Understanding the impact of teaching systemic functional grammar in initial English language teacher education

The role of systemic functional grammar (SFG) is usually investigated in postgraduate courses and in-service programmes with experienced teachers. In contrast, this study examines the impact of SFG on student-teachers’ professional development in a pre-service second language teacher education programme in Argentina. Framed in teacher research and ecological perspectives, a tutor examined the perceptions of a group of student-teachers during the course of an academic year in a mandatory SFG module which favoured content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and metalinguistic knowledge. Data were collected through student-teachers’ evaluations, summaries of group discussions, coursework samples, and whole class discussions as inherent parts of the module dynamics. Student-teachers’ perceptions indicated that SFG had a positive effect on content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.