Linguistic Challenge of the Transition to Secondary School

Alice Deignan is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Education, University of Leeds. She is the author of 'Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics' (2005, John Benjamins), and 'Figurative Language, Genre and Register' (2013, CUP, with Elena Semino and Jeannette Littlemore).Duygu Candarli is currently Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Dundee. She specialises in academic discourse, corpus linguistics, second language writing, and writing assessment. She has published research articles on these areas in international peer-reviewed journals.Florence Oxley is a Research Assistant in the School of Education, University of Leeds and a PhD candidate in Linguistics, University of York. She is interested in corpus linguistics, literacy, and first language acquisition, and has published on infant phonological development.

• List of figuresAcknowledgements1 Schools, the transition, students, and teachersAlice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168IntroductionThe transition and the context of this researchIssues at transitionSocial, psychological, and emotional issuesAcademic issuesLanguage and the transitionThe voices of children in our project schoolsAims of this book2 Academic language and the school transitionAlice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168Perspectives on the language of schoolBernstein’s language codes and the language of schoolThe Systemic-Functional Linguistics ApproachBICS and CALPCALSAcademic language and functionAcademic language and social prestigeFunction: academic language to facilitate and express academic thoughtRegister and genreFeatures of academic languageOverviewDisciplinary languageThe vocabulary of schoolPolysemy and homonymyTiersGrammar and discourseSpecific issues at transitionConclusion3 Corpus data and methodsDuygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835IntroductionConstructing our corpusCharacteristics of our partner schoolsCorpus design and representativenessThe written corpusRepresentativeness and data gatheringComposition of the written corpusSub-registersThe spoken corpusCorpus analytical methods usedQuantitative data analysis proceduresMulti-dimensional AnalysisMixed and qualitative data analysisConclusion4 Written school language registers and the transitionDuygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835IntroductionThe corpusAnalytical StepsStatistical analysisMulti-dimensional analysis of school language registersDimension 1: Involved versus informational discourseDimension 2: Narrative versus non-narrative discourseDimension3: Explicit versus situation-dependent discourseDimension 4: Overt expression of persuasionDimension 5: Impersonal versus non-impersonal styleDiscussionConclusion5 The language of English at the transitionAlice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717IntroductionThe KS2 and KS3 curriculaAssessmentReading in Years 5-8Reading for pleasureMaking inferencesUnderstanding genre, purpose, and audience; criticalityWriting in Years 5-8Understanding genre, purpose, and audienceLanguage and metalanguage in Years 5-8VocabularyGrammar teachingCorpus studies of the language of English in Years 5-8MethodThe corpora usedFrequent word analysisKeyword analysisResultsWord frequency: aboutnessKeywordsConclusion6 The language of science at the transitionAlice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717IntroductionThe KS2 and KS3 curriculaLanguage and learning science at schoolScientific thinking and the language of scienceSchool science, language, and socio-economic statusFeatures of the language of school scienceDiscourseGrammarVocabularyPolysemyMethodThe corporaFocus and toolsResultsFrequent wordsAboutnessKeywordsPolysemyConclusion7 The language of mathematics at the transitionDuygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717IntroductionThe KS2 and KS3 curriculaLearning mathematics and languageMathematics, anxiety, and the transitionTalking about mathematicsFeatures of the language of mathematicsDiscourseGrammarVocabularyMethodThe corporaKey feature analysisKeyword analysisConcordance and collocational analysisFindingsKey feature analysisResults of keyword analysisDiscourse functions of keywordsPatterns of meaning of keywordsPart-of-speech categoriesConcrete and abstract keywordsPolysemyCollocationConclusion8 ConclusionAlice Deignan, ORCiD: 0000-0002-9156-9168Duygu Candarli, ORCiD: 0000-0001-9965-7835Florence Oxley, ORCiD: 0000-0002-6518-1717Key issues and findingsThe move from generalist to specialist teachersRegister featuresPolysemyOther language issuesContextAwareness of the linguistic challenges of transitionAcademic language and home learning environmentUnderstanding the purpose of academic languageResearch on learning school languageFuture researchIndex