The Language of Schooling – notes - Mary J Schleppegrell
Register Features of the Language of schooling (p74)
Situational Expectations
Grammatical Features (Register)
Display Knowledge
Ideational metafunction
Complex nominal syntax with specialized, technical
and abstract lexis
Material and relational processes enable clause-internal
reasoning with nouns, verbs, prepositions, instead of
conjunctions
Be authoritative
Interpersonal metafunction
Declarative mood and modal verbs realize ‘reasoned’
judgments
Evaluation often implicit through resources of appraisal
Structure text in expected ways
Textual metafunction
Clause-combining strategies of condensation and
Embedding
Theme position exploited to mark organizational structure
Nominalization and other forms of grammatical metaphor
enable dense clauses
Writing the Expository (analytical) essay – features of the academic registers at general level
Macrostructure
Section
Introduction - foreshadowing
Body – arguing
Features
 Text orientation and purpose
 Typically realised in a thesis statement
Development of thesis realised through
Example
Explanation/argument
Structure
Announcement of argument
Evidence presented
Summed up
Conclusion – summarizing
Summarizes and evaluates points that have been
made
Structuring dependent on key grammatical resources of Nominalization and Theme/Rheme
Hortatory essay – persuasive ask questions and offer suggestions e.g. editorials, debates, blogs,
political speeches, - interactive
Clause structureFeature
Examples
Ideational Resources
that Display
Knowledge
-Abstract nominal
groups that name
arguments
-Expanded nominal
groups that condense
information
-Verbs that link
nominal structures to
construct abstractions
and generalizations
-Technical and
abstract vocabulary
used with appropriate
collocations and
transitivity
Ability students
need
Expand a noun
phrase with preand postmodifiers
Nominal groups
that name
arguments to be
developed in the
essay
His belief in its
importance is a
pervasive theme in
this essay
Instead of
He believes it is
important
Laziness and the
demand for
carefree products,
foods, and housing
prove his
assumptions are
correct
Need to develop
good knowledge of
word meaning and
of collocational and
grammatical
constraints on
word use
Interpersonal
resources that
realize
authoritativeness
The relationship
between the reader
and the writer
The attitudes and
judgments of the
writer
-Declarative mood and
third person to realize
impersonality
-Nominalization and
relational processes
that enable evaluation
-resources for
presenting stance,
including control of
explicit and implicit
objective options for
attributing
commitment to a
proposition
The embedding of
evaluation so text
sounds reasoned
and authoritative
Summarize
arguments of other
writers and agree
or disagree with
those arguments
Theme – point of
departure for the
clause with focus
Teaching
suggestions
Activities in which
students are given
sentences and
asked to
nominalise the
verb
Students are given
nominal structures
and asked to
construct
sentences
Students add
qualifiers and premodifiers to a
nominal phrase or
word
Students can be
given resources for
presenting
relational
processes – verbs
so they can
construct
generalizations and
abstractions
e.g indicate,
reflect, show,
influence, cause,
lead to
Take a text with
examples of
interrogative
clauses or
imperatives and
change it to one
with more
authority
Practise summary
writing skills and
disagreeing or
agreeing with
arguments
-control of modality
and other resources
for attitudinal
meaning
on the information
or views presented
rather than the
individual
(not subject
pronoun I for
example) p99
Need to present
their own and
others’ points of
view
Modal verbs are
important for
thesis statements
Effective use of
evaluative
language
Give students
Nominal structures
that name
arguments and
positions
Nouns
Issue, belief,
reason, problem,
argument, point of
view, question
Modified with
adjectives such as
significant,
effective, essential
Impersonal
constructions such
as It is a common
belief
It is claimed that
The author
outlines, believes,
analyses
It is inevitable that
It is disappointing
Verbs made
impersonal with
words such as
likely, possible,
usual, certain,
necessary
Modal adjuncts –
possibly/certainly
for evaluation
Textual resources
that structure text
-Thematic choices that
structure information
so that key points are
highlighted
-Clause-combining
choices that enable
condensation of
information
-High lexical density
through grammatical
Theme/Rheme
Picking up the
Rheme in a clause
to use as a point of
departure in the
next sentence
Clause-combining
strategies
metaphor
-use of conjunctive
resources to create
cohesive links
-Resources for shifting
from abstract to
concrete in presenting
and arguing for a
thesis