Year

2019

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

School of Education

Abstract

Teacher professional learning programs often aim to support teachers to develop new knowledge or instructional practices in order to improve students’ learning outcomes. However, connecting these knowledge and skills to the teachers’ specific context remains a challenge. The gap is even wider in contexts of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), such as Indonesia, where pedagogical frameworks adopted for English language curriculum have been developed for use in language settings a long way from most EFL situations (see Baker, 2016; Canagarajah, 2016; Chaaban, 2017). As such, the contents of professional learning are commonly perceived as propaganda for vested interests, and unrelated to local classroom realities (Fang, 2012).

This study investigates the potential of a professional learning program based on genre theory (after Martin, 1985; Martin & Rose, 2008) a model that underpins the current English language curriculum for secondary school students in Indonesia. The design and implementation of the program in the study are drawn from Reading to Learn (R2L) (Rose & Martin, 2012), a scaffolded approach to literacy education that has developed from systemic functional theory as developed by Halliday and his colleagues (e.g. Halliday, 1975; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Rose & Martin, 2012). The program described in this study offered workshops, supported pedagogy and ongoing dialogue to promote a story-oriented renovation of R2L, incorporating story sharing activities such as multimodal storytelling and scripted performances as an additional learning stage in order to enhance secondary students’ control of writing story genres in English.

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Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.