Learning to Write/Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy in the Sydney School(Equinox Textbooks and Surveys in Linguistics)

This book presents the research of the 'Sydney School' in language and literacy pedagogy. Widely known as genre-based pedagogy, the research is cutting-edge, but is built on 30 years of developments in the field, in a unique collaboration between functional linguists and literacy educators. This collaboration has transformed linguistic and pedagogic theory into a powerful, comprehensive methodology for embedding literacy teaching in educational practice. The book is written to be useful for practitioners, researchers and students, building up pedagogic, linguistic and social theory in steps, contextualized within teaching practice. Topics covered include the genre-based writing pedagogy, genres across the school curriculum, pedagogy for learning through reading, and the pedagogic metalanguage developed in the research. On one hand this volume offers educators an unparalleled set of strategies for transforming educational outcomes; on the other it offers researchers powerful tools for investigating and redesigning educational practice.

Table of Contents:
1. Contexts 2. Language and Social Power 3. Write it Right /the Right to Write 4. Reading to Learn 5. Knowledge about Language (KAL) 6. Knowledge about Pedagogy

About the Author :
J R Martin is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. His research interests include systemic theory, functional grammar, discourse semantics, register, genre, multimodality and critical discourse analysis, focussing on English and Tagalog - with special reference to the transdisciplinary fields of educational linguistics and social semiotics. David Rose is a Research Fellow with the University of Sydney, currently coordinating a national research program in language and literacy for Indigenous Australians. This project, Learning to Read: Reading to Learn, works with schools across Australia, as well as Indigenous teacher training programs in University of Sydney and University of South Australia.

Review :
A useful platform for further dialogue about and development of SFL-based pedagogy in the worldwide processes of recontextualisation of the pedagogy based on the pioneering work of Halliday, Hasan and Bernstein ... and the subsequent development over more than five decades in dialogue with adjacent theories including Bruner, Vygotsky, Bakhtin, and many, many others. Functions of Language A substantive contribution to the study of genre (based) pedagogy. Their book represents the thirty years’ development of their approach towards ‘genre pedagogy’ and Rose and Martin should be applauded for presenting such cutting-edge research which has clear and immediate relevance for the modern day multi-ethnic classroom. Linguist List Provides a rich and profound overview of the groundbreaking work concerning the teaching of writing and reading in Australia often named The Australian Genre Pedagogy. The book is a gold mine for newcomers of this pedagogy as well as those already engaged and informed. Linguistics and the Human Sciences An excellent and exciting book. It demonstrates the authors’ academic interest and extensive knowledge in genre-based pedagogy and is a success in combining synchronic and diachronic, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. I am also deeply impressed by the authors’ clear and simple language style, which makes the book reader-friendly, no matter how abstract the topic in question. This is a thought-provoking monograph for researchers in the pedagogical field to read and understand. Furthermore, this book theoretically introduces functional grammar in support of this project and supplies educators with an unparalleled set of strategies in teaching. On a practical level, it offers them powerful tools for embedding literacy teaching in educational practice, aiming to make the distribution of knowledge in school more equitable. Asia Pacific Journal of Education The book is a useful framework for researchers to investigate the relation between language and education, and a powerful tool for education practitioners to reflect on current education practice and improve educational outcomes. It offers students with insights into the essence of knowledge and a short-cut way to improve their learning efficiency. It also offers social workers a penetrating revelation of the source of social injustice and a toolkit for them to promote social justice and scaffold democracy. Applied Linguistics Because the book introduces developments spanning over 30 years, it ranges outside the confines of language teaching to address "the potential for education of achieving social justice" (p. 332), which underpins genre pedagogy. This may not be a bad thing. Readers are given a reason to question the devotion to skills-based teaching and a compelling rationale for why as teachers we should help all learners, irrespective of background and opportunity, to gain explicit knowledge of language features and text structure. Readers will not only learn a new approach to pedagogy, but may feel it resonates with some of the reasons they joined the teaching profession in the first place. JALT Journal Overall, the book is another excellent resource for anyone who would like to learn about the theoretical and historical roots of the Sydney School, its aims and achievements, and practical applications. As genre pedagogy of the Sydney School still remains a strong alternative to traditional and progressive pedagogies, literacy teachers as well as language teachers will benefit from Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School to a great extent. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics