Discuss about the Systemic Functional Linguistics and Applicable.
This essay focuses on how students learning English as an additional language can be taught to ensure that they comprehend different concepts as well as those to whom English is a native language. These students require effective and thoughtful pedagogy in the process of communicating ideas and thoughts with them. It is vital for the teachers to take into consideration the students’ points of view as they introduce them to new information. The main focus of the essay is on systemic functional grammar and on the different grammatical concepts that students need to be conversant with. The essay focuses on words, grammar and other key language aspects for student of different levels.
The classroom can be a harsh environment to comprehend the English language correctly. Teachers and students who have a familiarity with one another could make assumptions and speak quickly during communication. In some instances, some things may be left unsaid, and specific rules could be enforced by the use of a look. Gestures could also be used to dissolve any misunderstandings that may exist process (Taverniers, 2010). Idioms that are commonly used may be bandied about without much consideration for their unintelligibility to people who are newcomers to the English speaking regions.
Systemic functional linguistics is the study of the relationship that exists between language and the functions that it serves in social settings. The linguistic system is made up of three strata in systemic functional linguistics. These are; lexicogrammar or wording, phonology or sound, and semantics (Almurashi, 2016). Grammar is treated as a resource that aids in the process of making meanings. Therefore, the systemic functional linguistics insist on the relationship between meaning and form.
Students need to learn different concepts in the English language to become better at communicating using the language. It is therefore important for teachers to teach students the different techniques such as metaphors, idioms, similes, rhetorical questions, and alliteration among others. Students also ned to learn god text organization techniques (DECD, 2014).
In the Australian curriculum, developing the literacy repertoires and the language resources available to students is an essential teaching component in line with the literacy capability. Teachers therefore need to work within a framework to ensure that they are able to adequately support their students (DECD, 2016). Teaching should be systematic to gradually introduce students to new concepts to enable the students to gain control of their new learning and become more independent. Incidentally, level four students communicate using simple words and sentences. At level five, they begin using different phrases and simple sentence openers and at level six, they use connectives to join different sentences. Consequently, at level seven, they make use of more complex words and vary their sentence openers more.
Four significant theoretical claims have been made by different scholars about the English language. First, language use is said to be functional; it is also said that the importance of language use is to make meanings (semantic), the meanings brought about by language are also supposed to be contextual. This means that they are influenced by the cultural and social contexts in which they are used. Finally, the process in which language is used is said to be semiotic, meaning that it is a process in which meaning is made through choice (Matthiessen, 2012).
Halliday (2010), also said that the development of language has occurred in a bid to respond to three needs of the social-functional nature. First, it has occurred to aid in construing experience about things that are happening inside and around us. Secondly, it was developed to aid in the process of interacting with the social world through negotiating attitudes and social roles. Finally, language development came about to assist in the creation of messages that can package people’s meanings based on what the starting point of the message is. This is referred to as the theme of the message.
In the process of teaching students who are learning English as an additional language different resources can be used. Incidentally, students in year level three can use games, stories, photos, and blogs among others (Martin, 2014). These resources enable the students to be more attentive and participate in the learning process which increases the levels at which they understand information.
The document ‘Three Levels of Texton Tornadoes’ has very many paragraphs that could be used for different learning activities. One activity is the use of a cloze text. Incidentally, on page five of the article, the chapter that talks about the duration of tornadoes can be turned into a cloze test. This can be used to test the students’ understanding of different features of the language. These include; tenses, conjunctions, adjectives, punctuation, prepositions, and articles. Therefore, different words can be removed from the paragraph and students can be required to fill them in with the right form of the words (Derewianka, 2012). This will help students master the English language and become better over time with practice.
Another activity that can be carried out to enrich the students’ comprehension of the English language is the use of error correction exercises. This is the situation whereby the teacher rewrites a paragraph while altering some of the words to make the text grammatically incorrect and then asking the students to identify and correct the mistakes contained in the texts. This activity will assist students to make a note of the mistakes they have been making and in turn correct their written and spoken grammar (Acara, 2013).
Students can also be called out and asked to translate a paragraph in their native language in a bid to evaluate whether they have properly understood the text. Alternatively, the students can be asked to provide some words in their native language that have been used in the text and then translate them. This will aid the students in fully understanding what the different words mean.
Students can also be instructed to carry out activities such as identifying patterns that exist in a text, comparing different texts, they shuld be asked higher order questions, and they can also be asked to conduct authentic dialogues about certain topics in English (EACD, 2016).
Finally, students can be asked to identify new vocabulary that is contained in the text and then look up the meanings and construct a sentence using the words. This will ensure that the words will not be forgotten.
The analysis of these two texts can be performed on the basis of field, tenor, and mode. The field of a text informs about the domain of experience that the text is about. The field is, therefore, an experiential metafunction element of a text. In the process of examination of a text for its field, two main elements need to be considered. First, it is important to examine the lexical items contained in the text. These are single words or a chain of words that are the basic components of a text’s vocabulary. Lexical words in a text can also be represented by the nouns present in the text (Lukin et al., 2011). In this analysis, we can look at the semantic domains from which the words refer to. This aids in better comprehension of texts because some words are used in one discipline more than they are used in another discipline.
In the text ‘The Levels of Texton Tornadoes,’ different words have been used that show what the text is about. These include; tornadoes, thunderstorms, centrifugal force, centripetal, fictitious force, partial vacuum, central core, storm, photogrammetry, doppler radar, tangential speeds, and airflow. These words show that the text is talking about tornadoes due to the constant repetition of the word. Other words indicate that the text is explaining how the tornadoes occur and how they are measured by different factors.
Conversely, the text ‘Three Genres on Flight’ has words that can tell what the text is about by just looking at the text without reading it. The words include; planes, spacecraft, Airbus, air travel, flight, airport, control tower, pilot, runway, and soaring. These words used together in a text show that the message being delivered in that text has to do with an explanation of flying in a plane.
Secondly, certain lexical words can be used based on whether the audience is specialized or generalized (Acara, 2013). This aids in explaining better about the audience for which the text is intended. In the text ‘Three Levels of Texton Tornadoes,’ three texts are created for three different audiences. The first text that is designed for primary school students has straightforward words, and it is concise. It is also explanative whereby it is aimed at explaining to the students what a tornado is, how it looks like, the speed at which it moves, and the adverse effects that are brought about by tornadoes.
The second text is written for secondary level students. The text commences with an explanation about tornadoes, but it does not define what they are because this is an advanced level of education and it is expected that students are aware of what tornadoes are. The text explains about the forces that lead to the formation of tornadoes. The text also speaks about the effects of tornadoes by providing the death rates over the past century. This text is, therefore, more in-depth than the one intended for primary school students, and it makes use of more complex words. It is also much longer since students in the secondary level of education can be able to accommodate more information and they have a longer concentration span.
The third text is intended for students in the tertiary level of education. This text contains a more in-depth analysis of tornadoes. It makes use of technical words that require people to be specialized in this field to be able to grasp the full meaning of the text. It is also much longer than both the text intended for primary and secondary levels of education. This therefore shows that texts must be adjusted to the target audience to ensure proper understanding of the information (DECD, 2014).
Another factor that is considered in field analysis of text is the type of circumstances and the process (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2010). This is shown by the words that are continually being used in the text. In the text ‘Three Genres of Flight,’ the words that are constantly used are related to planes and flying.
The mode in texts refers to the method in which the text appears to have been produced in. It is an element of the textual metafunction in a given text. Two axes can be used to model the mode of a text as a point which is in a continuum. These include; the action axis and the spoken axis. The action axis shows how close a text is in time to the events that it describes (Mathiessen, 2014). This time is not evident in the text ‘Three Genres on Flight.’ The text ‘Three Levels of Texton Tornadoes’ does not also depict this element as well because it does not describe one specific event but it speaks on how all tornadoes come to be and their effects.
Conversely, the spoken axis is used for texts that are interactive, and these may be prototypical spoken conversations and others may be prototypical written texts that do not display any signs of interactivity (Teruya, Mathiessen and Lam, 2010). The text ‘Three Levels of Texton Tornadoes’ is a scientific text and is not interactive and hence it falls into this category.
Interactivity in texts is shown by the presence of addresses, questions and answers, and different words that attract attention. Incidentally, in the text Three Genres of Flight, there is the use of the interjection ‘Help!’ which draws attention. It is also important to analyze the spontaneity of texts when analyzing the mode of the text. The document, Three Genres of Flight; text 1 has an element of spontaneity because it speaks of the events as they are happening in real time (Acara, 2013). This is shown because the text is written in present tense and even contains direct quotes of what the writer is saying as the events are happening.
Finally, tenor in texts aids in informing the readers the kind of person who the author is or how they are presenting themselves to be. It also shows the kind of people expected to be the audience. Finally, it explains the relationship that exists between the author and the readers. It is an element of the interpersonal metafunction contained in the text. Both texts used in this analysis are non-interactive (Hermans, 2017). Tenor can be analyzed into stance, personalization, and standing. Stance explains the level to which the reader is allowed to disagree with the content by the author. Standing shows how much the author is seen to possess authority and expertise on the subject in the text. The text ‘Three Levels of Texton Tornadoes’ shows that the author has a great mastery of the topic and it has a lot of use of technical vocabulary (DECD, 2014). Finally, personalization shows the level of attention that is drawn to the author or the reader. The text ‘Three Genres of Flight’; text one, the author draws attention to herself by speaking about the events happening to her as they occur.
In the text ‘Three Genres of Flight,’ the first text contains different words that may be challenging to learners to whom English is an additional language or dialect. First, there is the use of a simile where the author compares the speed of the plane with that of a cheetah. This could be confusing to a student who is not well versed in the English language. There is also the use of onomatopoeia. This is where the author speaks of the ground to be whizzing by. Onomatopoeia is also used where the author uses the word whoosh. Another word that is used is phew. This is a word that is used to show relief by the author. This text, therefore, displays a lot of use of onomatopoeia and can confuse the student (Derewianka and Jones, 2010). There is also the use of an idiom. This is shown where the author uses the phrase, ‘in the blink of an eye’ to show how fast they arrived at their destination. Finally, there is the use of another simile where the author says that they landed as gently as a feather.
Idioms can be fun to teach and for the students to learn. They are important because they aid students to whom English is not a first language to become better listeners and to sound more like the native speakers. In a class session, the teacher can introduce a theme. This theme could be sports-related, weather-related, or any other theme that the teacher intends the students to learn the idioms. This is a good way of teaching because it will enable the students to comprehend the meanings of the different phrases and observe the familiarity that exists between the different words.
In conjunction with the use of a theme, the teacher can also make use of pictures when teaching the different idioms (Acara, 2013). Here, the teacher should provide a picture in the explanation of the context of the idiom. This works best when the teacher uses pictures that humorously show the literal meaning of the idiom. In this activity, the teacher can show the picture to the students and ask them to guess the meaning of the idiom. The teacher should then provide examples of when the idiom would be used and the differences that exist between the actual meanings of the words and the meaning of the idiom.
Finally, to make sure that the students fully comprehend the idioms, form small groups in the class and provide them with about ten idioms. Let the students guess what the idiom means then have them look up the actual meanings. The students should then explain the meanings of the idioms to the class, and they make use of the idioms in a short dialogue to make sure that they fully understand the meaning.
Students especially in primary school levels lose interest or become distracted very first especially when they are studying new concepts. This activity requires the students to be very involved in the learning process. This therefore ensures that the students do not lose interest and even enjoy the process which in turn leads to high levels of understanding (Acara, 2013). It also involves the use of visual aids. This is also important because students may easily forget what they have been taught, but if they were able to see the different objects, they are likely to remember he teachings in the future. Further, this activity involves the creation of dialogue where the idiom is used. This in turn ensures that they gain an understanding of the concept and as a result, they will not forget it.
Students learning English as an additional language or dialect encounter many challenges in the learning process and it is important for teachers to make the learning process easier and more effective for them. They may have difficulty understanding statements that use humor, vocabulary, onomatopoeia and other styles. To ensure that they understand these concepts it is important for them to partake in different class activities. Therefore, proper teaching resources should be put in place for these students to assist in their learning process and to ensure that they benefit maximally from it.
References
Acara (2013). English as an Additional Language or Dialect Teacher Resource Annotated Content Descriptions English Foundation to Year 10.
Almurashi, A. (2016). An introduction to Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics. Journal for the study of English linguistic.
DECD (2014). Language and Literacy Levels Teaching Strategies. department of education and child development.
DECD (2016). Language and Literacy Levels Teaching Strategies. department of education and child development.
Derewianka, B. (2012). Knowledge about language in the Australian curriculum: English. Journal of linguistics.
Derewianka, B. and Jones, P. (2010). From traditional grammar to functional grammar: bridging the divide. FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES.
Halliday, m. And Matthiessen, c. (2010). an introduction to functional grammar. 3rd ed. new york: Routledge.
hermans, t. (2017). Cross-Cultural transgressions; research models in translation studies two historical and ideological issues. Routledge.
Lukin, A., Moore, A., Herke, M., and Wegener, R. (2011). Halliday’s model of register revisited and explored. Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts.
Martin, J. (2014). Evolving systemic functional linguistics: beyond the clause. Springer Open; Functional Linguistics.
Martin, J. (2014). Evolving systemic functional linguistics: beyond the clause. Functional Linguistics, 1(3).
Mathiessen, C. (2014). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar. 4th ed. NewYork: Routledge.
Systemic Functional Linguistics as applicable linguistics: social accountability and critical approaches1
Tavernier, M. (2010). The syntax-semantics interface in systemic functional grammar: Halliday’s interpretation of the Hjelmslevian model of stratification. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(4).
Teruya, k., Matthiessen, c. And lam, m. (2010). key terms in systemic functional linguistics. new york: continuum international publishing group.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download
