Scientific literacy: A systemic functional linguistics perspective
Abstract
Scientific writing contains unique linguistic features that construe special realms of scientific knowledge, values, and beliefs. An understanding of the functionality of these features is critical to the development of literacy in science. This article describes some of the key linguistic features of scientific writing, discusses the challenges these features present to comprehension and composition of science texts in school, and argues for greater attention to the specialized language of science in teaching and learning. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed, 89:335–347, 2005
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Scientific writing is characterised by highly specialist vocabulary, concise and precise use of language, often accompanied by complex grammatical structures.
“Scientific writing is characterised by highly specialist vocabulary, concise and precise use of language, often accompanied by complex grammatical structures [4,5].”
From Perceptions of scientific research literature and strategies for reading papers depend on academic career stage (2017) · cites this paper as [5]
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- Authors
- Fang, Z.
- Affiliations
- University of Florida (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fang, Zhihui
- ORCID
- Fang, Zhihui
- Venue
- Science Education
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 335-347
- ISSN
- 0036-8326 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-237X
- OpenAlex
- W2054725002
- Cited by
- 439
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 20.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Linguistics and Education Research
- Keywords
- scientific literacy, scientific writing, systemic functional linguistics, science text comprehension, school science education
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