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Constructing knowledge via metaphor in Singaporean student writing: A corpus-based study
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Type
Conference Paper
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Citation
Paper presented at the The 8th Teaching and Language Corpora Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 2008
Abstract
This paper reports on work in progress of a large-scale
study which seeks to examine and compare knowledge construction
and the development of grammatical metaphor in Secondary 3 (Year
9) student writing in English and Social Studies. Through a
combination of qualitative (systemic-functional) and quantitative (via
computer-supported tool MMAX2) analyses of a sample of 42 student
writings, it is shown that arguing in subject English and arguing in
Social Studies employ different grammatical resources and point to
different directions. Compared with subject English, which employs
rankshifted embedding, Social Studies (and its parent disciplines such
as History and Sociology) depends to a greater extent on grammatical
metaphors to argue. This kind of work can have important
implications for developing students’ advanced literacy in that it can
deepen our understandings of the textual features of different subject
areas and their different underlying value systems.
Date Issued
July 2008
Project
CRP 7/07 AK
SCoRE Corpus project