6.4 Developing Critical Language Awareness Through...
As noted in Chapter 3, functional grammar analysis is best used in content-rich contexts, where students explore issues or ideas significant to their discipline or of personal interest to them. A pedagogical routine that enables this work is 5Es (Enquire, Engage, Examine, Exercise, and Extend), first described in Chapter 4. 5Es shifts away from teaching discrete language skills in a vacuum to a functional focus on language in use, supporting language and literacy development in the context of authentic disciplinary experiences. Through reading, discussing, analyzing, playing with, and writing in response to disciplinary texts, students learn to recognize, appreciate, and appropriate the nuanced ways authors use language to present discipline/genre-specific meanings, values, and worldviews at the same time they are extending linguistic resources, building content knowledge and sharpening critical thinking skills. This section illustrates how 5Es is used in a five-week science unit on climate change.
6.4.1 Enquire
The unit aims to develop students' understanding of how they both contribute to and are affected by climate change. It includes four guiding questions for inquiry: (a) what is climate change? (b) how does my behavior contribute to climate change? (c) how is my life impacted by climate change? and (d) what can I do to lessen the effects of climate change?
The unit is structured to be inquiry-based and incorporates a range of texts and media (see Figure 6-1 for sample resources) to guide students in learning how to read, write, and talk like scientists as they engage in the inquiry process. Different elements of this unit are designed to develop inquiry skills, foster learning of scientific concepts in real-world contexts, and strengthen students' analytical and evaluative skills. The unit teaches science practices such as asking questions to identify and clarify evidence of an argument, developing and using models to describe phenomena, and collecting data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer scientific questions. It also employs several concepts that cut across disciplines, such as analyzing cause and effect relationships. Each week of the five-week unit involves reading texts about climate change, discussing and responding to the texts, conducting an experiment or observation, and discussing the experimental/observational findings. It culminates in writing a reflective essay that explores what students have learned from the readings and experiments/observations and what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
Books
· Bow, J. (2015). Energy from the Sun: Solar Power. New York: Crabtree.
· Boyle, G. (2004). Renewable Energy: Power for a Sustainable Future (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
· Brown, L. R. (2009). Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. New York: Norton.
· Franchino, V. (2012). Droughts. North Mankato, MN: Cherry Lake.
· Glick, P. (2005). Fish Out of Water: A Guide to Global Warming and Pacific Northwest Waters. Reston, VA: The National Wildlife Federation.
· Jennings, T. (2005). Changing Climates. London: Evans Brothers.
· Lampton, C. (1992). Drought. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press.
· Morris, N. (2006). Energy Sources: Fossil Fuels. North Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media.
· Morris, N. (2013). A Teen Guide to Eco-Leisure. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
· Miller, G. T., Jr. (2004). Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
· Mullins, M. (2012). Energy. New York: Scholastic.
· Ollhoff, J. (2011). Climate Change: Technological Solutions. North Mankato: Abdo.
· Petersen, C. (2004). Alternative Energy. New York: Children's Press.
· Simon, S. (2010). Global Warming. New York: HarperCollins.
Websites
· Climate Change — https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
· Environmental Protection Agency — www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/index.html
· Clean Energy — https://energy.gov/science-innovation/clean-energy
· Renewable Energy — https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=renewable_home
· Global Warming — https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101
· Global Warming — https://www.livescience.com/37057-global-warming-effects.html
· Carbon Footprint Calculator — https://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm
· Solar Cooker Designs — http://solarcooking.org/plans/
· Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — https://www.ipcc.ch
Videos
· Alternative Energy — https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/alternative-energy
· Global Warming 101 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAb ATJCugs
· Top 10 Energy Sources of the Future — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uStFvcz9Or4
Figure 6-1 Some Resources for a Science Unit on Climate Change
6.4.2 Engage
The teacher begins each week by having students consider questions like the following: One month ago, you lived through Hurricane Irma. How did Irma impact you, your family, and your community? What actions did you participate in that contributed to the creation of this hurricane?. This grounds the lesson as relevant to students' lifeworld and compels them to begin thinking of science and scientific thinking as something inspired by the real world around them. Throughout the week, students engage with a variety of texts (e.g., videos, podcasts, television shows, news clips, trade books, textbook excerpts, magazines, web articles, cartoons, comic strips). These readings/viewings, done in class and at home, help students consolidate their understanding of the core concepts and key ideas related to the topic, as well as learn the language used by experts to construct and communicate these concepts and ideas. As students interact with texts, they use a reading response sheet (see Figure 6-2 for a sample) to document their learning and wonderings. They also use an anticipation guide (see Table 6-1 for a sample) to strengthen their comprehension and critical thinking skills and to track their growth in conceptual understanding before and after reading. They are required to draw evidence from multiple sources to support their answers.
(https://www.daowen.com)
Figure 6-2 Science Reading Response Sheet
Table 6-1 Anticipation Guide for the Climate Change Unit
At least once a week, students come together to discuss what they have read independently. In small groups, they share questions they have and connections they are making to their life or to other texts in the unit. Next, the whole class share what they have discussed in small groups, with the goal of developing a list of "what I already know" "what I still want to know" and "where I can find answers to my questions". This phase helps students build a foundational understanding of the texts so that they are ready to look more deeply at some of these texts in the next phase.
6.4.3 Examine
Once a general understanding of the topic has been established, the teacher selects one or two key excerpts from the texts students have read and discussed. These excerpts are used to focus students' attention on how language presents information, embeds points of view, structures texts, and develops arguments. That is, students closely examine the language resources through class discussion. During this phase, the teacher provides linguistic support as students unpack each excerpt, sentence by sentence and clause by clause. This is the phase when functional grammar analysis is used to enhance students' understanding of text. Below, three scenarios are presented to show how the teacher engages students in close reading that raises their critical language awareness.
6.4.3.1 Scenario 1
Text 6-1
More than one-fourth of the world's coral reefs have been lost to coastal development, pollution, overfishing, warmer ocean temperatures, and other stresses that are increasing. One problem is coral bleaching, which occurs when a coral becomes stressed and expels most of its colorful algae. This occurs because of stresses such as increased water temperature and runoff of silt that covers the coral and prevents photosynthesis. This loss of algae exposes the colorless coral animals and the underlying ghostly white skeleton of calcium carbonate. Unable to grow or repair themselves, the corals eventually die unless the stress is removed and algae recolonize them. Coral reefs are sometimes called the aquatic equivalent of tropical rain forests because they harbor such a high species biodiversity with myriad ecological interrelationships. The decline and degradation of these colorful oceanic sentinels should serve as a warning about the health of their habitats. (Miller, 2004, p. 144)
Using this excerpt from an environmental science textbook, the teacher draws students' attention to several features of science writing. Since this text explains the impact of climate change on coral reefs, the teacher focuses on how causation is presented, showing students that sometimes causal relations are expressed explicitly through the more familiar grammatical resources such as because or because of (e.g., Coral reefs are sometimes called … because they harbor such a high species …; This occurs because of stresses …), but more often they are established subtly through verbs (e.g., More than one-fourth of the world's coral reefs have been lost to coastal development …; This loss of algae exposes the colorless coral animals and the underlying ghostly white skeleton of calcium carbonate.), coordinating conjunctions (e.g.,…the stress is removed and algae recolonize them.), and non-finite clauses (e.g., Unable to grow or repair themselves, the corals eventually die unless the stress is removed and algae recolonize them.). The teacher also highlights the conditional conjunctions when (One problem is coral bleaching, which occurs when a coral becomes stressed and expels most of its colorful algae.) and unless (… the corals eventually die unless the stress is removed and algae recolonize them), explaining to students that a cause-effect relation is implied here and that cause and condition are sometimes conflated. This discussion about the implicit or explicit ways causation is realized in environmental texts helps students better identify the causes and effects of environmental problems and sensitize them to the varied grammatical resources that scientists deploy to construe cause-effect relations.
Another focus of class discussion is on how the forces that contribute to environmental problems are represented in the text. The teacher spotlights nominalizations such as coastal development, pollution, and overfishing, asking students who or what is the real agent that causes coral reefs to die. Nominalizations such as these are grammatical abstractions that suppress the individuals, institutions, or other social agents truly responsible for environmental problems. It is corporations, municipalities, and factories, as well as individuals, that develop properties along coastlines, release harmful chemicals into the air, and fish excessively; however, these agents are not explicitly mentioned as the ultimate culprits of environmental degradation. This lack of explicit mention of social agents can hinder students' understanding of the true causes of environmental problems and make it more difficult for them to envision possible solutions to these problems.
The exploration also leads students to question the motive behind the linguistic choices: (a) why do environmental problems have to be presented in a language that seems to indicate no human actors are involved? (b) what is the author's attitude on climate change? and (c) who (or which group) sponsors the publication? The teacher has students focus on the phrases warmer ocean temperatures and other stresses, asking them what/who causes the ocean temperature to rise, what other stresses there are, and who/what helps create these stresses. The discussion helps students see more clearly the real social agents — individual or institution — that contribute to environmental problems and motivate them to take the responsibility for helping solve these problems. It also enhances their awareness of how authors of science texts may obscure the causes of and solution to environmental problems through strategic deployment of linguistic resources.
6.4.3.2 Scenario 2
Text 6-2
Effects of Global Warming
Warmer temperatures may sound good, but the effects are not all positive. Warmer temperatures change weather patterns, including rainfall, wind, and ocean currents. Regional climates can also change. States like Florida that border oceans may be affected the most. Sea levels, coastlines, and animal and plant species will be affected by increased global temperatures. Increased temperatures could melt the ice caps at the poles. If this happened the melted ice would flow into the oceans, causing an increase in sea level across the globe. Increased sea levels will cause flooding of low-lying coastal areas like those lining Florida's coast. Scientists predict that increased temperatures could change ocean currents and weather patterns. This could cause more tropical storms and more severe storms to develop. More storms could increase the damage caused to the state. (Horton et al., 2000, p. FL12)
In this except from another science textbook, the teacher introduces the notion of uncertainty, which is an inherent feature of science (Hyland, 2004), and discusses how it is realized linguistically. The teacher begins by highlighting the modal verb may in the first sentence as an instance of uncertainty, having students discuss why it makes sense for the author to hedge here. Students need to understand that not all people or organisms are fond of having warmer temperatures at all times. For example, people in Harbin (哈尔滨) probably wouldn't mind having warmer temperatures in winter, but people in Guangzhou (广州) likely do not want their summer to get hotter. Nor do cold water fish like warmer temperatures. Next, students look in the rest of the excerpt for sentences where the author shows a high degree of certainty (e.g., are not, change, will be affected, would flow, will cause) and sentences where the author shows a lower degree of certainty (e.g., may sound, can also change, may be affected, could melt, could change, could cause, could increase), and discuss why the authors made the particular linguistic choices and the effect of these choices on knowledge claims. The teacher then presents a scale (see Figure 6-3), showing students some key grammatical resources for expressing degrees of certainty/likelihood and discussing the author's epistemic commitment toward knowledge claims in each instance. Because students tend to underestimate the quantitative magnitude of qualitative expressions such as "extremely likely" (Román & Busch, 2016), engaging in this sort of discussion enhances their awareness of the authorial stance on knowledge claims, their appreciation of scientific rigor, and their understanding of the nature of science.
Figure 6-3 Degrees of Certainty and Likelihood
At the same time, the teacher also problematizes the use of hedges in scientific texts on climate change. By introducing skeptical language such as hedges into the text, the authors seem to cast doubt on the scientific message about climate change. This has the effect of decreasing students' belief that climate change is real and "extremely likely" man-made, engendering misconception or confusion, or reducing their willingness to take pro-environmental behaviors (Román & Busch, 2016). The teacher counters this risk by having students compare the excerpt above with texts from other sources (see Text 6-3 and Text 6-4 below), where the effects of global warming are presented with little or no uncertainty (e.g., has triggered, has caused, have caused, show, has declined; contributes to, is causing, puts ... at risk, affects, has led to, have to swim, are at risk). The teacher also highlights significantly and alarming in Text 6-3, discussing what authorial attitude toward global warming is conveyed through these word choices. The class discuss possible factors that contribute to the different accounts of the effects of climate change in the two texts, such as authorial ideology, purpose of text, type of audience, political influence, and evidence base.
Text 6-3
The average global temperature rose by just over one degree during the last hundred years. Although that may not sound like much, it has triggered a chain of reaction. The warmer weather has caused ice-covered areas, such as Greenland, Antarctica, and the Artic, to melt. Ice reflects the sun's rays back into space and keeps the planet cooler. But water absorbs sunlight, making the planet warmer. That and other factors have caused global warming to speed up. The images below show that Artic sea ice has declined significantly. It has done so at an alarming 8.5 percent per decade. (Kids Discover, vol. 17, issue 2 on Extreme Weather, 2007, p. 2)
Text 6-4
Pollution contributes to changes in Earth's climate. Climate change is causing sea levels to rise. This puts coastal areas at risk and affects the flow of currents. It also has led to melting polar ice. Today, polar bears have to swim miles and miles between ice sheets to find food. They are at risk of dying out. Fish that depend on ice algae also are at risk. (Heidi, 2010, p. 36)
6.4.3.3 Scenario 3
Text 6-5
About 17 percent of electricity used today is generated by flowing water. The water is held back in a reservoir by a dam and piped downhill to drive turbines. These turn the generators that produce electricity. This hydroelectric power is clean, but dams are expensive and cause problems for water life. Salmon cannot migrate up rivers to breed if dams block their route. A reservoir can provide water for domestic use, for crop irrigation and for fisheries and leisure activities. But it floods farmland and people's homes.
The oceans and seas are underused as a source of non-polluting power. There are only two major tidal power stations: one across the River Rance in northern France, and one at Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia, Canada. A tidal power station, or barrage, is built across an estuary. As the tide flows into the river, the turbines turn, generating electricity. Tidal power stations are expensive, however, and can damage wildlife and fisheries. The waves that break on the seashore contain huge amounts of energy, but this has only been harnessed in small-scale trials. (Jennings, 2005, p. 43)
This excerpt from a science trade book on climate change presents an opportunity for the teacher to highlight another set of linguistic features that are functional for construing scientific meaning. The teacher draws attention to passive voice, engaging students in discussion about the gains and losses of using passive voice. For example, in reading the second sentence — The water is held back in a reservoir by a dam and piped downhill to drive turbines. —the teacher asks students such questions as "what happens to the water?" "where does it go?" "how does it get there?" "why does it go there?" and "what force, human or nature, is behind all of these activities?" to help them gain a better understanding of the sequence of activities presented in the sentence, as well as the visible (e.g., dam) and invisible (e.g., humans) forces that are behind these activities. Through these discussions, students discover that passive voice is an effective tool to help the author stay focused on the ideas or concepts presented but at the same time avoid mention of agents responsible for particular actions or behaviors.
The excerpt also provides a fertile ground for exploring how the author connects sentences in a way that creates discursive flow. The teacher shows students that the subject (or Theme) of sentence #2 (the water), #3 (these), #4 (this hydroelectric power), and #5 (salmon) refers to something that is mentioned in the object (or Rheme) of sentence #1 (flowing water),#2 (turbines), #3 (electricity), and #4 (water life), respectively. This zigzagging pattern of text structuring, captured in Figure 6-4, is characteristic of informational writing. It is an important strategy that students are encouraged to adopt to develop cohesive texts that flow.
Figure 6-4 Zig-Zagging Pattern of Informational Flow
Another focus of class discussion is on how definitions are constructed in science and other disciplinary texts. Students may already be familiar with defining concepts through resources such as is called and refer to. The second paragraph of the excerpt uses an appositive, or barrage, to rename (or define) a tidal power station. Here, novice readers may mistakenly think that a tidal power station or, alternatively, a barrage is being built across an estuary. The teacher also highlights the counter-expectancy word "only" in the second paragraph (only two major tidal power stations; this has only been harnessed in small-scale trials) to discuss authorial attitudes: the author seems to think that two are too few for major tidal power stations and would like wave energy to be harnessed on a larger scale. Drawing attention to these and other unfamiliar or unique ways of using language heightens students' sensitivity to language and expand their linguistic repertoire for meaning making.
6.4.4 Exercise
The above examples are just a few of the possible ways in which the teacher uses functional grammar analysis to focus on the language of science. After spending some time modeling critical reading to students in this way, the teacher moves on to the next stage, Exercise. In this phase, the teacher designs exercises that give students an opportunity to practice key, unfamiliar, unique, or challenging language features discussed during the Examine phase. Related to the first text on coral reefs, for example, the teacher asks students to look in other texts they have read for ways cause-effect relations are constructed. They then share what they have found with peers in small groups and then as a whole class, they also do sentence transformation exercises that involve alternative formulations of causal relations. For the texts on global warming, the teacher asks students to look in other texts for ways in which the author expresses degrees of certainty or likelihood through interpersonal adjuncts and hedges (e.g., may, can, normally, usually, likely). Students also discuss where the author's perspective is visible by identifying tokens of appraisal (e.g., serious, huge, important) and graduation (e.g., extremely, most). For the final example text about water power, students rephrase passive voice into active voice, or vice versa, to learn about ways of uncovering/burying agency and creating a more or less objective text. Students also rewrite passages using Theme-Rheme progression to enhance their discursive flow. Additionally, the teacher designs sentence completion exercises, such as the one below, that ask students to synthesize the information presented in one or more prior sentence (s) and use the distilled information (i.e., nominalization) as the subject of the next sentence. These exercises enhance students' text comprehension and also help them see how discursive flow is created.
* Seasons are short-term periods of climate change caused by regular differences in daylight, temperature, and weather patterns. ________ are due to changes in the amount of solar radiation an area received. [answer: These differences]
6.4.5 Extend
In the final phase, the teacher extends students' understanding of both new content and new language patterns by asking them to create an entirely new text. Students are given choices in this assignment. They could write a new text using content from the original coral reefs text but in students' own language, an explanation text discussing the link between climate change and human activities, an evaluative or persuasive text about an alternative energy source, or a reflective essay that makes connections between students' personal lives and water conservation. These writing tasks provide students with opportunities to engage with content, synthesize across sources, evaluate evidence, try out newly acquired language patterns, and craft powerfully effective texts. Prior to independent work, students can collaborate as a whole class or in small groups on portions of the new text in order to become comfortable with working independently.
The 5Es heuristic helps teachers engage students in exploring how language is used to make meaning in particular ways at the same time they are reading disciplinary texts, conducting experiments and observations, discussing research findings, and writing to construct and communicate their understandings. Situating language and literacy tasks within the context of authentic scientific inquiry gives the whole experience purpose, meaning, and relevance. In the same week when students read about alternative sources of energy, they also conduct an experiment where they create a functional solar oven that cooks a hot dog or an egg to 200o. The results from the experiment are transformed into graphics, charts, or reports. This enables students to make connections among the content of the texts, results from real experiments, and the ways language and other semiotic resources are used to communicate meaning in science. In addition to the text-based lessons above, students participate in lessons on topics such as food waste and sustainability, learning about renewable energy, determining what their carbon footprint is, identifying ways in which their life choices contribute to changes in climate, and studying what the greenhouse effect is.
As a culminating activity, the teacher provides materials that allow students (in teams) to design and test an invention (e.g., a water filtration system, a wind turbine, or a wind powered car) that improves the local environment and community members' lives. The design teams are encouraged to compete for small grants from a fictitious foundation by submitting their proposals in both writing and PowerPoint presentation to a scientific review board consisting of graduate students in science and engineering. A showcase of inventions can be held to celebrate the end of the unit.