Systemic functional linguistics for the EGAP module: revisiting the common core

Abstract A Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-informed English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) module is discussed in this paper. This approach offers a way to design a common core curriculum for EGAP which can go towards addressing disciplinary specificity. The theory is recontextualised in the EAP module through a pedagogical tool called the instantiation table which exploits the key SFL notions of stratification, metafunction and instantiation to teach a body of transferrable knowledge about language and disciplinary variation. Beyond providing general academic literacy support, the approach also aims to equip learners with an analytical lens to independently explore their future contexts of communication. The paper first explains the theoretical grounding of the table of instantiation, and how it is implemented in classroom practice. It then reports on a survey of the tutors and students’ perceptions of the intervention. Successes and challenges faced by tutors are analysed. The paper closes with a discussion of the challenges of recontextualization of SFL theory in an EGAP curriculum engaging the Legitimation Code Theory dimension of Semantics.