A multi-level language toolkit for the Australian Curriculum: English.
Love, Kristina ; Humphrey, Sally
Knowledge about Language in subject English in contemporary
Australia
The development of a national curriculum for English in Australia
and the extensive consultative processes involved have generated much
excitement and a genuine collaboration in knowledge-sharing amongst many
educational stakeholders. However, this process has also crystallised an
anxiety within the profession about the 'linguistic turn' in
English teaching, and the need for teachers to renew their knowledge
about language (Hammond & Macken-Horarik, 2001; DEST, 2005; Harper
& Rennie, 2009; Louden, Rohl, Gore, Greaves, McIntosh, Wright,
Siemon & House, 2005). In its Language Strand, The Australian
Curriculum: English refers to the importance of students learning to
describe language as a system, paying attention to both structure
(syntax) and meaning (semantics) at word, sentence and text levels. The
systems of language it provides are robust enough to look outwards
towards both literature and literacy; to build on, but go beyond
familiar prescriptive grammars, and to be 'dynamic and
evolving'. Yet, while this new Curriculum offers enormous
opportunities, it also carries considerable challenges for teachers
about how to work with language as a system of structural and
meaning-making choices. These syntactic and semantic choices operate at
clause, sentence and text levels and we aim to model, in the remainder
of this article, how teachers can make principled connections across
these levels in meaningful and productive ways.
We will focus on texts that persuade an audience to a point of view
on a range of issues. Persuasion, like story-telling, is fundamental to
human identity and meaning-making (Kress, 1985). As used in schooling,
persuasive texts allow students to demonstrate a wide repertoire of
literacy skills and understandings and their particular value is
evidenced in their inclusion in National Assessment Program--Literacy
and Numeracy (NAPLAN) writing task in 2011 (ACARA, 2011). Learning how
to use the rhetorical tools of the trade to persuade others and to
understand how others persuade is also fundamental to success in
contexts outside of school--in workplaces, social networks, the media
and civic life--where young people negotiate with powerful institutions.
Knowledge about Language and persuasive texts
While the teaching of persuasive writing has a rich history in the
highly organised and rigorous analysis of traditional rhetoric, the 19th
century shift to the study of language as syntactic rules resulted in a
loss of attention to the overall meaning and organisation of text and a
trivialisation of rhetoric as overgeneralised issues of
'style', 'vocabulary' or 'figures of
speech' (see Christie, 1990 for a fuller historical overview).
However, The Australian Curriculum, informed by the research of
Australian educational linguists (see Derewianka this Issue) has allowed
the descriptions of language to go beyond identifying discrete
structural features and to explore how language is patterned to do its
particular rhetorical work. The contextual view of language at the base
of this Curriculum addresses insistent calls for the reintroduction of a
more sustained approach to the teaching of rhetoric in English curricula
(see for example, Green, 2009; Sawyer, 2009) and links 21st century
English teaching with rhetorical traditions dating back to the Ancient
Greeks and Romans, where oratory was the supreme political skill (see
Higgins, 2008). Using this rhetorical toolkit, teachers and students can
examine, for example, the resources modern orators use to galvanise
public sentiment. They can examine resources used by students and
academics to persuade their audiences that a particular position is
valid, and thus demonstrate and extend knowledge of their discipline.
And they can examine the resources used by advertising and marketing to
promote and sell products and ideas. Knowing how these different forms
of persuasion unfold, and how the discursive and language choices
function, provides deeper understandings about how rhetorical choices
impact particular audiences within a particular context.
Underpinned by this contextual view, language within The Australian
Curriculum: English is importantly seen to function to do three
important tasks simultaneously: to enable us to interact with others; to
express and develop ideas; and to comprehend and create coherent texts.
These tasks relate in important ways to the three metafunctions in a
Hallidayan functional grammar described by Derewianka (this Issue). We
can illustrate how choices of language at both clause, paragraph and
text level function under these three headings, using selections from
the Years 5, 7 and 9 Language strand of The Australian Curriculum:
English (ACARA, 2012) represented in Table 1 below.
In the remainder of this paper, we will explore how these and other
language choices and patterns contribute to the three overarching
functions as they enable the persuasive texts studied and produced in
secondary English to do their rhetorical work (1). In doing so we hope
to illustrate how English teachers can support their students not only
to understand the structure of English as a language, but to develop
their students' literacy (in terms of comprehending, evaluating and
creating persuasive texts) and engage in a more informed appreciation of
those persuasive texts which represent culturally valued forms of
literature.
Analysing persuasive texts: genre
The four texts which have been chosen to illustrate the rhetorical
resources of persuasion are all taken from one family of persuasive
genres, which we call exposition. The exposition, which is sometimes
called a one sided argument, is increasingly important to learning as
students move into middle and secondary school. According to the
American educator, Mary Schleppegrell (2004, p. 88), the expository
essay 'is symbolic of students' success with language at
school' and is used to assess learning across a range of subjects.
Expositions typically achieve their persuasive purpose through an
introductory 'Position' or 'Thesis' stage, a series
of Arguments and a concluding Reinforcement of the position. Text 1,
written by a secondary English teacher as a model text for Year 8
students, is an example of an exposition which follows this prototypical
unfolding.
Text 1: Year 8 Exposition (model) Mobile phones and children
Position or thesis (including Issue)
These days many parents are giving their children mobile phones so
that they can keep in touch with them and keep them safe. In 2007, a
quarter of seven to 10 year-olds owned a mobile phone, double the
numbers from 2001. However, there is evidence that mobile phones
themselves can be dangerous. Mobile phones can have a negative impact on
children's health and lead to a decrease in the cognitive and
communicative skills.
Argument 1
The most important danger of mobile phones to children's
health concerns the emission of radiation which could lead to cancer.
Mobile phones transmit high frequency radio and micro waves which can
penetrate the body. When this happens, the exposed molecules move around
and cause friction and thus, heat. If the radiation is powerful enough,
the body tissue will be burned. Recent studies by scientists in
Washington shows that brain cells are damaged even by tiny doses of
radio frequency, which could lead to memory loss, headaches and possibly
cancer.
Argument 2
It is also possible that use of mobile phones could have an effect
on children's ability to think and concentrate. While scientists do
not fully understand the effects of performing two different types of
tasks at the same time, there is evidence that mobile phone use in
children was associated with faster and less accurate responses to
certain cognitive tasks. Moreover, texting or talking during class or
when studying may discourage the focussed and deep thinking necessary
for cognitive development.
Argument 3
In addition to the effects on cognitive skills, scientists have
also raised concerns about the effects of mobile phones on the
communication skills of children and teenagers. A new study undertaken
by Monash University suggests that many teenagers are losing their
spelling skills because of text messaging and over time this has
decreased the ability of teenagers to form extensive or coherent
sentences. One student recently had her HSC essays rejected because they
were all written in the shorthand of text messaging.
Reinforcement of the position
Although there is still no conclusive proof that mobile phones are
unsafe for children, the evidence above suggests that concerns about the
effects on health and cognitive and communicative skills need to be
taken seriously.
Expositions like this, which are geared towards curriculum learning
goals, have been distinguished by researchers (Martin, 1985; Humphrey,
1996) as analytical exposition because their specific purpose is to
persuade audiences that a particular position or point of view is valid.
In the academic domain, analytical exposition has become synonymous with
the 'essay', with arguments presented as logical, objective
reasons. The evidence or warrants used in analytical arguments typically
draw on the specialised ideas developed within a particular curriculum
area of schooling and often take the form of explanation sequences or
other embedded factual genres.
A different type of exposition functions to persuade audiences to
take action on an issue and is called hortatory exposition. Hortatory
exposition is used extensively beyond schooling to get things done in
the community and is thus an important genre to work with within school.
The educational linguist, James Martin (1985, p. 17), has argued that
this kind of exposition is suitable for stirring people's emotions
and persuading them to challenge the way things are. Text 2, a Blog by
16 year Lewis on the TakinglTGlobal web site (Australia.tigweb.org) is
an example of a hortatory exposition, written to persuade the audience
to become involved in action.
Text 2: Lewis's blog from the TakingITGlobal web site
Position/Appeal, including background
Every 3 seconds, a child dies from hunger. This phrase, popularised
by the MakePovertyHistory campaign along with the Live8 concerts, shows
the world what state it is in. Worldwide, 208 million young people live
on less than US$1 a day, and a further 515 million live on less than
US$2 a day. 85% of young people live in developing countries and most of
them live in rural areas where poverty and diseases like HIV/AIDS and
malaria cause havoc ... What does this all mean? It means that the world
needs to wake up and pay attention to the worldwide plight of poverty.
We cannot rely on politicians to change the problem. Only a collective
action from all people will move towards the eradication of poverty.
Argument 1, including statistical evidence
In 2000, 189 countries, under the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, agreed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. In addition to
this promise the leaders of these countries pledged to increase Official
Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.7% of their country's Gross
National Income (GNI). So far, no country has met their commitments.
Australia is currently at 0.28% GNI and it doesn't look like that
figure will increase any time soon.
Argument 2, including quantitative evidence
So where do young people fit in all of this? Everywhere. Young
people are increasingly being recognised as important factors within
global development. Since the United Nation's conception it has
been calling for increased youth participation in global decision
making. Unfortunately, many countries have overlooked the call. Only a
small number of countries send youth delegates to the United
Nation's General Assembly and at many international events young
people are often brushed aside. But times are changing. At the World
Summit of Sustainable Development in 2002 the WSSD Youth Caucus was the
largest that had ever attended a global summit. Young people were
allowed to speak at the plenary sessions: it was a victory for youth
participation.
Appeal, including warrant from high status source
It cannot stop there. There is a global call for an end to poverty.
Billions of people are calling for our governments to stand up and face
poverty. Colin Powell said that the war on terror will not succeed
unless the war on poverty is fought and won. Every day, thousands die
needlessly.
Reiteration of appeal in the form of a question/ challenge/ call
for action
Will you be brave enough to stand up and take a stance? We are the
generation that can finally eradicate poverty. We have a responsibility
to step up to the plate and tackle the issue head on. We can't
escape it. Will you step up and be the change?
While there is no sharp line between hortatory and analytical
exposition, recognition of distinct persuasive genres and of the
contexts in which they are typically deployed is an important way in to
building students' understandings of language use. Like analytical
exposition, hortatory exposition may also use logical reasoning and
embed factual genres. However this kind of persuasion may also draw on
personal experience to make a case for change. Politicians regularly use
personal experience and narrative sequences within their speeches in
order to galvanise citizens to action, and many of these speeches have
become texts studied for their literary as well as rhetorical power. One
such speech is that of the former prime minister of Australia, Kevin
Rudd, whose Apology to the Stolen Generations deploys story to create a
powerful motive for social change (2008). The story takes the form of
biographical excerpts from Rudd's conversations with an elderly
Aboriginal woman, Nana Nungala Fejo, and a short extract from that is
presented below as Text 3.
Text 3 Extract from narrative sequence of Kevin Rudd's Apology
to the Stolen Generations
Nanna Nungala Fejo, as she prefers to be called, was born in the
late 1920s. She remembers her earliest childhood days living with her
family and her community in a bush camp just outside Tennant Creek. She
remembers the love and the warmth and the kinship of those days long
ago, including traditional dancing around the camp fire at night ...
But then, sometime around 1932, when she was about four, she
remembers the coming of the welfare men. Her family had feared that day
and had dug holes in the creek bank where the children could run and
hide ... The kids were found; they ran for their mothers, screaming, but
they could not get away. They were herded and piled onto the back of the
truck ...
Nanna Fejo's family had been broken up for a second time. She
stayed at the mission until after the war, when she was allowed to leave
for a prearranged job as a domestic in Darwin. She was 16. Nanna Fejo
never saw her mum again. After she left the mission, her brother let her
know that her mum had died years before, a broken woman fretting for the
children that had literally been ripped away from her.
Rudd's speech, like many other political orations, can be seen
as a macro-genre (Martin & Rose, 2008), incorporating a number of
elemental genres which are juxtaposed to maximise their persuasive
power. For example, Rudd (2008) juxtaposes the narrative sequence above
with the more analytical argumentative sequence below, represented as
Text 4.
Text 4 Extract from one argument phase of Kevin Rudd's Apology
to the Stolen Generations
But should there still be doubts as to why we must now act, let the
Parliament reflect for a moment on the following facts: that, between
1910 and 1970, between 10 and 30% of indigenous children were forcibly
taken from their mothers and fathers; that, as a result, up to 50,000
children were forcibly taken from their families; that this was the
product of the deliberate, calculated policies of the state as reflected
in the explicit powers given to them under statute; that this policy was
taken to such extremes by some in administrative authority that the
forced extractions of children of so-called mixed lineage were seen as
part of a broader policy of dealing with the problem of the Aboriginal
population.
We can see immediately that Rudd (2008) uses very different
language choices in the explicitly argumentative phase of his speech
(Text 4) to those where he tells Nana's story (Text 3). The
analysis which follows will show how grammatical knowledge provides a
toolkit for analysing such texts, helping to avoid the problem of genre
being seen as a set of proformas for simply naming rather than
developing a dynamic understanding of how texts achieve their purposes
in particular social contexts. We will explore patterns of language
selection used in the persuasive texts we have introduced here, whether
these be analytical and/or hortatory; whether they be written or spoken;
or whether constructed by students or adults. We will explore choices at
text, paragraph and sentence level but also drill down to the word and
group level, using two of the three lenses offered to us by The
Australian Curriculum: English: language for expressing ideas and
language for interacting with others.
Language for expressing and developing ideas
In expressing and developing ideas, distinctive sets of language
choices are used to build experience (referred to as the experiential
metafunction in Halliday's (1985) functional view of grammar).
Speakers and writers of arguments use particular language choices that
build a particular persuasive world. We can explore this world by
considering the various entities or participants in it, expressed by
noun groups and the types of processes they are engaged in.
Naming participants for persuasion
Many teachers would intuitively recognise that Kevin Rudd refers to
people, places and things in different ways in the two phases of his
speech represented in Texts 3 and 4 above. In recounting Nana
Fejo's individual experiences (Text 3), Rudd typically names
phenomena through nouns which are concrete (bush camp), specific (her
family) and everyday (the truck). This is in stark contrast to the
explicitly argumentative phases in the speech (e.g. Text 4), where he
typically uses abstract nouns to describe phenomena in a highly
conceptual way (e.g. policy, power), general nouns that refer to groups
of people symbolically rather than as individuals (e.g. Parliament,
indigenous children) and technical nouns to describe phenomena (e.g.
'the forced extractions'). The generality, abstraction and
technicality of Rudd's choice of nouns in Text 4 contrasts markedly
with the specific, concrete and everyday types of nouns selected in his
narrative phase (Text 3).
Once patterns of lexical choice have been identified in this way,
the next important step is to ask why have they been selected, and in
particular, how these selections across different phases build certain
types of experiences that contribute to the persuasive purpose of the
text as a whole. Even focusing simply on patterns of noun choice as we
have done, we can begin to answer this question. In choosing concrete,
specific and everyday references to the world of one aboriginal woman,
Rudd is making that world accessible to everyone in his audience,
children or adults, well-educated or not, thus inviting all to share in
this human experience. Once this empathy is established, he can
extrapolate from it, creating the more general and abstract
argumentative point which draws on technical warrants to substantiate it
(see Love & Macken Horarik, 2009 for an extended discussion of
Rudd's rhetoric here).
However, even richer understandings of rhetorical choices and their
effects can be made as we explore bigger grammatical units. The
Australian Curriculum: English not only offers a metalanguage to name
the types of participants realised by nouns but also to consider how
nouns as individual lexical items can be expanded into noun groups that
do distinctive persuasive work. The use of noun groups with pre- and
post-modifiers to classify phenomenon is particularly important to
analytical expositions and contributes to the construction of deeply
layered and often technical taxonomies which organise the topics and
sub-topics into arguments. In Text 1, for example choices of noun groups
across sentences and phases effectively group the overall topic of
'the effects of mobile phones' into classes (i.e. health,
skills) and sub-classes (e.g. cognitive and communication skills), and
these in turn provide an analytical framework for arguments to be
developed.
Another resource for building ideas and reasoning in persuasive
texts is nominalisation, which works by turning words that are not
normally nouns into nouns, typically creating abstract or technical
concepts. Nominalisation is a very effective way to use specialised
curriculum knowledge as evidence within the arguments of analytical
exposition. For example, in the noun group 'the emission of
radiation' (Text 1), the head noun 'emission' is the
nominalised form of something that would more congruently be expressed
as 'rays were emitted'. In this noun group, nominalisation
contributes to naming a technical phenomenon i.e. 'radiation',
which is explained in subsequent sentences. Representing such phenomena
as nouns, the writer can now draw upon the resources of the noun group
to describe and classify them (e.g. 'extensive' radiation),
thus packing a great deal of information into the noun group.
Nominalisation is a powerful resource for building arguments in
hortatory exposition, although writers also strategically use more
congruent grammatical forms. In the following excerpt from his blog
(Text 2), for example, Lewis represents young people and their actions
as nominalisations (bolded), but refers to the actions of countries as
verbs (underlined) with the institutions made explicit as the
responsible participants.
Since the United Nation's conception it has been calling for
increased youth participation in global decision making. Unfortunately,
many countries have overlooked the call. Only a small number of
countries send youth delegates
Using nominalisation in this way, Lewis is able to build his
argument by adjusting reference to the people responsible for the
injustices, thus positioning his readers to support his call for change.
Teachers who have an understanding of how noun groups can be expanded
and how nominalisation works are in a strong position to model with
their students how to use these techniques authoritatively in their own
writing and to identify what is achieved by other writers who use them
for various persuasive purposes.
Process types for building persuasive worlds
The processes around which a clause is centred are realised through
verb groups. A writer or speaker's choice of verbs helps to realise
both the outward visible world of action and the inner world of
participants. Persuasive texts, like narratives, draw on a full range of
process types as they build persuasive ideas and reasoning. We can see
this range in the opening paragraph of Lewis's Hortatory exposition
(Text 2), where verbs are bolded and labelled in brackets as either
action, relating, sensing, or saying/showing.
Every 3 seconds, a child dies (action) from hunger. This phrase,
popularised by the MakePovertyHistory campaign along with the Live8
concerts, shows (saying) the world what state it is in. Worldwide,
208 million young people live (action) on less than US$1 a day, and
a further 515 million live (action) on less than US$2 a day. 85% of
young people live (action) in developing countries and most of them
live (action) in rural areas where poverty and diseases like
HIV/AIDS and malaria cause (relating) havoc ... What does this all
mean (relating) It means (relating) that the world needs to wake up
(sensing) and pay attention (sensing) to the worldwide plight of
poverty. We cannot rely (action) on politicians to change the
problem. Only a collective action from all people will move
(action) towards the eradication of poverty.
Through his use of action verbs, Lewis builds a world in which
children live or die, paralleled by a world in which the phenomenon are
commented on (saying) and interpreted (relating) and others are called
on to react to the phenomenon (sensing verbs). Through this range of
process choices, Lewis weaves his arguments, moving from reporting
action, to commenting and interpreting these actions.
While writers and speakers of hortatory expositions often express
opinions through sensing verbs (I think, I believe), in analytical
exposition, relating verbs are particularly crucial in setting up the
position and making cause and effect relationships. Relating verbs are
bolded in the following excerpt from the Position stage of Text 1.
However, there is evidence that mobile phones themselves can be
dangerous. Mobile phones can have a negative impact on children's
health and lead to a decrease in the cognitive and communicative
skills.
Combining relating verbs which realise cause/effect reasoning (e.g.
lead to) with nominalisation (e.g. impact) allows this writer to expand
meanings without creating complexity in the clause. Such expansion of
meaning using compressed grammatical structures is highly valued in
school English.
Clause structure and persuasion
Moving to even larger units of meaning making, we can similarly
draw on what The Australian Curriculum: English has to offer by
examining how ideas are related to each other across clauses and
sentences, as they build persuasive meanings. One of the content
descriptions for example in the Language strand for Year 10 is
'Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of clause
and sentence structures as authors design and craft texts.' (ACARA,
2012, p. 94).
Just as noun groups can be expanded to pack in more meaning, we can
look at examples of expansion in sentences, whereby the main or
independent clause is expanded by adding dependent clauses or phrases or
groups. For example, Lewis's hortatory exposition (Text 2) deploys
many expansions of clauses, as he packs in evidence designed to buttress
his arguments and persuade young readers to take action themselves. The
following sentences from the Background stage of Text 2 have been
annotated in Table 2 to show this expansion.
Throughout his hortatory exposition, Lewis juxtaposes simple and
complex sentences in rhetorically effective ways that accumulate
information and provide authority for the data he introduces as
evidence. Analytical expositions also make use of a variety of sentence
structures to build arguments and report evidence. However, because
logical relationships such as cause and effect are often expressed
within the clause (e.g., as verbs or nouns), rather than between clauses
(as conjunctions), simple sentences, used effectively, can still package
multiple ideas. In the following sentence from Text 1, for example,
logical relations have been expressed as nouns (italicised,) creating
complex noun groups but leaving only one verb group (bolded) and
therefore one independent clause.
In addition to the effects on cognitive skills, scientists have
also raised concerns about the effects of mobile phones on the
communication skills of children and teenagers.
We have explored only some of the ways in which language choices at
word, group and sentence level express and combine persuasive ideas. In
its Language Strand, The Australian Curriculum: English offers further
rich advice on how noun, verb and adverbial groups, and clauses can be
expanded to further build the ideas central to effective persuasion.
Language for interacting with others
While speakers and writers of arguments use particular language
choices that build their persuasive world, they are simultaneously
engaging their listeners/readers in particular ways. These language
resources are part of the interpersonal metafunction in Halliday's
(1985) functional view of grammar and map onto the second system of
language resources included in The Australian Curriculum: English--those
which enable speakers and writers to interact with their audiences to
form different kinds of interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal
resources in persuasive texts vary considerably in response to
influences such as the relative power of the writer or speaker in
relation to the audience and the degree of solidarity--that is, to what
extent the writer or speaker can assume that their audience is
'onside'. Persuasion is in fact only necessary in situations
where people do not already have the institutional power or authority to
make their audience think or act a certain way. Three of the language
resources which enable writers and speakers to align their audiences in
the analytical and hortatory expositions we have included here are
evaluative vocabulary, grading and rhetorical devices. Collectively,
these resources are known as Appraisal (Martin & White, 2005).
Evaluative vocabulary: expressing and grading attitudes directly
and indirectly
Evaluative vocabulary refers to the sets of resources which express
positive and negative attitudes (i.e. feelings, judgements and
opinions). While feelings are seen to be at the heart of evaluation
(Martin and White, 2005, p. 53), direct expressions of emotion (or
Affect) in mature persuasion tend to be limited to narrative phases
where personal story is used to create empathy. In the following excerpt
from Text 3, Rudd (2008) uses Affect (underlined) persuasively to build
empathy for Nanna Fejo.
She remembers the love and the warmth and the kinship of those days
long ago.
From a rhetorical perspective, Affect contributes to building an
appeal to 'pathos'. In order to ensure that the audience will
be persuaded by the personal experiences of individuals, however,
writers and speakers also choose resources of 'institutional'
evaluative vocabulary, which judges people's behaviour and
personality. In introducing Nanna Fejo, Rudd (2008) chooses a list of
positive judgements (underlined) to build a rhetorical appeal of
'ethos' so that the audience is positioned to see her as a
credible witness.
Let me begin to answer by telling the parliament just a little of
one person's story--an elegant, eloquent and wonderful woman in
her 80s, full of life, full of funny stories, despite what has
happened in her life's journey, ...
Evaluative vocabulary is also important in analytical expositions.
However, the pressure to establish objective and impersonal
relationships in this form of persuasion results in a preference for
evaluating things rather than people. In the terms of classical and
contemporary rhetorical studies, this can be seen as contributing to
logical appeals or 'logos'. In Text 1, for example, explicit
evaluation is not made of children's behaviour in using mobile
phones but of phenomena such as the consequences of the behaviour (e.g.
a negative impact ...; extensive and coherent sentences; if the
radiation is powerful enough ...).
As these examples show, mature persuasive writers use evaluative
vocabulary from a range of grammatical categories to accumulate positive
and negative evaluations. In addition to the adjectives and verbs used
to evaluate the feelings of Nanna Fejo and her family, Rudd uses
Attitudinal nouns (a form of nominalisation) to connect her story with
the more general evaluations of the stolen generation (e.g. The hurt,
the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of
physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on
our senses and on our most elemental humanity). Nominalisation is a
powerful strategy for positioning audiences to agree with the writer or
speaker's opinion because it presents the evaluation as already
agreed upon or shared.
In addition to this explicit evaluative vocabulary, where attitude
is inscribed within the wordings, the Australian Curriculum: English
recognises the powerful rhetorical role of implicit evaluative
expressions, such as, allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor. While
implicit evaluation brings a degree of subjectivity to the reading,
effective readers use devices such as these as signals to 'read
in' evaluation. Allusion to shared cultural values and iconic
events is particularly evocative as the associated attitudes are
typically deeply felt and complex. For example, in referring to Nanna
Fejo as 'a woman in her '80s', Rudd establishes the
authority of his witness by calling on shared values of respect for age.
As the examples above show, Evaluation can also be invoked or
amplified through a range of grammatical resources which are referred to
in The Australian Curriculum: English as gradation (Year 2) or more
technically as graduation. Resources for grading meanings include
grading adverbials (e.g. terribly), graded core vocabulary (e.g.
searing, screams) and indirect graders such as metaphor, listing and
punctuation (e.g. capitals, exclamations). The Australian Curriculum:
English recognises that these resources typically accumulate across
phases of text and interact with extra-linguistic features such as
'pace and tone' (Year 8) to adjust the intensity of emotions
and attitudes.
Rhetorical devices: Expanding and contracting resources
Because of their goal of changing the minds or behaviours of the
audience, The Australian Curriculum: English recognises that both spoken
and written persuasive texts need to show their awareness of the
possible positions their listeners or readers may hold--even when they
are not immediately present. In this way they establish what the Russian
philosopher and semiotician, Mikhail Bakhtin (1953/1986), referred to as
a dialogue with the audience, expanding space for other opinions and
contracting that space to create consensus. At Year 5 level, students
'understand how to move beyond making bare assertions and take
account of differing perspectives and point of view' while at Year
7 they understand 'how evaluations about a text can be
substantiated by reference to the text and other sources' (ACARA,
2012).
While the focus on the content or ideas in analytical expositions
means that this form of persuasion appears as impersonal and objective,
interaction with the reader through expanding dialogic space is
essential. Expanding resources include modality to temper opinions and
show the writer or speaker's awareness that even the most
authoritative evidence may be questioned. In the following argument from
Text 1, the underlined expressions allow for dialogue with those in the
audience who support the use of mobile phones.
It is also possible that use of mobile phones could have an effect
on children's ability to think and concentrate.
Modality is also used in hortatory exposition--but this is
typically modality of obligation, used to temper appeals and
recommendations. The high degree of obligation used in the Appeal stage
of the Apology speech (e.g. the parliaments of this nation must make
this apology) can be attributed to the urgency of the action Rudd (2008)
considers necessary and may also be a response to the solidarity he
assumes with a 'like minded' audience.
In addition to straightforward grammatical resources for expressing
modality, such as modal verbs (e.g. could, may, must), modality can also
be expressed through indirect grammatical resources such as modal
adjectives (e.g. responsible), modal nouns, and modal phrases and
clauses (e.g. it is possible that.; it is time to.). Indirect
expressions are often used to make opinions seem more objective and
difficult to argue against and are thus vital for effective persuasion
in academic contexts.
Closely related to modality are the expanding resources of
attribution. Like debaters and barristers, effective persuasive writers
and orators use attribution to strengthen their arguments, both by
providing supporting evidence (e.g. allowing witnesses to speak) and by
challenging or rebutting alternate positions (e.g. cross-examining
witnesses).
While sources in analytical exposition are often generalised (e.g.
researchers, evidence) or named only as texts (e.g. Martin & White,
2005), hortatory expositions achieve persuasion by naming particular
sources who are highly regarded by the real or imagined audience. In the
Apology above for example, Rudd (2008) attributes his appeal to 'a
pretty basic Aussie belief. Similarly, in his blog, Lewis draws on the
authority of high profile politicians as well as the collective global
community to rally his audience to action. For example
There is a global call for an end to poverty. Billions of people
are calling for our governments to stand up and face poverty. Colin
Powell said that the war on terror will not succeed unless the war
on poverty is fought and won.
In both analytical and hortatory expositions, however, the status
of sources can also be adjusted through the use of evaluative vocabulary
and grading (e.g. leading child psychiatrist; recent research;
inexperienced doctor, billions of people).
Another rhetorical resource frequently deployed in both analytical
and hortatory exposition is concession. Concession involves summarising
or referring to an argument which is counter to the position of the
writer and then rebutting that argument. This is a strategic device
because it appears to open space for other positions and suggests
open-mindedness or objectivity however it is in fact ultimately
contracting because the audience is left with the writer's own
argument--rebutted on their terms.
While scientists do not fully understand the effects of performing
two different types of tasks at the same time, there is evidence
that mobile phone use in children was associated with faster and
less accurate responses to certain cognitive tasks
Although space does not allow for a thorough investigation of
textual resources, this example shows how the textual resource of
grammatical Theme contributes to persuasion. Foregrounding the
concession in first or Theme position is a powerful way of ensuring that
the audience is left with the position held by the writer or speaker.
The contrasting conjunction 'however', is also used
effectively as a textual Theme to indicate a shift from expansion to
contraction of space.
Rhetorical resources which are more commonly found in hortatory
exposition are the more directly contracting resources of comment
adverbials (e.g. surely), which intrude the writer's attitude about
issues; or rhetorical questions, which challenge the audience directly
to form the opinion directed by the text (e.g. Will you be brave enough?
What does all this mean?). These resources work together in hortatory
expositions to align audiences around shared values and rally them to
action. However, in analytical expositions, they may appear overly
subjective and need to be used with care.
Although our discussion of text organisational patterns has been
necessarily selective (for a fuller account, see Humphrey, Love &
Droga, 2011), understandings of Theme at text, paragraph and sentence
level also have a significant role to play in organising persuasive
texts cohesively. Teachers often underestimate what is involved for
their students as they shift from using the organisational structures of
speech to those of the 'written' mode. The evidence is clear
(Christie, 2005) that an explicit knowledge of how texts are organised
for various audiences at text, paragraph and sentence levels can be
empowering for both students and teachers.
Conclusion
Learning to reason persuasively is highly valued in
Australia's education systems and civic institutions. We therefore
teach our students to construct effective persuasive texts, not simply
to demonstrate a particular repertoire of literacy skills, but also so
that they can participate fully in social, civic and workplace contexts.
Our students' capacity to persuade various audiences and negotiate
with more or less powerful institutions is enhanced by their
teachers' access to a language toolkit that offers resources at
word, sentence and text level. With this multi-layered toolkit, teachers
and students can explicitly identify how language is patterned to do its
particular persuasive work.
We have illustrated how selected aspects of this toolkit can take
teachers beyond identifying discrete structural features in order to
explore how powerful persuasive texts use language in two ways
simultaneously: to marshal and express convincing ideas; and to engage
audiences through deliberate patterned combinations of logos, pathos or
ethos (logic, emotion, ethics).
It is these same resources for enabling people to express and
exchange knowledge, attitudes, feelings and opinions in well-crafted
texts that underpin The Australian Curriculum: English, resources that
enables students to construct and read the persuasive texts of their
contemporary world, while connecting them to the classic texts of the
past in 'dynamic and evolving' ways. The Australian
Curriculum: English offers teachers a third set of language systems
besides those covered in this paper, those related to how writers or
speakers organise their texts to achieve their persuasive purposes most
cohesively. For reasons of space we have been unable to touch on this
system in this paper.
We have illustrated how a multi-level approach could be used to
examine the ways in which persuasive texts such as a student's
written blog and a Prime Minister's Apology Speech draw, in
patterned ways, on selections of language resources to build their
persuasive worlds and galvanise social change (see Humphrey, Love &
Droga, 2011 for a more extensive modelling). Such a multi-level approach
provides a way for teachers to support students in developing a coherent
knowledge of spoken and written texts which makes sense of previously
unrelated features; and provides a principled structure for their work
with argument. It is through a systematic knowledge about the patterns
of English usage and grammar at the levels of the word, the sentence and
the extended text, and about the connections between these levels that
teachers support their students to create and appreciate persuasive
texts that truly engage with readers and listeners, that build and
develop valued ideas, and that are structured coherently in crafted and
considered ways. This multilevel grammatical toolkit is equal to the
challenges of subject English in the 21st century.
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Kristina Love & Sally Humphrey
Australian Catholic University
Kristina Love is a Professor and Head of School of Education
(Victoria) at the Australian Catholic University. Kristina has worked
for many years in literacy and language education and is currently
involved in an ARC research project with Len Unsworth and Mary
Macken-Horarik entitled 'Grammar and praxis: investigating a
grammatics for 21st century school English'. She has recently
completed, with Sally Humphrey a textbook for secondary English
'Working Grammar'.
Sally Humphrey is a senior lecturer in literacy and language
education at the Australian Catholic University, NSW. Sally has worked
for many years in the field of language education and applied
linguistics. Her research work has involved using systemic functional
linguistics, Sydney School genre theory and appraisal theory to describe
the literacy demands of a range of educational contexts.
(1) In The Australian Curriculum: English, resources associated
with the textual metafunction, realising mode, are included with
resources for structuring the unfolding stages of texts in relation to
their purposes (i.e.. Genre). While textual features contribute greatly
to the overall structure of the text, it is important that students are
also made aware of the important role of field and tenor to the overall
shape of the text. For example, evaluations and appeals are often
amplified prosodically across stages of persuasive text as evidence is
accumulated and counterarguments rebutted.
Table 1. selections of language features in terms of three functions,
as represented in Years 5, 7 and 9 of the Australian curriculum:
English
Language for Language for Text Structure and
Expressing and Interaction Organisation
Developing Ideas
Year 5
Understand how noun Understand how to Understand the
and adjective groups move beyond making starting point of a
can be expanded in a bare assertions and sentence gives
variety of ways to take account of prominence to the
provide a fuller differing message in the text
description of the perspectives and and allows for
person, thing or points of view prediction of how
idea the text will unfold
Year 7
Investigate Understand how Understand that the
vocabulary typical language is used to coherence of more
of extended and more evaluate texts and complex texts relies
academic texts and how evaluations on devices that
the role of abstract about a text can be signal text
nouns, substantiated by structure and guide
classification, reference to the readers, for
description and text and other example, overviews,
generalisation in sources initial and
building specialised concluding
knowledge through paragraphs and topic
language sentences, indexes
or site maps or
breadcrumb trails
for online texts
Year 9
Explain how authors Investigate how Compare and contrast
experiment with the evaluation can be the use of cohesive
structures of expressed directly devices in texts,
sentences and and indirectly using focussing on how
clauses to create devices, for example they serve to
particular effects allusion, evocative signpost ideas, to
vocabulary and make connections and
metaphor to build semantic
associations between
ideas
Table 2: Sentences and clauses
Sentence
type Clause type Text
Simple Independent clause Every three seconds a
child dies from hunger
Complex Dependent clause This phrase <<......>>
(reporting) with an shows the world [[what
embedded clause (what is state it is in]]
reported)
Dependent clause: non <<popularised by the
finite included MakePovertyHistory
campaign along with the
Live8 concerts>>
Compound Independent clause Worldwide, 208 million
young people live on less
than US$1 a day
independent clause and a further 515 million
(adding) live on less than US$2 a
day.
Compound/ independent clause 85% of young people live
complex in developing countries
independent clause and most of them live in
(adding) rural areas,
dependent clause where poverty and diseases
like HIV/AIDS and malaria
cause havoc
