English Language Teacher Education in Changing Times: A Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) Perspective

There is a dramatic change in English language teacher education caused by the process of globalization, linguistic diversity, educational policies as a result of accountability, and the renewed focus on academic literacy. English language teachers are likely to assist the learners acquire the expertise of handling complicated disciplinary texts, but they do not necessarily receive clear instruction in the way language creates sense in educational situations. Based on the work of Halliday in his Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach, this paper presents the position that language knowledge of teachers would be a core tenet of teacher preparation. The SFL views language as a means of meaning-making and offers analytical resources - ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunction- that can help teachers open up the linguistic requirements of academic texts and render them instructable. The paper incorporates a qualitative, SFL informed design to examine how English language teachers can be equipped to analyze and teach academic language based on the SFL principles. Investigating teacher learning activities and providing examples of classroom textual work, the research proves that SFL-based pedagogy has the advantage of raising the awareness of teachers about the role grammar, discourse, and genre play in the classroom. The results indicate that the inclusion of SFL in teacher education enables teachers to facilitate access of learners to academic English more efficiently, facilitates reflective teaching practices, and equitable education. The article is concluded with implications of SFL-informed teacher education to curriculum design, professional development, and research in English language education in the future.