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Gladys L. Benerd School of Education

Ann Go

Assistant Professor of Education

My perspective in teaching and learning is grounded in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics  and Vygotsky’s Constructivism.

In Systemic Functional Linguistics, language and literacy are viewed as resources that we use to construct meaning in particular social and cultural contexts, so language teaching emphasizes the  important relationship between language form and function.

In Constructivism, learning occurs in an interactive process in which individuals actively construct  their knowledge through the scaffolds provided by experts in meaningful contexts.

Together, these two theories provide a powerful model to the teaching and learning of language and  literacy.

A genre-based functional approach to language and literacy instruction is such a model that can be  incorporated in a whole-part-whole process.

The whole refers to studying a text as a whole to search for the main idea.

Text structures and language features are the parts that shape this text into a particular genre and  register.

A careful study of the intricate relationship between text structures and language features enables  students to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of this text as a whole.

This process allows teachers to incorporate systematic language instruction during the reading and  writing processes to help students gain access to the language resources that they need to develop  academic literacy skills.

The effectiveness of this approach is that language and literacy instruction is no longer a  decontextualized way of drill and practice, but a contextualized way of realizing how texts are used to  convey meanings.

This approach can empower students from various social and cultural backgrounds to develop analytical  and critical thinking skills in reading and writing different types of texts.

In summary, the study of genre-based functional approach to language and literacy instruction is an  integral part of my teaching and research interests.

Education


2003

Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Education in Language, Literacy, & Culture with a Designated Emphasis in Second Language Acquisition

1993

M.A. in Education, California State University, Sacramento
Curriculum and Instruction

1989

B.A., California State University, Sacramento
Liberal Studies

Research Interests


  • Systemic Functional Linguistics
  • Text Analysis
  • Language Development
  • Second Language Acquisition
  • Reading and Writing across the Curriculum