Language Education Throughout the School Years: A Functional Perspective

In this volume Frances Christie describes a trajectory of language development in schooling from age 6 to age 18. She draws on systemic functional linguistics to trace changes in the language resources successful children and adolescents use to make meanings in new discourse patterns as they engage in the curricular tasks of science, history, and language arts. At the same time she leads the reader into a deep understanding of the approach as she describes how content, interpersonal relationships, and textual structure simultaneously evolve over four stages of children's and adolescents' development. Christie offers not only new theoretical insights but also practical awareness of the multifunctionality of language and become more conscious about the choices available to them in making meaning.