“Miss, nominalization is a nominalization:” English language learners’ use of SFL metalanguage and their literacy practices

•We analyze how a teacher used SFL to teach academic literacy to ELLs.•We used case study methods to analyze changes in students’ texts and test scores.•The findings show how SFL metalanguage supported ELLs’ literacy development.•The implications critically respond to current school reforms in the United States.

This study explores how an elementary school teacher in the United States used systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and genre-based pedagogy to design and reflect on academic literacy instruction and how Spanish–English bilinguals took-up SFL metalanguage in learning to read and write historical and scientific explanations about culturally relevant topics. Based on a longitudinal analysis of changes in student writing samples and district and state test scores over an academic year, the findings indicate that instruction in SFL metalanguage helped students recognize and name linguistic patterns within and across disciplinary texts and expand their semiotic resources, especially as these resources relate to realizing meaning in print. The implications of this study relate to the strategic role SFL-based pedagogy can play in supporting teachers and bilinguals in critically navigating English-only mandates and the discourses of standardization and accountability in the United States.