SSCI 一区期刊 JEAP 专题征稿

Laetitia Monbec (Director of Scholarship, Language Centre, University of Leeds)

Namala Tilakaratna (Research Consultant, Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy)

Systemic Functional Linguistics or Semiotics (SFL/SFS) and SFL Genre pedagogy have had a long history, rich literature and documented impactful application in primary, secondary, and tertiary literacy education (Dreyfus et al., 2016; Coffin & Donohue, 2014), in EMI (McCabe, 2021), and in L2 education (Troyan et al., 2022). Yet, despite self-professed claims that SFS is part of the EAP practice knowledge base (Ding & Bruce, 2017; Cowley-Haselden & Monbec, 2019), and a few practitioners’ accounts (such as in the Special Issue in JEAP by Gardner & Donohue, 2020), widespread use of SFL in EAP classrooms and in collaboration with the disciplines is less evident.

There are several possible reasons for this uneven uptake (see Monbec, 2022), but one which this Special Issue aims to address is that, for practitioners, there is low visibility of the overall connected architecture of the theory, its ontological constructs, and social aspirations. The SFL pedagogical literature relevant to tertiary contexts often minimises these aspects to prioritize language description, at genre, discourse semantics and mostly at lexicogrammatical levels (Troyan et al.’s System Special Issue is an example of this). This tendency has the effect of occluding ontological views of SFL on language, for example in relation to the social world and consciousness, and the theory’s wider social purpose - understandings that are available to those formally trained in SFL but which are more difficult to access for practitioners. A lack of a solid understanding of this foundation might have consequences on practitioners’ autonomy, agency and confidence as they make complex recontextualization decisions. It also may hinder the theory’s potential for socially committed EAP teaching (Monbec & Ding, forthcoming).

This special issue invites contributions from EAP practitioners to make SFL ontological concepts as well as its stratified architecture accessible, relevant, and meaningful to the wider EAP community with the aim of supporting EAP practitioners as they engage with current issues and challenges in Higher Education and shape the discourse about language in Higher Education.

You are invited to submit a 500-word abstract (excluding references) focused on one of the two following themes:

1. Knowledge base and ontological orientations to language and linguistics. These papers will provide insights into practitioners’ understandings of the nature of language and shifts between ‘language as rule’ and ‘language as resource’ (Halliday, 2003). They might analyse how different language ontologies coexist in practice, how pre-existing linguistics knowledge enables or poses challenges for understanding and engaging with SFL theory. As part of research articles, short reflective vignettes might be included to illustrate these shifts in practitioners’ knowledge.

2. The second theme aims to showcase recontextualisation of SFL in EAP practice that makes clear connections across the whole architecture, specific ontological/theoretical concepts (such as construal and enactment, realization, individuation, instantiation, stratification, registers and repertoires, paradigmatic perspective), and their significance for practice. Research papers or case studies might link these concepts with curriculum design or pedagogical practices in relation to issues such as interdisciplinary collaborations, impact, access and belonging, social justice, critical literacy, ethical practice in EAP, emergence of AI, language ideologies, internationalization, or the status of EAP.

Please submit the abstracts, a 50-word bio, and contact information, to the guest editors:

Laetitia Monbec (l.monbec@leeds.ac.uk) and Namala Tilakaratna (namalit@gmail.com).

Submission of abstracts: 19th February 2025

Notification of acceptance and invitation to submit a full paper: 20th March 2025

Submission of full paper: 1st October 2025

Rounds of review and final submissions (Papers will be published before this date as they become available): April 2026