VietTESOL International Convention 2026

This study investigates the implementation and pedagogical impact of the Systemic Functional Linguistics Genre-Based Approach (SFL-GBA) in secondary literacy education across global contexts. Drawing on a corpus of 33 empirical studies published between 1995 and 2024, the review maps how SFL-GBA has been enacted in Years 7-12 classrooms across diverse languages, learner populations, and regional contexts. The synthesis demonstrates that the approach effectively enhances students’ academic literacy and disciplinary writing, particularly when supported by well-trained teachers, culturally responsive pedagogy, and structured scaffolding frameworks. Integrating SFL-GBA with critical, translanguaging, and multimodal pedagogies further extends its relevance in linguistically diverse classrooms. The findings indicate that the long-term sustainability and scalability of SFL-GBA hinge on continuous teacher professional development and collaboration among educational stakeholders. Future research should broaden its application across linguistic and disciplinary domains and empower teachers as adaptive curriculum designers who can evolve SFL principles to meet shifting educational needs.