Functional Grammar – by and for teachers Dr Liz Walker HKIEd English Department

Reminder We are LANGUAGE TEACHERS. We do not teach ‘social science/issues’ or ‘business’. We teach the language use which makes ‘social science’/social issues etc. Without language use, ‘social issues’ as a field/topic cannot exist.

Sample only: appropriate types of language use for ‘Social Issues’ [English Lang Curriculum & Assessment Guide, 2007, pp 44- 46] Pamphlet Editorial Letter to the editor Survey Report Expository essay In 50 hours, probably 5 – 8 genres can be taught, and successfully produced by students. Sample text grammar descriptions for the blue genres are provided.

What is ‘Genre’ (p.7 Christie & Derewianka) Genre is everything we DO in speech and writing in a culture. A genre is ‘a staged, goal-oriented social process which is predictable and therefore teachable’. A text is ‘an instance of a genre’. Broad examples of ‘schooling’ genres productive for life outside school are: Recount; Story particularly Narrative; Procedure; Report; Explanation; Exposition; Discussion; Response.

Teaching language Our job as language teachers is to teach the genres, or USES of language, within a given domain of culture, e.g. ‘social issues’ or ‘business’ or ‘sports’ etc…. We thus need to teach the grammar of relevant TEXTS, not the grammar of ‘sentences’.

Firstly, what is ‘grammar’? The meaning-making powerhouse of a language. A powerful semogenic resource which we all learn to control in mother tongue around our second year of life. ‘A grammar’ is ‘a theory of wording’.

What grammar do we teach? A language teacher’s mission is to help students to understand: Why/how does the grammar of a particular text construe/construct meaning? What does a particular text reveal about the grammatical system of the language in which it is produced?

Why is there not one ‘grammar’ of English? Semiotic (meaning) systems are not yet cracked by human beings. The discourse of the study of language (linguistics) is horizontal, not vertical, as in the ‘hard’ sciences. (Bernstein, B.1996. Pedagogy, symbolic control & identity: theory, research, critique. London:Taylor & Francis).

Teaching-enriching concepts from a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) view of language ‘Meta-functions’ Refer to the most basic functions of language: what is the message? who are the interactants & what is their relationship? how does the message make meaning? The concept of ‘meta-function’ is very useful for teachers to help students understand how the grammar of a language makes meaning in a given text*in a given context = the text architecture.

Reminder: What is ‘text’? When people speak or write, they produce ‘text’. A ‘text’ is any instance of language [..] in use, that makes sense to someone who knows the language (adapted from Halliday, rev’d by Mathiessen, 2004, p.3). A language teacher will always use text to help students to understand: Why/how does the text mean what it means? What does the text reveal about the system of the language in which it is produced?

Metafunctions performed SIMULTANEOUSLY by the grammar of ALL texts Ideational: Experiential & logical meaning How the grammar construes information about a topic – or about our experience of the world through noun groups (incl adjectives), verb groups, adverb groups and prepositional phrases.. Interpersonal meaning How the grammar positions interactants, expresses interrelationships, attitudes, feelings through mood*, modality, tense, pronouns, and appraisal* resources. Textual meaning How the grammar builds up and organises the flow of the text in relation to its context through Theme choices and cohesion e.g. lexis, tenses, ellipsis, circumstantial adjuncts & reference. .

Example of meanings made in a TEXT Oxygen was first prepared by Joseph Priestley in 1774. He prepared it by heating mercuric oxide, but nowadays it is produced commercially in large quantities by a process called fractional distillation. It is contained in both air and water and is given off by plants in their respiratory process.

Take out nouns/verbs, no ‘topic’ __________________by _______in ______. ___________by ____________, but _________________in ________by ____________________. _________in both ______and ________and _________by ______in _________________.

How the grammar of the sample text makes 3 meanings Because the nouns & verbs (oxygen, prepared, mercuric oxide, produced, heating, process called fractional distillation, air, water, given off, plants…) are chosen, the experiential field of ‘science’ is construed. Because the declarative mood (S^F) is chosen, the writer is ‘giving information’ to the reader. Because remote/distant tense, passive voice without Actor, no modals, no ‘you’, are chosen, the text construes the message as ‘factual’, impersonal (not interactive, not ‘involving’ the reader). Because the writer chooses consistent tenses, logical referring pronouns (it, he), & logically interrelated vocabulary the text construes a coherent message.

Experiential meaning – an extra note In expressing experiential meaning, the clause ‘represents’ experience. A clause usually comprises ‘a participant + a process + a circumstance’, eg. This group + meets + at Ning Po # 2 school. The process (verb) carries most meaning in a clause, so we should analyse it first. Process types represent our experience too.

Process types in SFL Process types represent our external world, our internal world, and how we relate bits of experience to another. External = processes of the physical world of matter in doing, actions, events ~ ‘materialised’ Internal = processes of the world of consciousness, sensing, perceiving, emoting, imagining ~ ‘mental’ Relating, identifying, classifying experience ~ ‘relational’

Lexical verb classifications correspond to human experience Sensing Doing Being Having attribute or identity Symbolizing Saying Thinking Seeing Feeling Behaving Doing to, acting Creating Changing Existing

Process types in SFL: forming a circle of our world. Processes between ‘material’ and ‘mental’ are ‘behavioural’…the outer manifestations of inner workings, physiological states… Processes between ‘mental’ and ‘relational’ are ‘verbal’…symbolic relationships constructed in the human consciousness but enacted in forms of language like saying… Processes between ‘relational’ and ‘material’ are ‘existential’ ….things ‘exist’.

Remember…in schooling… no language = no meaning, no school subjects grammar makes meaning in texts, not ‘sentences’…. no teaching of text grammar = no social or academic meaning making by students

Useful References Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (2000). Using functional grammar: an explorer’s guide. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research Christie, F. & Derewianka, B. (2008). School Discourse: learning to write across the years of schooling. London and New York: Continuum Polias, J.(ed) (2005). Improving language and learning in public sector schools. Hong Kong: Quality Assurance Division, Education & Manpower Bureau