1.1 Course Overview/Rationale
The approach taken in this course is based on the principles of functional grammar. The functional approach looks at the ways we use language for different purposes, such as to exchange information or to interact with each other.
These purposes and the meanings we want to convey are reflected in the way we structure texts. For instance, if our purpose is to tell a story the structure of the narrative text will have a particular form which is different from the structure of a text where our purpose is to present an argument. These text types/genres are often culturally determined.
There are other choices we can make from the language system such as various types of nouns and different verb tenses which will vary according to our purpose. An examination of these sentence level language features will follow the study of the different text types.
An advantage of dealing with the whole text level first is that it provides a meaningful context for teachers and their students for a closer study of how grammatical patterns change in different texts.
It is recommended that students in EDLA 103 begin working at Part 5 to keep in step with their course work.
PLEASE NOTE: This course does not cover visual and critical literacy, nor the increasingly important multimodal literacy. As Cordes (2009) points out, success in the world of multimodal information requires the ability “to consume and create texts in visual, audio and written formats, to evaluate messages in a variety of mediums …” (p.1). Students are recommended to consult the work of Professor Maureen Walsh from this university to further their knowledge in this area. The ewriting support module on critical literacy looks at critical literacy in the print medium.
Diana Simmons and Joan Smith