Overview

This book addresses Mohan's (1986) concept of a social practice, an educational activity that can be considered as action in a frame of meaning, or a ""knowledge framework"" (KF). The KF, grounded in systemic functional linguistics, is a heuristic that provides both a theoretical framework for researching the language of social practices and a springboard for organizing lessons that can help teachers bring explicit language development into content teaching. This volume brings together the latest research on using Mohan's SFL-based theory at institutions of higher learning. One outcome of this book is to show how a functional approach to language research can be a major tool for research in the experiential tradition of John Dewey who, as a pragmatist, regarded knowledge functionally ""as arising from an active adaptation of the human organism to its environment"" (www.iep.utm.edu/dewey). Another outcome is to illustrate the complexity of the role activities play in education. This is the first book to examine the linguistic demands of the activities that occur in higher education. It provides empirically grounded examples of how Mohan's work is being implemented in universities worldwide. It thus adds to conversations addressing the use of educational activities to teach and describe disciplinary literacy and the integrated development of language and content.

Full Product Details

9781781797402

Table of Contents

Reviews

Pre-Publication Reviews Social Practices in Higher Education is a fitting tribute to the father of integrated language and content instruction. This volume expands Bernard Mohan's seminal work (Mohan, 1986) and subsequent research in elementary and secondary education to studies in higher education, teacher development and coaching, social discourse analysis, and more. The durability, flexibility, and applicability of the Knowledge Framework is clear. Researchers have used the framework across subject disciplines to analyze diverse types of texts used in university courses and the academic discussions expressed in classrooms, to enhance pre- and in-service teachers' lesson and curriculum planning skills in order to strengthen academic language learning opportunities, and to improve university-level student use of content-specific academic language in writing and oral interactions. Readers will appreciate the creativity of many researchers who have applied the Knowledge Framework to a variety of contexts and who show us how to move theory into practice. Dr. Deborah J. Short, Director, Academic Language Research & Training and Past President, TESOL International Association (2021-22)

Social Practices in Higher Education is a fitting tribute to the father of integrated language and content instruction. This volume expands Bernard Mohan’s seminal work (Mohan, 1986) and subsequent research in elementary and secondary education to studies in higher education, teacher development and coaching, social discourse analysis, and more. The durability, flexibility, and applicability of the Knowledge Framework is clear. Researchers have used the framework across subject disciplines to analyze diverse types of texts used in university courses and the academic discussions expressed in classrooms, to enhance pre- and in-service teachers’ lesson and curriculum planning skills in order to strengthen academic language learning opportunities, and to improve university-level student use of content-specific academic language in writing and oral interactions. Readers will appreciate the creativity of many researchers who have applied the Knowledge Framework to a variety of contexts and who show us how to move theory into practice. Dr. Deborah J. Short, Director, Academic Language Research & Training and Past President, TESOL International Association (2021-22)

Author Information

Tammy Slater, Associate Professor Emerita at Iowa State University, draws upon analytic methods from Systemic Functional Linguistics, including Mohan's Knowledge Framework, to investigate and understand the development of academic language through content-based and project-based teaching and learning, particularly in ways that inform and advance the field of literacy education for English language learners. She has published in several journals, including Linguistics and Education and Theory into Practice, and has co-authored chapters in several books. With Gulbahar Beckett, she edited Global Perspectives on Project-based Language Learning, Teaching, and Assessment: Key Approaches, Technology Tools, and Frameworks (2020).

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