Systemic functional linguistics and ESAP teaching materials: integrating emic and etic perspectives

This paper presents a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-informed approach to designing teaching materials for an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) provision. By helping students understand the relationship between text and context, this approach raises their awareness of disciplinary writing expectations. A key aspect of this approach is the integration of emic and etic perspectives by including ethnographic research in the creation stage of the teaching materials. This ethnographic investigation helps contextualise the pre-instructional linguistic analysis of successful student submissions, with both types of analysis (contextual and linguistic) informing the materials and teaching activities. The paper first explains the importance of the SFL notion of register in this approach to materials design and the relevance of the contextual variable field to ESAP practice. It then provides an example of how this approach was implemented in developing materials for a workshop attended by students on an MA in film and television.