Talk of courses and discussions

From: Phil Chappell (philchappell@mac.com)
Date: Thu Jun 02 2005 - 06:17:49 PDT


On 02/06/2005, at 5:35 AM, Ana Marjanovic-Shane wrote:

> What I am interested in is developing a CHAT theory of language -- so
> all these different ways to look at it as an activity are very
> helpful.
> Ana

Dear Ana, Mike, and All,

I'm a little hesitant to go too far here, as my own previous attempts
here to sow the seeds of a group object/motive of discussing AT and a
theory of language haven't really resulted in much - I often wonder
whether any mention of systemics and Michael Halliday results in an
impulsive "hit hit the delete" response ;-) And whither Bernstein...

But Ana's interest is an interest that many here have, I feel, and it
has often been said that the xmca community lacks a fully articulated
theory of language, just as the SFL community is often derided for
lacking a fully articulate theory of human learning. I'm struggling
right now with a study from the SFL "Sydney school" in an attempt to
make explicit a pedagogical approach that foregrounds the linguistic
features that afford students access to future human activity that they
may otherwise be denied. But that is a red herring here.

Should anyone here wish to pursue the discussion of a theory of
language "for chat", I'd like to offer up the suggestion that we read
Gordon Well's paper: The complementary contributions of Halliday and
Vygotsky to a 'language-based theory of learning', and I also think
that the various ecological views of language may be worthwhile to
pursue.

So, any takers to assemble a couple of papers? I have an electronic
version of Gordon's paper that we will need to get approval to use
first.

I'll leave it there and hope there may be a couple here interested in
making a motive.......

Phil



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