10.1 Introduction

Literacy (reading/writing) occupies a prominent place in the English curriculum in China's postsecondary education. Its importance to English education has increasingly been recognized, particularly since the publication of 《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》 (高等学校外语专业教学指导委员会英语组，2000) at the turn of the new millennium. The document specifically calls for simultaneous development of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and translation, with a particular emphasis on speaking and writing, as well as translation, a skill heavily dependent on reading proficiency. In this context, grammar — primarily that of the traditional kind rooted in Greek and Latin — has become the focus of literacy instruction, so much so that it is commonly considered the sine qua non of literacy teaching and learning. This emphasis has, however, rarely led to improved literacy outcomes for students and is increasingly being challenged.

As dissatisfaction with the traditional grammar grew in recent years, English education scholars and classroom teachers have been searching for new ways of teaching literacy that would empower students as readers, writers, and language users. This book meets this challenge by presenting a new approach to conceptualizing and teaching grammar that helps students develop advanced language and literacy skills at the same time they are building content knowledge and cultivating disciplinary habits of mind. The approach, called functional linguistics approach (FLA), is informed by systemic functional linguistics (SFL), a theory of language that views grammar as a creative resource for making different kinds of meaning for different purposes and in different contexts. FLA promotes explicit attention to grammar and its meaning-making potential in the process of exploring concepts and ideas that are significant to disciplinary inquiries or relevant to students' personal needs and interests.(https://www.daowen.com)