Scaffolding Chinese as a second language writing through a Systemic Functional Linguistics approach

Since current research on Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language (CSL/CFL) instruction has paid scant attention to writing at the discourse level, the purpose of this study is to explore and address this gap by investigating the effect of a writing pedagogy, based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), on the development of Chinese writing ability. The present study derives from a research project in which an SFL-based multimedia writing program was designed for CSL/CFL learners. The effectiveness of this project was examined through the assessment of two CSL course, consisting of a total of 16 pre-intermediate level participants, at a university in Taiwan. To provide an in-depth account of the instructional potential of an SFL-based writing approach, this paper reports a case study focusing on the progress made by two of the participants during a lesson unit on descriptive writing. Pre-and post-instruction texts written by the two students were collected and analyzed in detail to illustrate the potential affordances that an SFL-based writing approach can offer to CSL/CFL learning. The results of this qualitative study indicate that the two pre-intermediate level writers demonstrated increased control in their use of the ideational, interpersonal, and textual resources associated with the descriptive genre. These findings suggest that SFL-informed educational practices may prove effective for CSL novice writers, and thus have further pedagogical implications for second/foreign language education.