Developing an approach to teaching grammatical metaphor to ESL writers

This paper presents the theoretical foundations and findings of an action research project conducted within the SLATE (Scaffolding Literacy in Adult and Tertiary Environments) project, which was jointly managed by the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and the University of Sydney (USYD). The action research project reported in this paper specifically focuses on how undergraduate students develop their grammatical metaphor (GM) use with the help of tutors' online language support, and aims at developing an approach to teaching GM. GM, which was suggested by Halliday (1985a), is a fundamental characteristic of registers of science, bureaucracy, and academia, and its mastery can lead to success in academic and educational environments. Therefore, developing an approach to teaching GM to second language users is essential. This project is framed as action research, which spanned a period of three years, based on the action research cycle suggested by Kemmis & McTaggart (1988).