The Linguistic Challenge of the Transition to Secondary School

Alice Deignan is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Education, University of Leeds. She is the author of 'Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics' (2005, John Benjamins), and 'Figurative Language, Genre and Register' (2013, CUP, with Elena Semino and Jeannette Littlemore). Duygu Candarli is currently Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Dundee. She specialises in academic discourse, corpus linguistics, second language writing, and writing assessment. She has published research articles on these areas in international peer-reviewed journals. Florence Oxley is a Research Assistant in the School of Education, University of Leeds and a PhD candidate in Linguistics, University of York. She is interested in corpus linguistics, literacy, and first language acquisition, and has published on infant phonological development.

List of figures

Acknowledgements

1 Schools, the transition, students, and teachers

Alice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168

Introduction

The transition and the context of this research

Issues at transition

Social, psychological, and emotional issues

Academic issues

Language and the transition

The voices of children in our project schools

Aims of this book

2 Academic language and the school transition

Alice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168

Perspectives on the language of school

Bernstein’s language codes and the language of school

The Systemic-Functional Linguistics Approach

BICS and CALP

CALS

Academic language and function

Academic language and social prestige

Function: academic language to facilitate and express academic thought

Register and genre

Features of academic language

Overview

Disciplinary language

The vocabulary of school

Polysemy and homonymy

Tiers

Grammar and discourse

Specific issues at transition

Conclusion

3 Corpus data and methods

Duygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835

Introduction

Constructing our corpus

Characteristics of our partner schools

Corpus design and representativeness

The written corpus

Representativeness and data gathering

Composition of the written corpus

Sub-registers

The spoken corpus

Corpus analytical methods used

Quantitative data analysis procedures

Multi-dimensional Analysis

Mixed and qualitative data analysis

Conclusion

4 Written school language registers and the transition

Duygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835

Introduction

The corpus

Analytical Steps

Statistical analysis

Multi-dimensional analysis of school language registers

Dimension 1: Involved versus informational discourse

Dimension 2: Narrative versus non-narrative discourse

Dimension3: Explicit versus situation-dependent discourse

Dimension 4: Overt expression of persuasion

Dimension 5: Impersonal versus non-impersonal style

Discussion

Conclusion

5 The language of English at the transition

Alice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168

Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717

Introduction

The KS2 and KS3 curricula

Assessment

Reading in Years 5-8

Reading for pleasure

Making inferences

Understanding genre, purpose, and audience; criticality

Writing in Years 5-8

Understanding genre, purpose, and audience

Language and metalanguage in Years 5-8

Vocabulary

Grammar teaching

Corpus studies of the language of English in Years 5-8

Method

The corpora used

Frequent word analysis

Keyword analysis

Results

Word frequency: aboutness

Keywords

Conclusion

6 The language of science at the transition

Alice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168

Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717

Introduction

The KS2 and KS3 curricula

Language and learning science at school

Scientific thinking and the language of science

School science, language, and socio-economic status

Features of the language of school science

Discourse

Grammar

Vocabulary

Polysemy

Method

The corpora

Focus and tools

Results

Frequent words

Aboutness

Keywords

Polysemy

Conclusion

7 The language of mathematics at the transition

Duygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835

Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717

Introduction

The KS2 and KS3 curricula

Learning mathematics and language

Mathematics, anxiety, and the transition

Talking about mathematics

Features of the language of mathematics

Discourse

Grammar

Vocabulary

Method

The corpora

Key feature analysis

Keyword analysis

Concordance and collocational analysis

Findings

Key feature analysis

Results of keyword analysis

Discourse functions of keywords

Patterns of meaning of keywords

Part-of-speech categories

Concrete and abstract keywords

Polysemy

Collocation

Conclusion

8 Conclusion

Alice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168

Duygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835

Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717

Key issues and findings

The move from generalist to specialist teachers

Register features

Polysemy

Other language issues

Context

Awareness of the linguistic challenges of transition

Academic language and home learning environment

Understanding the purpose of academic language

Research on learning school language

Future research

Index