Critical SFL Praxis Principles in English Language Arts Education: Engaging Pre-service Teachers in Reflective Practice

This chapter describes a critical SFL praxis approach for English Language Arts pre-service teacher education that focuses on the development of conceptual tools to foster productive disciplinary engagement. Teachers need to develop an adaptive expertise to guide their decisions in the classroom. The appropriation of conceptual tools contributes to the development of adaptive expertise required by responsive teachers in multilingual classrooms. We present examples of the educational experience of pre-service teachers to illustrate how in these activities learners “use grammar to think” (Halliday MAK, On grammar and grammatics. In: Webster J (ed) On grammar: volume 1: the collected works of M.A.K Halliday. London, Continuum, pp 384–417, 2002 ). These activities incorporate the analysis, reflection, abstract conceptualization and application of authentic language use, grammar in the wild. Pre-service teachers see critical SFL conceptual tools in action and engage in analysis through supportive activities with expert facilitation. The conclusion provides an outline of the research project exploring the continuation of this teacher education during the practicum experience.