Remember how I mentioned before that I had begun to look into Systemic Functional Linguistics? Well...I've started looking into it more. In fact we've been using SFG (Systemic Functional Grammar) to look at student writing samples for the last week. And...I love it! As in...I'm pretty sure this is where my dissertation is headed. I learned more about the development of deaf kids writing by using SFG than any of this other stuff I've been trying to use for years. Why has no one done this before? So...in the spring after I survive this crazy semester that I've created for myself...I'm gonna be reading a lot of Halliday and his buds.
So...while this semester has been a bit of a disaster and I have spent the last several weeks trying desperately to hold on to my sanity...there are moments of progress to be celebrated.
And...on slightly related to qualitative research note...
The organization that I'm working with in Haiti just opened a brand new children's home for the deaf last week. As of today, 17 children have moved into the home staffed by deaf adults. They expect to have 25-30 by the weekend. And in less than a week the brand new school in Leveque will open and they will attend school with the village children in classrooms staffed by deaf teachers and teachers aides that we trained this summer. For most of the kids (hearing and deaf), this will be their first time in school...for the others, this will be their first time in school since January 2010.
So. So. So. So. So. Exciting.
(This is why one day I'm going to learn how to do qualitative research so I can tell the stories of Leveque that could never be captured in numbers.)
That's great - maybe you can give a presentation to our class about systemic functional linguistics and/or grammar at the end of the term : ) I know I want to know more myself.
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