LLEN
Language and Literacy in Education Network
The Language and Literacy in Education Network (LLEN) is an alliance of educators and researchers who share a commitment to strengthening teachers’ and students’ understanding of how language works to make meaning and, in the process, improving the literacy and learning outcomes for all students.
We believe that language is central to learning:
- it is primarily through our interactions with learners that learning is generated;
- the topics that students learn are embodied in language (including visual and digital material);
- a student’s literacy proficiency and their success in school rely upon a deep knowledge of language and how it works.
A student’s secure control of the language resources needed for educational success is dependent on the teacher’s discerning knowledge about language and how to teach it.
We work with the functional model of language that underpins the Australian Curriculum: English, while engaging in dialogue with other models of language. The functional approach is based on Professor Michael Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) – one of the most influential contemporary theories of language that deals with how language makes meaning in a variety of contexts. Going beyond the teaching of syntax, it provides teachers and learners with the tools for making increasingly complex meanings at the level of the whole text through to the sentence and below. It specifically addresses the educational needs of students, dealing with how language functions in our lives:
- to represent our understanding of the world (including the world of education and its diversity of disciplines);
- to interact confidently with others in a variety of situations;
- and to create texts that are coherent and cohesive in a range of modes and media.
We aim to provide an authoritative source of information for teachers, school executive and policy-makers regarding the teaching of language to mainstream and EAL/D learners from the early years through to secondary and further education.
Our membership includes internationally recognised experts in the field of language education along with master practitioners who are exemplary in their application of a functional approach in educational contexts.
By drawing on research-informed knowledge about language and pedagogy, we work closely with teachers to empower students to succeed academically and to participate effectively in a variety of social contexts.
Beyond our work with teachers, we aim:
- to raise the profile of language in education and its role in improving literacy and learning outcomes for students;
- to promote our work within education communities, sharing information and research around the teaching and learning of language in education from a functional perspective;
- to be strategically active in having a voice in policy decisions, drawing on decades of expertise in the field of language and literacy;
- to identify current research priorities and extend our research program to provide teachers with trustworthy information about language and how to teach it.
Our goal
We are committed to the advancement of the literacy and learning achievements of all students throughout the years of schooling and beyond. Importantly, we recognise the fundamental role that language plays in teaching and learning as students seek to comprehend and compose increasingly complex print, spoken and multimodal texts.
Our logo
Our logo represents a network: a community of teachers, researchers and teacher educators working together. The tripartite image is a nod to Halliday’s fondness for the ‘rule of three’: three phases of language development; three functions of language; three elements of the clause; and the adage of ‘learning language, learning through language and learning about language’.
If you would like to get involved with the LLEN (E&ME), please get in contact at: db2541@bath.ac.uk