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it…
Abstract
This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it means to “green the academy” in an era of permanent war, “green capitalism,” and the neoliberal university (Sullivan, 2010). As Victor Wallis makes clear, “no serious observer now denies the severity of the environmental crisis, but it is still not widely recognized as a capitalist crisis, that is, as a crisis arising from and perpetuated by the rule of capital, and hence incapable of resolution within the capitalist framework.”
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This study aims to seek to demonstrate how explicit teaching of SFL metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” enhanced 8-9-year-old children’s deeper understanding and production…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to seek to demonstrate how explicit teaching of SFL metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” enhanced 8-9-year-old children’s deeper understanding and production of multimodal texts through critique of the construction of mini-documentaries about animals: the information, language of narration, composition of scenes and resources to engage the viewer. It also seeks to demonstrate how a knowledge of metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” contributes to students achieving both content knowledge and understanding of the resources of semiotic modes.
Design/methodology/approach
A design-based approach was used with the teacher and author working closely together to implement a unit of work on mini-documentaries, including explicit teaching of the metalanguage of information reports, mini-documentary narration (aka script) and multimodal resources deployed to scaffold students’ creating their own mini-documentaries.
Findings
The students’ mini-documentaries demonstrate how knowledge of SFL written and multimodal SFL-informed “grammars” assisted students to learn how meaning was created through selection of resources from the written, visual, sound and gestural modes and apply this knowledge to creating multimodal texts demonstrating their understandings of the topic and how to make meaning in a multimodal mini-documentary.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to the outcomes from one group of students in one class. Generalisation to other contexts is not possible. Further studies are required to support the results from this research.
Practical implications
The linguistic and multimodal SFL-informed grammars can be applied by educators to critique multimodal texts in a range of mediums and scaffold students’ production of multimodal texts. They can also inform assessment criteria and expand students’ conception of what is literate practice.
Originality/value
Knowledge of a linguistic and multimodal metalanguage can provide students with the tools to enhance their critical language awareness and critical multimodal awareness.