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高　多

Abstracts: There are many functions of language, the most important one is metafunctions. In this article Ill talk something about my own superficial understanding about the topic---Functions of language, and the relation among the three metafunctions. Also I want to talk something about its effects in my daily Englishteaching work.

Key words:functions of language metafunction English teaching

1 Metafunctions

The way in which human beings use language are classified into three categories: ideational, interpersonal and textual function.

1.1 Ideational function

Language is used to organize, understand and express our perceptions of the world and of our own consciousness. This function is known as the ideational function.

1.2 Interpersonal function

Language is used to enable us to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take in roles and to express and understand feelings, attitude and judgment. This function is known as the interpersonal function.

1.3 Textual function

Language is used to relate what is said(or written) to the real world and to other linguistic events. This involves the use of language to organize the text itself. This is known as the textual function.

2 The relation among the three metafunctions

According to Halliday, we can conclude this topic into three points:

2.1 In the adult language, there are ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. The three metafunctions appear simultaneously in a clause.

2.2 The three metafunctions are equal in importance.

2.3 Each of the three metafunctions has its own pattern, and the patterns are not overlapping with each other. They are not contradictory.

For example, look at the clause A:

A. Her little son wetted the bed last night.

This clause tells us the particular experience that "Her son was bed-wetting last night." So at this level, the clause reflects its ideational function. At the same time, the speaker expresses this particular information.(Her son wetted the bed last night.) to the listener by using the clause. At this level, the clause reflects its interpersonal function. Also the speaker tells the listener that the content of the clause is something with a person "her son". At this level, the clause reflects its textual function.

Under some circumstances, we find that one of the three metafunctions can be more important than the other two. This is because of the style of the text. Sometimes, texts with explanation character are always stressed on ideational function. For example, look at Text B:

B. Shanghai, literally known as a port on the sea, is one of the world's largest seaports and China's major industrial and commercial center. With its deepening economics reform, this city, formerly crowned as the financial, economic and trade hub of the Far East, is playing a leading role in posting economic development in the Yangtze River valley. Meanwhile, Shanghai attracts millions of Chinese and overseas tourists with its unique charm. As an international metropolis, Shanghai provides direct flights to over 20 cities in the world.

And the texts with persuasion character are always stressed on interpersonal function. For example, look at Text C:

C. In the new e-report, "Cell Phone Harm", you will learn about the research that should convince you to discard your cell phone, or at least to save it for only the briefest, most important calls.

3 Application in my English language teaching

A major field of application of functional linguistics is in language teaching, and much of the knowledge in the topic can help the language teacher to understand more about their students' developmental needs by seeing how effective communication works in English.

I am a teacher of Shanghai Top Information & Technology Institute. The institute is a vocational college and the students' quality in studying is quite poor, especially in English learnin. Most of them are not good at English and they also have no interest in learning it yet. So how to teach such students learn English well is always a big problem we teachers have to face. We are confused often. After coming into contact with Functional Grammar, I try to put something I learned into my class, and happily find some of them useful.

3.1 Ideational function.

It can help us understand and interpret the physical& imaginary words. To some "fixed phrases", many teachers can't explain the literary quotation clearly. They just explain them as the "custom usage". In fact, there are many knowledge behind them. e.g.: "look out" means "be careful, take care". But literally it means like "look at the outside", so many students may misunderstand the meaning of the phrase. To explain such kind phrase to students, we teachers can imagine bravely: A person is walking along the road lonely while a horse is running through at high speed. So the passerby may shout at the person "Look out!"(which means look at your surrounding carefully, do not just walk!). This explanation is in keeping with the language development of human being. Also it is easy to understand and remember

3.2 Interpersonal function.

It mediates social relationship, help us establish the roles we assume. Most of my students like surfing the internet, eating snacks, reading kong-fu novels or cartoon books, also they like reading entertainment news, and so on. So I collect many materials of these aspects in order to move their interest. When we do exercises, such as listening exercises, speaking exercises and translation exercise, I deliberately give them some materials which I collected. Always they suddenly begin to pay much attention to my class and my exercises.

3.3 Textual function.

I realize the use of language is not just the using of words or sentences, but the text. So in daily English teaching, I always tell my students do not just recite words, phrases only. I tell them to remember words or phrases in the texts, in the particular reading comprehension materials, then they can have a good understanding and memory of the words or phrases.

4 Conclusion

In this article, first I reviewed what the three metafunctions are. Secondly I use the example clause and text to state the relation among the three metafunctions. Finally, I talk something about the effects of its applicationsin my daily English teaching work. Grasp the "Functions of Language" is the basis for further study in functional grammar, also it is very useful in our work.

References:

[1]Halliday, M. A. K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.).

[2]Thompson, G. Introducing Functional Grammar. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2000.

[3]The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach. 229.

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