Functional Language Analysis in the Theatre Classroom
As a Mainstream English speaker, I often do not take notice of the challenges that face ELLs on a daily basis and particularly in academic language. However, this does not mean that, on reflection, I cannot relate or identify with the experiences of these learners. This was evidenced as I read the Functional Language Analysis article. As I read the various examples of different academic content texts I remembered encountering a period of adjustment when I entered junior high school and had to read and comprehend texts written in content-specific academic language. I remember having to read sections of these texts multiple times in order to deconstruct and reorganize the information — in order to make sense of it. Sometimes this still happens when reading articles and textbooks written by subject experts for areas other than my own. I did not have a specifically laid out method of deconstructing the text, such as Functional Language Analysis, with which to do so, but because of my knowledge base and generally strong comprehension abilities, I managed to make sense of the text by drawing on my current metacognitive and metalinguistic skills. However, for ELLs and others who do not have a very strong base in these ways of processing information, it must be very frustrating and seemingly impossible to unscramble the meaning of such texts. This is why I am very interested in this prescribed formula of language analysis and would like to explore this method of deconstruction in my content classroom.
In the study of theatre, students will encounter a wide variety of ways in which authors present information. They will read plays and scripts in which dialogue and stage directions, character details and setting descriptions are laid out and identified in specific ways. Also, they will engage with textbooks and similar academic texts that discuss the history of theatre through the ages. They will also meet texts that attempt to convey modern styles of acting, set design etc. and instruct students on how to explore and achieve these results themselves. Often in these instructional texts much metaphoric and abstract language is used to help the students engage in sensory explorations. These texts will each provide their own specific challenges to ELLs and I will attempt to use functional analysis in my classroom, as much as possible, to demystify these texts.
Theatrical history textbooks are the most obvious texts with which to use this method. They are written very similarly to conventional history texts, referring to dates, important figures and events. Therefore, these texts have frequent nominalizations, such as the “futurist movement”* which represents many events, people, and plays by the statement of two simple words (Fang and Schleppegrell 589). As with other history texts, judgments and personal opinion are also present in these texts. For example, “From the oppression of the dark ages, theatre was reborn, by the very institution that had decimated it—the church…”* As Fang and Schleppegrell suggest, the choices of words and their position with respect to each other are very important in helping the students understand the point of view of the author and the judgements the author is making about the “actors” (the church, the theatre etc.) (589). The students can analyse the processes of “doing” (decimated), “being”, “sensing” and “saying” and those “participants” (the church) involved to learn the experiential meaning of the text. They can also use the mood (declarative), modality and attitudinal vocabulary of the words (decimated) to find their interpersonal meaning. Through analysis of the pronouns, synonyms, antonyms and conjunctions students can understand the textual meaning of the text as well (Fang and Schleppegrell 592).
Through the exploration of Functional Language Analysis, it is my intention to help my students learn the skills to decipher historical and creative language so that they will be better equipped to extract knowledge from the theatrical texts that they will read.
Works Cited:
Fang, Z., & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2010). Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary reading through functional language analysis. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53, 587–597. doi:10.1598/JAAL.53.7.6
*These are my own examples.
Melanie Reich