Exam (elaborations)
Essays as guidelines.
- Institution
- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
Answer to semester 1 assignment 2020
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In the following essay I will provide a critical analysis of the text ‘Special Needs pupils being failed bysystem ‘on verge of crisis’ with focus on reader positioning, context, audience and use of language. I
will make use of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), as well as use guidance from the prescribed
textbook, Critical Reading and Writing in the Digital Age: An Introductory coursebook, 2nd edition -by
Goatly, A. and Hiradhar, P.
I will use the ideational function within SFL to begin a discussion on how language is used to
communicate the main ideas and meaning of the text;
When one removes function words (pronouns, prepositions, determiners and quantifiers) one can
easily identify the content words (nouns, verbs and adjectives) which convey the greatest amount of
meaning and enable us to identify the main ideas. i.e. By looking at the lexical function of nouns and
adjectives such as; ‘parents’ ,‘children’, ‘councils’, ‘England’, ‘special’, ‘educational’, ‘system’,
‘government’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘bruised’, ‘scared’, ‘disabilities’ etc, one is able to identify the main ideas
and role-players within the text.
Further, we use connotations and denotations to create certain associations with words. i.e. the
personal connotations we could have in association with the words ‘bruised’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘scared’
could evoke certain feelings of sympathy to the parties affected, or convey to the reader the severity
of the matter at hand.
However, ideological concepts are not just reflected in the vocabulary of a language but also in its
grammar. Part of the grammar of a clause where conceptualisation (meaning) takes place is called
transivity. The transitive verbs in the following lines shows how the action of the verb transitions
through the verb onto an object;
* Parents of SEND children increasingly face (V) long and costly disputes (O) with councils in England
who are failing to meet (V) their legal obligations (O).
In the above paragraph we can see how clauses carry central verbs such as ‘face’ and ‘failing’ which
also indicate the main ideas of the text.
With a discussion on how language is used to elaborate on different themes presented in the text, I
will use the textual function within SFL;
Choice of active or passive voice shows us how information is backgrounded or foregrounded.
Foregrounded information is called the ‘theme’ of the sentence, this is the information placed at the
beginning of a sentence. Writers can either use active or passive voice (switching the order of the
subject and object) depending on which information they wish to foreground, i.e. if the object is
considered a theme, passive voice is used. Foregrounded information (themes) indicates what the
writer is focussed on. The following themes have been identified within the text;
* Children with special needs and disabilities (SEND) are being failed by a system…
* Parents of children with SEND are increasingly locked into…
* Vulnerable children in society end up without…
* Appeals heard by the special educational needs…
* Findings by the local government…
* Councils suffering from years of budget cuts…
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