Teaching Functions
Definition
What is a function?
A function refers to what an item of language actually
does in a real context, as opposed to what they might
mean literally. These include suggesting, criticizing,
refusing, agreeing, disagreeing and giving advice.
Example
The phrase 'What time do you call this?' has a clear literal
meaning but its function is to ask 'Why are you late? I'm
very angry!'
Halliday’s Theory
According to Halliday (1975), language has developed in
response to three kinds of social-functional needs:
The first is to be able to construe experience in terms of what
is going on around us and inside us,
The second is to interact with the social world by negotiating
social roles and attitudes,
The third and final need is to be able to create messages with
which we can package our meanings in terms of what
is New or Given, and in terms of what the starting point for our
message is, commonly referred to as the Theme.
Halliday’s Theory
Halliday (1978) calls these language
functions metafunctions, and refers to them as ideational,
interpersonal and textual respectively.
The Seven Functions of Language
Halliday (1975) identifies seven functions that language
has for children in their early years. For him, children are
motivated to develop language because it serves certain
purposes or functions for them. The first four functions
help the child to satisfy physical, emotional and social
needs. Halliday calls them instrumental, regulatory,
interactional, and personal functions.
The Seven Functions of Language
Instrumental: This is when the child uses language to
express their needs (e.g.'Want juice')
Regulatory: This is where language is used to tell others
what to do (e.g. 'Go away')
Interactional: Here language is used to make contact
with others and form relationships (e.g. 'Love you,
mummy')
Personal: This is the use of language to express feelings,
opinions, and individual identity (e.g. 'Me good girl')
The Seven Functions of Language
The next three functions are heuristic, imaginative, and
representational, all helping the child to come to terms
with his or her environment.
Heuristic: This is when language is used to gain
knowledge about the environment (e.g. 'What the tractor
doing?')
Imaginative: Here language is used to tell stories and
jokes, and to create an imaginary environment.
Representational: The use of language to convey facts
and information.
Why Teaching Functions
Teaching functions help learners be aware of what they
can do with language items they have learned.
In the classroom
It is important for learners to understand that one form
may have many different functions, and to see how
functions work in context, as the example above shows.
Many forms have sensitive functions and so their
appropriacy, formality and degree need to be considered.
With students
I believe that teaching functions is FAR more useful for
students and increases their motivation to learn.
Teaching functions affects students’ motivation as they
can see that there is a REASON for learning the language
in the lesson above and beyond just learning how to use,
for example, the present perfect continuous forms of
verbs.
Usage
Teaching students the English needed to find and rent an
apartment, for example, would be a function. Most
functions are stated like this: Asking and Answering
Questions about Renting an Apartment. Or in
occupational language it might be the language required
to deal with a customer complaint at a business or to
inquire about the details of a service or product.
Example
..\..\videoplayback_24.FLV
Form vs Function
What is the form of each sentence and what is the
intended function?
Why don’t you close your mouth? (question/ order)
Could I use your phone? (question/ request)
May I open the window? (question/ permission)
Oh dear! (exclamation/ sympathy)
Functions Lesson Plan
A lesson plan by Meryem MAZI
Bibliography
o Retrieved January 1st 2012 From:
http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/Systemic-Functional-Linguistics-
Sfl.htm
o Retrieved January 1st 2012 From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_functional_grammar
o Retrieved December 8 th 2012 From:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_BSyFo3IFs&noredirect=1
o Retrieved December 8 th 2012 From:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/functions
o Retrieved December 8 th 2012 From:
http://www.teflnewbie.com/tag/teaching-function-lessons/
o Retrieved December 8 th 2012 From:
http://www.teflteachertraining.com/blog/teaching-functions-in-the-
efl-classroom/
o Retrieved December 30 th 2012 From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Halliday
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
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