Developing dimensions of an education linguistics

Abstract

Halliday has always had a profound interest in the teaching of language in schools. In this, he is unique among major linguists, for he has never acknowledged a clearcut distinction between theoretical and applied themes in linguistic research'. He has in fact acknowledged that it has often been in working on matters of educational interest, as in the Nuffield/Schools Council Programme in Linguistics and English Teaching (1964-71) that he has extended and clarified his theoretical positions on language. One of the many strengths of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory as Halliday and his colleagues have developed it, has been the way in which contributions in the theoretical sense have had consequences for developments in applied areas, while applied studies have equally tended to rebound on theoretical studies. Hence it is that while we would argue there is a sense in which an educational linguistics has emerged from SF research, such an educational theory is intimately linked to the broader linguistic theory of which it is a part. An educational linguistics is concerned with the study of language in teaching and learning. As such, it has interests in the nature of the linguistic system and its role in learning, as well as in what kinds of Knowledge About Language (KAL, to use Carter's term) should be taught to children. This chapter will attempt to trace some of the major developments in the emergence of a theory of language in education as proposed by Halliday and his colleagues, dating from the 1960s when Halliday first became actively involved in educational work.