Mary J. Schleppegrell | |
---|---|
Born | October 17, 1950 |
Occupation | Professor of Education |
Awards | Leadership Through Research Award, American Educational Research Association (2018) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Georgetown University (Ph.D.) American University in Cairo University of Minnesota |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Michigan School of Education |
Mary J. Schleppegrell (born October 17,1950) [1] is an applied linguist and Professor of Education at the University of Michigan. [2] Her research and praxis are based on the principles of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), [3] a theory derived from the work of social semiotic linguist Michael Halliday. [4] Schleppegrell is known for the SFL-based literacy practices she has continuously helped to develop for multilingual and English language learners throughout her decades long career,which she began as an educational specialist before transitioning to the field of applied linguistics. [3] [5] [6] As a result,her publications demonstrate a deep understanding of both the theories and practices related to teaching and learning. [5]
Schleppegrell believes that academic success after the elementary years is closely tied to explicit instruction with regard to the acquisition of academic language. [6] Consequently,she maintains that students should be taught to "unpack" meanings encoded in authentic academic texts of different genres rather than be provided with easier,teacher-modified versions of these texts stating that,"you can’t really make it simpler and still maintain the level of content. You have to amplify instruction around it.” [7]
Schleppegrell received the 2018 Leadership Through Research Award from the Second Language Research Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association. [8]
Schleppegrell received a B.A. in German from the University of Minnesota in 1972 and began her career as an elementary school teacher in California's Elk Grove School District. [2] [9] In 1982,she completed an M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the American University in Cairo and subsequently taught at the university level in Egypt before returning to the United States where she earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1989. [10] Schleppegrell's dissertation entitled,"Functions of because in spoken discourse" demonstrates a return to her early career interests as interviews of elementary school students formed the corpus of her research data. [11]
After completing her Ph.D.,Schleppegrell joined the faculty of the Linguistics department of University of California,Davis,where she would remain until 2005. [2] During this time,she published the first edition of The Language of Schooling:A Functional Linguistics Perspective, a text that advocates for incorporating language-focused instruction into the curriculum of all academic subjects beginning at the middle school level in an effort to support and develop learners' critical literacy skills. [12]
In 2005,Schleppegrell became a Professor of Education at the University of Michigan,where she currently teaches courses on language learning and development,linguistics in education,and SFL. [2] After joining the faculty at the University of Michigan,Schleppegrell published Reading in Secondary Content Areas:A Language-Based Pedagogy with Luciana de Oliveira and Focus on Grammar and Meaning with Zhihui Fang,two books that offer both theoretical explanations and practical approaches for the development of critical literacy in a K-12 setting. [13] [14]
In addition to her work as both a professor and researcher,Schleppeggrell served as the President of the North American Systemic Functional Linguistics Association (NASFLA) from 2010-2011. [15]
With the publication of her first book,The Language of Schooling,Schleppegrell made an important contribution to the literature on language use in educational contexts. [16] Published in 2004,this book was a timely response to Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine E. Snow's 2002 suggestion that researchers provide teachers with more explicit knowledge about academic language. [16] Departing from a SFL perspective,Schleppegrell deftly analyzes the different genres of language students encounter in academic settings in order to draw attention to the idea that everyday,spoken discourse differs drastically from the language of academic texts. [5] She contends that students who do not encounter academic language outside of a school setting are considerably less likely to succeed in secondary and tertiary courses as they require advanced literacy skills. [5] [16] In response to this problem,Schleppegrell advocates for explicit language instruction across all academic subjects that provides students with an understanding of how texts create meaning through a combination genre-related conventions and linguistic choices made by the author or speaker. [5]
Schleppegrell and Zhihui Fang authored Reading in secondary content areas:A language-based pedagogy, a functional linguistics-based textbook that aims to provide teachers with practical tools for addressing the literacy crisis currently being faced by English language learners in the United States,only 4% of whom are considered to be reading at grade level before entering high school. [16] Fang and Schleppegrell discuss the idea of providing students with a functional metalanguage in order to improve their interpretation and production of academic language. [16]
Together with Luciana C. de Oliveira,Schleppegrell continued her previous work on functional metalanguage with respect to second language learning in Focus on grammar and meaning. [17]
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: communicative competencies, proficiencies, cross-cultural experiences, and multiple literacies.
English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), English as a second language (ESL), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), or English as a new language (ENL), these terms denote the study of English in environments where it is not the dominant language. Programs such as ESL are designed as academic courses to instruct non-native speakers in English proficiency, encompassing both learning in English-speaking nations and abroad.
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is an approach to linguistics, among functional linguistics, that considers language as a social semiotic system.
Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of dialogue relationships between units of speech communication as manifestations and enactments of co-existence. Jacob L. Mey in his book, Trends in Linguistics, describes Mikhail Bakhtin's interpretation of metalinguistics as "encompassing the life history of a speech community, with an orientation toward a study of large events in the speech life of people and embody changes in various cultures and ages."
The ELTons are international awards given annually by the British Council that recognise and celebrate innovation in the field of English language teaching. They reward educational resources that help English language learners and teachers to achieve their goals using innovative content, methods or media. The ELTons date from 2003 and the 2018 sponsors of the awards are Cambridge English Language Assessment and IELTS. Applications are submitted by the end of November each year and they are judged by an independent panel of ELT experts, using the Delphi Technique. The shortlist is published in March and the winners announced at a ceremony in London in June. The 2018 awards were held in a new venue, Savoy Place, Institute of Engineering and Technology, London, UK.
English-language learner is a term used in some English-speaking countries such as the United States and Canada to describe a person who is learning the English language and has a native language that is not English. Some educational advocates, especially in the United States, classify these students as non-native English speakers or emergent bilinguals. Various other terms are also used to refer to students who are not proficient in English, such as English as a second language (ESL), English as an additional language (EAL), limited English proficient (LEP), culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), non-native English speaker, bilingual students, heritage language, emergent bilingual, and language-minority students. The legal term that is used in federal legislation is 'limited English proficient'.
Multiliteracy is an approach to literacy theory and pedagogy coined in the mid-1990s by the New London Group. The approach is characterized by two key aspects of literacy – linguistic diversity and multimodal forms of linguistic expressions and representation. It was coined in response to two major changes in the globalized environment. One such change was the growing linguistic and cultural diversity due to increased transnational migration. The second major change was the proliferation of new mediums of communication due to advancement in communication technologies e.g the internet, multimedia, and digital media. As a scholarly approach, multiliteracy focuses on the new "literacy" that is developing in response to the changes in the way people communicate globally due to technological shifts and the interplay between different cultures and languages.
Writing education in the United States at a national scale using methods other than direct teacher–student tutorial were first implemented in the 19th century. The positive association between students' development of the ability to use writing to refine and synthesize their thinking and their performance in other disciplines is well-documented.
A dialogue journal is an ongoing written interaction between two people to exchange experiences, ideas, knowledge or reflections. It is used most often in education as a means of sustained written interaction between students and teachers at all education levels. It can be used to promote second language learning and learning in all areas.
Paul Nation is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of linguistics and teaching methodology. As a professor in the field of applied linguistics with a specialization in pedagogical methodology, he has been able to create a language teaching framework to identify key areas of language teaching focus. Paul Nation is best known for this framework, which has been labelled The Four Strands. He has also made notable contributions through his research in the field of language acquisition that focuses on the benefits of extensive reading and repetition as well as intensive reading. Nation's numerous contributions to the linguistics research community through his published work has allowed him to share his knowledge and experience so that others may adopt and adapt it. He is credited with bringing « legitimization to second language vocabulary researches » in 1990.
Language pedagogy is the discipline concerned with the theories and techniques of teaching language. It has been described as a type of teaching wherein the teacher draws from their own prior knowledge and actual experience in teaching language. The approach is distinguished from research-based methodologies.
Second-language acquisition classroom research is an area of research in second-language acquisition concerned with how people learn languages in educational settings. There is a significant overlap between classroom research and language education. Classroom research is empirical, basing its findings on data and statistics wherever possible. It is also more concerned with what the learners do in the classroom than with what the teacher does. Where language teaching methods may only concentrate on the activities the teacher plans for the class, classroom research concentrates on the effect the things the teacher does has on the students.
James Robert Martin is a Canadian linguist. He is Professor of Linguistics at The University of Sydney. He is the leading figure in the 'Sydney School' of systemic functional linguistics. Martin is well known for his work on discourse analysis, genre, appraisal, multimodality and educational linguistics.
Diane Larsen-Freeman is an American linguist. She is currently a Professor Emerita in Education and in Linguistics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. An applied linguist, known for her work in second language acquisition, English as a second or foreign language, language teaching methods, teacher education, and English grammar, she is renowned for her work on the complex/dynamic systems approach to second language development.
The Sydney School is a genre-based writing pedagogy that analyses literacy levels of students. The Sydney School's pedagogy broadened the traditional observation-based writing in primary schools to encompass a spectrum of different genres of text types that are appropriate to various discourses and include fiction and non-fiction. The method and practice of teaching established by the Sydney School encourages corrective and supportive feedback in the education of writing practices for students, particularly regarding second language students. The Sydney School works to reflectively institutionalise a pedagogy that is established to be conducive to students of lower socio-economic backgrounds, indigenous students and migrants lacking a strong English literacy basis. The functional linguists who designed the genre-based pedagogy of the Sydney School did so from a semantic perspective to teach through patterns of meaning and emphasised the importance of the acquisition of a holistic literacy in various text types or genres. ‘Sydney School’ is not, however, an entirely accurate moniker as the pedagogy has evolved beyond metropolitan Sydney universities to being adopted nationally and, by 2000, was exported to centres in Hong Kong, Singapore, and parts of Britain.
Anne Burns is a British-born Australian educational linguist known for her work on genre-based pedagogy in TESOL and EAP/ESP. She is a Professor Emerita in Language Education at Aston University (UK) and Professor of TESOL at the University of New South Wales (Australia). The TESOL International Association named her one of the '50 at 50', leaders who had made a significant contribution to TESOL in its first 50 years.
Frances Helen Christie, is Emeritus professor of language and literacy education at the University of Melbourne, and honorary professor of education at the University of Sydney. She specialises in the field of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and has completed research in language and literacy education, writing development, pedagogic grammar, genre theory, and teaching English as a mother tongue and as a second language.
Jenny Hammond is an Australian linguist. She is known for her research on literacy development, classroom interaction, and socio-cultural and systemic functional theories of language and learning in English as an Additional Language or dialect (EAL/D) education. Over the course of her career, Hammond's research has had a significant impact on the literacy development of first and second language learners, on the role of classroom talk in constructing curriculum knowledge and on policy developments for EAL education in Australia. She is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of Technology Sydney.
Mary Macken-Horarik is an Australian linguist. She is an adjunct Associate Professor in the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE) at the Australian Catholic University. This title was awarded "in recognition of her international reputation and scholarly expertise in the field of Senior Secondary English Curriculum." Macken-Horarik is known for her contributions to systemic functional linguistics and its application to literacy, language and English education.
Jane Torr is an Australian academic in the fields of early childhood language and literacy development in home and early childhood education and care settings. She is an honorary associate in the department of educational studies at Macquarie University, where she has been teaching and researching for over 30 years. Torr's research draws on systemic functional linguistic theory to explore the relationship between context and meaning in adult-child interactions, and the implications for children's learning. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as publications in professional journals.
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