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Language Curriculum Design and Socialisation by P. Mickan (review)

This book by a scholar at the University of Adelaide (Adelaide, South Australia) consists essentially of a long argument, with examples, for changing the way language teaching curricula are organized. “Language” is understood here in a very broad sense to mean not only first or second language (L2) teaching, but also the language of specific content areas such as secondary-level science. The second language teaching contexts included under the umbrella of language are diverse, from migrant contexts in Australia (from children to adults), to the teaching of Australian Aboriginal languages in revitalization contexts, to teaching English as an L2 abroad to children or adults in, for example, Korea or Hong Kong. The main thrust of Mickan’s argument is that language teaching curricula are not now, but could usefully be, reorganized around texts. Several assumptions underlying this argument need to be unpacked for the CMLR readership because Mickan’s ideas are grounded in the slightly unfamiliar Australian context for linguistics and language teaching. First, the theoretical structure underpinning this approach to language curriculum design is that of systemic–functional linguistics (SFL) as laid out in the classic works of Halliday and Hasan (e.g., Halliday & Hasan, 1985) and their followers. A complex and coherent approach to the analysis of all language phenomena has been built up within this theoretical framework, largely by Australian scholars, that Reviews / Critiques 351