Ph.D. Ann Montemayor Borsinger (Rio Negro National University)
Contributions of Systemic Functional Linguistics to amplifying imagination in ELT
The tripartite view of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) on language as a system of choices offers possible ways of amplifying imagination in ELT. For SFL, texts are shaped by combining three different strands of meaning — experiential meanings that create conceptualizations of experience, interpersonal meanings that enable the communication of these conceptualizations in social exchanges, and textual meanings that organize the experiential and interpersonal dimensions into strings of coherent messages. This presentation examines possible language choices taking each of the three strands of meanings in turn. For instance, a focus on experiential meanings can show how changes in the representation of concepts in translations of textbooks seriously affect the transmission of knowledge from one language to another, and a focus on interpersonal meanings shows the way in which subject and verb choices are used in comic strips and change the Tenor of literary, academic and classroom discourse. For textual meanings we discuss how different options in the way information is arranged in academic texts affect their rhetorical force. The capacity of SFL to focus on especially relevant strands of meaning according to the genres encountered promotes a deeper understanding of the relations between the levels of grammar and discourse. This in turn draws our attention towards the challenges posed by the successful exploration of meanings in ELT contexts, where producing a second language that effectively complies with specific social and cultural functions is of great relevance.
Ann Montemayor-Borsinger holds a Master degree in Applied Linguistics (Bristol) and a PhD in Linguistics (Glasgow). She is Professor of Linguistics at Río Negro National University in San Carlos de Bariloche, and has been Invited Professor on different research/teaching programs in Argentina, Mexico (UNAM), Switzerland (University of Geneva) and Finland (University of Helsinki). Her research interests focus on functional grammar and discourse analysis. She has published widely on different types of discourses in English, Spanish and French, drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics.