A STUDY OF TEXTUAL PRODUCTION AND TEXTUAL PRODUCT IN A GEOGRAPHY TEXTBOOK

Abstract

Textbooks play an important part in the encoding and transmission of knowledge to pupils in schools. When pupils learn an academic subject, they not only learn the facts but also the specialised discourse of that subject. This study investigates how geographical information is encoded linguistically in a secondary school geography textbook. The aims of the study are three-fold. First, it aims to investigate the complex relationship between the writing process and the social context in which the textbook is written. Second, it aims to uncover salient features that contribute towards the effective writing of a geography textbook. Third, it aims to demonstrate how the hidden pedagogy of teaching a specialised academic discourse can be achieved through the textbook. Halliday's systemic functional grammar provides the general linguistic framework for the textual analysis in this study. The ideational, interpersonal and textual realisations of the texts are examined. A total of four drafts based on a single unit in the textbook are analysed. The revisions in each draft are described and accounted for. A full linguistic analysis is also conducted on the final draft that is ready for publication. The linguistic analysis reveals that three features are important in affecting the writing of the texts. They are the educational ideology reflected in the school curriculum and the syllabus, the geographical ideology reflected in the perception of man-land relationships, and readability. These features affect the linguistic encoding of the text overtly and at times covertly. The analysis reveals that the ideologies of the social context that people are working in are sometimes hidden from them. There is a need to heighten the conciousness of textbook writers to these social processes that affect the writing in order to enhance. the effectiveness of the composing process. Inevitably, writers through their textual products reflect the social context they are in, at the same time as they are shaping it.