Derewianka, Beverly. Exploring How Texts Work. Victoria, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association, 2004.

I borrowed Beverly’s copy. Here are notes I took, beginning with their page numbers.

3: “A functional approach looks at how language enables us to do things — to share information, to enquire, to express attitudes, to entertain, to argue, to get our needs met, to reflect, to construct ideas, to order our experience and make sense of the world. It is concerned with how people use real language for real purposes. At the heart of a functional model of language is an emphasis on meaning and on how language is involved in the construction of meaning. It sees language as a resource for making meaning.

“A functional approach to language is not concerned with a set of rules which prescribe correct and incorrect usage. Language in real life is not a complete, ideal system conforming to neat, pre-determined categories…”

6: Curriculum preparation:

1. Identify the understandings and abilities to be developed; negotiate topics with students.
2. Can also negotiate end result.
3. Decide which genre(s) are best suited for developing these ideas (e.g. narrative, report, argument…) = language focus of the unit.
4. Plan activities to familiarize Ss with concepts: hands-on, oral, written…
5. Find sample texts in the chosen genre for modeling. Read them well ahead of time.

7: Other steps: modeling the genre, examining how text is structured (schematic structure); with each phase of the genre, what is its purpose?

8: You may want to compare a successful with unsuccessful model of the genre. Before Ss write independent texts, they can do a group writing (as a whole or in smaller groups: research, pooling info, revise structure of the genre, collaborate on a text (with guiding questions from T).

9: Independent writing: child chooses topic. Ss write drafts based on models. Editing and publishing are final options.

18–19: Texts differ not only in their purpose (and thus structure) but also situation in which it is used. The type of language depends on relationship between participants: speaker/listener, writer/reader = tenor; subject matter = field; channel of communication (written or spoken) = mode. The three combine into register of the text.

Culture —> Genre (purpose) —> Situation —> Register —> Text

13–14: Planning: consider Ss’ experiences, interests & needs; determine what type of info the subject requires (e.g. salmon exercise in class). Those two will result in a genre. There may be more than one appropriate one, but pick one. Locate appropriate texts as models for S reference.

Types of texts

10–22: Recounts

Purpose of recounts: to tell what happened

Types: Personal recount, factual recount (an incident), imaginative recount (a day in the life of a Roman slave)

Text organization (schematic structure): Focus on sequence of events:

1. Orientation (background: who, what, where, when)
2. Series of events (chronological)
3. Possibly personal comment (“we had a wonderful time”)

Language features — general: characters, simple past tense; action verbs [material processes] (went, climbed, ate…); linking items to do with time (on Wednesday, next, before, at the same time, then…). Avoid details irrelevant to purpose.

Language features — personal recount: Use of first-person pronouns; personal responses (particularly at end); details for interest or humor.

Language features — factual recount: Third-person pronouns; details of time, place, description; possibly explanations and justifications. Usually avoid mention of personal feelings.

Language features — imaginative recount: Written in first person; personal reactions okay.

23–31: Instructions (Procedures)

Purpose: Tell someone how to do or make something (recipes, crafts, games, directions, manuals, forms…)

Text organization:

1. Goal (often as heading or diagram)
2. Materials (in order of use)
3. Method (steps toward goal)

Language features: Classes of things, e.g. eggs; audience indefinite (e.g. command “draw a line”): linking words to do with time (first, then, when…; mainly action verbs [material processes]; tense is timeless (stir, cut); detailed, factual description of objects (size, color, amount…); detailed info on how (carefully, with the knife, quickly) and where (into the bowl) and when (after you have folded the napkin…)

32–46: Narratives (recounts with a twist)

Purpose: to entertain, teach, inform, reflect, inspire imagination

Text organization (sequence of actions):

1. Orientation: setting, characters, atmosphere, foreshadowing
2. Series of events; complication
3. Resolution

Language features: characters with personalities; main action verbs [material processes], but also verbs related to dialog and thought; often past tense; many linking words to do with time; dialog (often changing tense to present); descriptive, image-filled language; can be written first person.

47–56: Information Reports

Purpose: document, organize and store factual information [this is like the salmon exercise we did in class, I think]

Types: There are news, science, weather, etc. reports. Here, they are referring to storing info about a class of things. They can include classification (types of energy or cloud or difference between frog and toad), components (what is earth made of, what are parts of microscope), or aspects (how big is the universe [size], what is a gyroscope [function], what do bears do in winter [behavior], and how is government organized [system])

Text organization:

1. Opening general statement or classification (what is being talked about and where it fits in the universe, e.g. bikes are a popular form of transportation).
2. Facts about various aspects of the subject (grouped into topic areas, each with a topic sentence)
3. No formal ending

Language features: generalized participants (a class of things); some action verbs [material processes e.g. eat, swim…]; many linking verbs [relational processes e.g. is, are, have, belongs to…]; usually timeless verbs in present tense (are, exist, grow…); language for defining, classifying, comparing and contrasting (more powerful than, are called, are similar to…); descriptive language, but factual and precise, not imaginative (to convey what they look like — color, shape, size… — and what they have — components, body parts… — and what they do — habits, functions, behavior…; Likely to contain technical vocab; style is relatively formal and objective, without first person usually.

57–67: Explanations

Purpose: to explain how something works or why something happens.

Types: How (mechanical, technological, system or natural explanation) or why.

Text organization:

Process rather than “thing” focus, so concerned with logical sequence.

1. Statement about the phenomenon
2. Sequenced explanation of it

Language features: Generalized (non-human) participants (wind, glaciers…); time relationships (first, then…); cause-and-effect relationships (if/then); main action verbs [material processes] (falls, rises, changes…); some passives (is saturated, are changed…); timeless present tense (are, happens, turns…)

68–81: Arguments

Purpose: to take a stand and justify it; persuasion;

Types: they belong to a genre group called exposition, concerned with the analysis, interpretation and evaluation of the world around us. Editorials, debates, sermons, political speeches, letters to the editor, etc. Note: debates center on two opposing views. This category (argument) will represent just one side.

Text organization:

1. Statement of position or thesis
2. The argument (evidence e.g. stats & quotes, and maybe examples); all points related back to the statement of position.
3. Possibly a statement of resolution
4. Summing up

Language features: generalized participants (sometimes human but often abstract e.g. issues); possibly technical terms related to issue; variety of ver [process] types: action [material], linking [relational], saying [verbal] and mental; mainly timeless present tense, unless talking about historical background or predictions; frequent use of passive construction; actions often nominalized (changed into things: I am worried —> concern; might explode —> the possible detonation; everyone will die —> widespread mortality) to help argument sound more objective and to structure the text; connectives associated with reasoning; emotive words (blatant disrespect…) and verbs like should. Emotive language better for oral than written argument.