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Distributed by Jafre Software CC. |
e4e® is designed to provide language support for all students (L1 and L2) in tertiary learning. It is based on 10 years of experience in language support classrooms. It has been test-driven by colleagues and by language lab assistants, and has been evaluated for two years with L2 students, both computer-literate and non-literate, and for one year with L1 students. e4e does not teach the metalanguage of systemic linguistics to students; it uses systemic linguistics to organise and present the systems of language and organisation with which the software program is designed. But at the same time, students who choose to learn about linguistics can select a path in the program which will introduce them to the subject.
Principles on which e4e is based e4e® is based on the following principles:
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Why use systemic functional linguistics for language support? Functional linguists begin from a data base of samples of the kinds of language which are used in different situations (registers). They study language use in its social context. It is possible to analyse statistically what L1 speakers feel is appropriate in particular situations or contexts. Words can be grouped in sets, the members of which can potentially be substituted for each other in specific contexts. Lexical, grammatical and syntactic systems contain the potential elements of specific language strings. Sets are items or forms which can be substituted for each other without offending the currently accepted language patterns. Patterns change and evolve through time. Any one change has compensatory repercussions throughout the system, until the potential for misunderstanding or ambiguity evolves out. Fit systems survive. Good English (or good French, or good Xhosa) is therefore the kind of language which most people at a given time and in a given place agree is appropriate for the situation in which it is used. Meaning is defined by the context in which specific bits of language are used (the surrounding language or situation in all its complexity: systemic functional linguistics determines the register of a piece of language by defining its domain, tenor and mode). This is how we avoid ambiguity. For example, to interpret the words ‘You have made your bed - now you must lie on it’, we need to know whether ‘you’ , a poor 18th century Scottish peasant, perhaps, have been gathering straw and are about to give birth, or whether ‘you’ have perhaps made a foolish choice and are now going to have to live with it. Whether those words were written or spoken, the surrounding words or surrounding events will usually leave us in no doubt as to what they mean on a specific occasion. For functional linguists, words do not have ‘Meaning’ in an essential sense — meaning is contingent, the result of evolution and change and chance. Grammar, syntax are subject to the same conditions of change and custom and culture. In the area of language support, functional linguistics makes clear that the register to be mastered is that of formal or academic English, written or spoken. Students need to master specific forms, genres, styles, lexis, syntax, skills, processes, knowledge which are appropriate to this register, with application to the discourses of their specific subjects / disciplines. For example, one might drill students to say ‘It is I’ and not ‘It’s me’ - but those are forms which students are unlikely to need in formal written registers, and when they speak they will be inappropriately pedantic. Functional linguistics prefers ‘appropriate / inappropriate’ to ‘correct / incorrect, right / wrong’. The communication of meaning operates on a sliding scale, from clarity to impenetrability. e4e therefore tries to provide students with the means to find for themselves the language knowledge and processes they need, and also to find explanations when they want to understand. Back to Top
Assessment and outcomes One of the goals of language support is professionalism. e4e aims to provide students with the means to evaluate their own language needs, to seek solutions to their problems at their own pace, and in the spirit of life-long learning, to prioritise knowing how to find information over knowing right answers. e4e uses the processes of editing professional Englishes to structure learning through the levels of systemic linguistics, from phoneme to genre and register on one axis, from past to present on another, and from situation ('reality') to its textual analogues on another. e4e accepts that English is at present an international language of communication. English as the national language of England or of the United States is not the concern of the program. Learning about the systems of any language enhances the understanding of any other language, and it is to be hoped that learning to follow a report-writing process in English will also enhance the ability of students to write reports in Xhosa or Afrikaans, Zulu or any other language. It may be possible to teach English while encouraging multilingualism and multiculturalism. Back to Top |
