A DESCRIPTION OF RECONTEXTUALISED KNOWLEDGE EXPRESSED IN THE WRITTEN OUTPUT OF LOWER SECONDARY PUPILS IN SINGAPORE IN ENGLISH AND MANDARIN

Abstract

The linguistic theory that underpins this study is the systemic-functional theory. The main objective of the study is to identify the types of writing undertaken by pupils across the lower secondary curriculum. This is primarily achieved by a functional and generic analysis of the text-types that occur in the following subject areas: English, Chinese, History, Geography and Science. Writing has been chosen as the focus of the research because of its central role in promoting critical literacy and its importance in the formal assessment of pupils' academic achievement. When pupils make the transition from primary to secondary education, the fundamental need is to develop familiarity with the conventions of the specialist discourses they find in reading and more importantly, writing in the new disciplines. Research findings based on the examination of both the oral and written genres produced in the classroom, however, shows that explicit teaching of discourse-specific features and skills is lacking. The analysis of written genres produced in English and Chinese reveals a narrow range of genre skills practised in the language classroom. It is found that there is an overemphasis of the Narratives and Recounts in the students' writing in English; and Observation/Comment and Recount genre in their writings in Chinese. Findings from the Chinese, History and Science lessons indicate that classroom talk is overwhelmingly dominated by the teacher. Pupils, on the whole, play a predominantly passive role in these lessons. It has also been found that the merits of a more interactive approach in pedagogic practices found in the English and Geography lessons are evident in the learning outcomes, typically the written texts produced by the students. Given this finding, the study argues for the need to adopt a more interactive approach in the construction of educational knowledge across curriculum.