The Application of Systemic Functional Linguistics in Literary Text Teaching

One of the important jobs for the teacher teaching literary text reading is to develop the students’habit of detecting the linguistic clues to interpret the text or to discover linguistic evidence to support their interpretations.Systemic functional linguistics(SFL),developed by Halliday,is both a theory of language and an approach to the analysis of texts and their contexts of use.This linguistic framework can be effectively applied to literary text teaching.The writer aims to explore the applicability of this linguistic theory in literary text teaching and the strategies by a tentative analysis of the novella The Old Man and the Sea in the SFL framework.

Multiple Communication Channels in Literary Texts

The statistical theory of language translation is used to compare how a literary character speaks to different audiences by diversifying two important linguistic communication channels: the “sentences channel” and the “interpunctions channel”. The theory can “measure” how the author shapes a character speaking to different audiences, by modulating deep-language parameters. To show its power, we have applied the theory to the literary corpus of Maria Valtorta, an Italian mystic of the XX-century. The likeness index , ranging from 0 to 1, allows to “measure” how two linguistic channels are similar, therefore implying that a character speaks to different audiences in the same way. A 6-dB difference between the signal-to-noise ratios of two channels already gives IL ≈ 0.5, a threshold below which the two channels depend very little on each other, therefore implying that the character addresses different audiences differently. In conclusion, multiple linguistic channels can describe the “fine tuning” that a literary author uses to diversify characters or distinguish the behavior of the same character in different situations. The theory can be applied to literary corpora written in any alphabetical language.

The Transmission of Ideas and Values Through the Use of Literature in School:Indicative Cases With Toddlers

The indisputable pedagogical power of literature,since it evokes experiences as a consequence of the creative role of the reader,constitutes a valuable ally of the teacher.In literary texts,persons are carriers of ideas and values.As we identify with them,we capture their ideas and values in the most effective way.Especially for younger readers,who find it difficult to understand abstract concepts,this mode of transmission could be considered ideal,provided that a didactic approach is chosen that will allow students to express their reading impressions from contact with texts.Thus,special characteristics of each student-reader will emerge,as well as new elements of the literary work itself,which is inexhaustible.Regarding the transmission of ideas and values in Nursery School through literature,we cite two cases.The first seeks to raise the awareness of toddlers about the right of every child to grow up carefree and safe in a family environment.The text chosen to achieve the above goal is The Little Match Girl by Andersen.Stimulated by the emblematic,timeless heroine,who tries to warm herself by lighting her matches one by one,toddlers create original narrative texts,looking for a family for her.They present her observing the people around her and dreaming of a family life near them.In the second case,in order for students to realize the importance of the natural world for man,the content and accuracy of an easily understood passage from the work Report to Greco,by Kazantzakis,is used in teaching.Toddlers who are asked to retell the passage in the classroom replace themselves with the student asking for a break in order to enjoy better a bird singing.Thus,they consolidate the essential relationship with nature,which,as the author’s experience,arises from the whole of his work.