Introducing Functional Grammar

 Introducing Functional Grammar


Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p.84) stated, that research has shown “conclusively that the teaching of grammar has a positive effect on language development."

The issue is, which method, or combination of methods of teaching grammar, is the most effective for English language acquisition.

There was a move away from the Universal Grammar method of language teaching in the 1960’s, towards a way of teaching grammar that recognised that teaching communicative skills and as Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p. 87) notes, the "functional uses of authentic language", which is fundamental to effective language learning. This method of language teaching incorporated the learner’s individual needs, their interests, and acknowledged a learner's individual backgrounds. The purpose for learning was also vital. This method is a functional rather that a formal way of teaching grammar. It looks at how language is used in different social and cultural areas.

The Functional Grammar model was begun by Michael Halliday in the 1960’s and has a communicative purpose. It is particularly applicable to speaking and writing and how they work in different social environments. 

Halliday (1994, p xiii), stated that functional grammar is “a ‘natural’ grammar, in the sense that everything in it can be explained, ultimately, by reference to how language is used." He believed that all languages are organised around meanings or the metafunctions. Halliday argued (in Thompson, 2014), that we use language in three different ways. Firstly we use language to talk about our experience of the world. Secondly we use language to interact with others. Finally we use language to organise our messages to fit in with the wider context in which we are talking or writing.  

These three metafunctions will be explained further.

Firstly, ‘ideational’, or experiential metafunction, as Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p. 88) explains, is language used to create meaning about the world, such as personal or the workplace. 

An example of this language is the sentence Sarah went to the shops to buy milk. This sentence states a fact already known by the listener/reader through previous knowledge and is not necessarily measurable.

Secondly ‘interpersonal’ metafunction, which is using language to interact with others as a friend or colleague.

The following clause demonstrates this, Do you think Sarah went to the shops to buy milk? This question asks the listener/ reader for their opinion.

The third is textual metafunction, which as Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p. 88) states, is “language to construct cohesive and coherent stretches of spoken and written text appropriate to the purpose and context." As Thompson (2014) notes, it is organising language to fit in its context and is related to the Mode of the text.

For example, answering the question of whether Sarah went to the shops could be either, Sarah may have gone to the shops or Sarah did go to the shops.

As Thompson (2014, p.30) notes, the grammar “reflects this three-strand approach in that it consists of three components, each corresponding to one of the metafunctions." The result of the language choices is a structure which then creates a message.

Functional grammar views the ways language is used for different reasons and contexts. The purpose of language is for communication. It is descriptive and meaning based. As Schleppgell (2004, p. 1) states, functional grammar can give EFL students “a way of seeing how meaning and form is related in the different options available in the grammatical systems of the English language."

Furthermore, Halliday (1994, p.xiv) proposed, that functional grammar views each unit of language including clauses and phases as “functional with respect to the whole." The idea of text in a functional approach is in fact according to Feez (1998:4, in Hinkel, 2016, p.88), “any stretch of language which is held together cohesively through meaning," including single word texts such as “Hi” and a stop sign.

Language in the functional approach is used to create meaning in different social contexts. Register, according to Halliday (in Thompson, 2014, p. 40), is “variation according to use." The choices made depend on register variables which are:

Field: What the language is being used to talk/write about and the goals of the text (the topic/concepts), experiential meanings

Tenor: The role the language is playing between the speaker/writer and hearer/reader, whether equal or not (relationships/ status), interpersonal meanings.

Mode:  What type of text is being created and how, whether it is spoken/written/letter/email, the textual meanings. 

Each of these relates to a metafunction, the field is related to experiential meanings, tenor to interpersonal meanings and the mode to textual meanings.

Halliday (1985, in Hinkel, 2016, p. 91 ) recognised that "the kinds of meanings that are transmitted in writing tend to be somewhat different from the kinds of meanings transmitted in speech." They have different social audiences and purposes. This was illustrated by Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p.92) whereby a written and spoken text by the same person was presented to their colleagues. The general differences noted were noted by Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p.92), that in the spoken language, informal language was preferred, pauses and repetitions such as "um", frequently using personal pronouns and the basic unit was the clause, linked by conjunctions. With the written language the basic unit was a sentence. Clauses were linked by subordination. Formal language was used and less use of personal pronouns.

Functional grammar creates a more meaningful and interesting learning environment for both the teacher and learner. The text is viewed as a whole, and as Burns (in Hinkel, 2016, p. 103) states, language is utilised as a “communicative resource whose goal is to create meaning." By implementing the Functional Grammar approach, the teacher uses real language use situations, rather than purely studying sentence structure, to create a more meaningful language learning environment.


Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold

Hinkel, E. (Ed). (2016). Teaching English grammar to speakers of other languages. London: Routledge.

Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling: a functional linguistics perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Thompson, G. (2014). Introducing functional grammar (3rd ed.). Routledge.


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