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 5
FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES TO
TEACHING GRAMMAR IN THE
SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
Anne Burns

Introduction
English language teachers all over the world grapple with the challenge of teaching
grammar, including the questions of whether to teach it and how it should be
taught. One of the reasons is that many different approaches to teaching grammar
have been proposed over time, and each brings with it a particular perspective on
what grammar teaching involves. These perspectives range from arguing for vari-
ous effective approaches for incorporating grammar to avoiding the teaching of
grammar at all (e.g. Krashen 1981; Prabhu 1987). Krashen distinguished between
‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ and argued that language acquisition takes place through
exposure to comprehensible input. This argument implied that language profi-
ciency is acquired naturally and that as long as teachers provide the necessary input,
acquisition would inevitably follow. Prabhu recommended a ‘strong’ version of
communicative language teaching, asserting that it was only by communicating
that learning could take place. Both of these positions questioned the need for
grammar teaching and error correction—and even discouraged it.
Over the years, this “zero option” view (Ellis 1994: 653) of grammar teaching
has been overtaken by research showing conclusively that the teaching of grammar
has a positive effect on language development (e.g. Ellis 2006; Norris and Ortega
2000). As a result language teaching has, as Larsen-Freeman (2003: 20) aptly puts
it, moved away from the questionable position that:

[w]hat works well in the natural environment is what should be adhered to

in the language classroom. The assumption is that it is our job to create the
natural conditions of acquisition present in the external environment . . . [I]
nstead what we want to do as a language teacher is . . . to improve upon
natural acquisition, not emulate it . . . [and to] accelerate natural learning.

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  85

Teachers still, however, face many possibilities and dilemmas when adopting an
approach to grammar instruction. Two major types of grammatical focus have
been shown to have a positive effect on language learning. The first, Focus on
Form (sometimes referred to as FonF) “involves briefly drawing students’ attention
to linguistic elements in context as they arise incidentally in lessons whose over-
riding focus is on meaning or communication”, which means that grammar could
be taught during an activity or reactively after the activity or both (Long 2000:
185). In this approach, the teacher would be likely to identify particular items that
are causing problems for the learners. Focus on FormS (or FonFS), on the other
hand, is a more traditional approach that involves teaching preselected linguistic
items that are sequenced and introduced through structured activities, such as
drills, pattern practice, and opportunities to practise these forms. In this approach,
teaching would be more likely to be organized around a grammar-based syllabus
that means working from grammar structures to grammar use, with activities or
tasks being inserted from time to time to promote practice.
Against this background of recent debates on grammar acquisition, the discus-
sion in this chapter takes a functional approach to the teaching of grammar. It sees
grammar in language learning as primarily concerned with social interaction and
the creation of meaning. In order to situate this approach within other concepts
about grammar and grammar teaching, I first provide a brief account of different
perspectives that have influenced language teaching

Formal and Functional Approaches to

Grammar and Grammar Teaching
Over time, two major perspectives on the teaching of grammar relate to seeing
grammar in either formal (prescriptive) or functional (descriptive) terms.
A formal (logical) approach to grammar goes back as far as Aristotle, who “saw
language as a set of constituent classes: syllable, affixes, articles, nouns, verbs con-
junctions, and so on, with rules for their combinations” (Derewianka 2001: 243).
Later grammarians, such as Ben Johnson, began to codify, or formalize the gram-
mar of English based on descriptions of classical Latin and Greek that were avail-
able only in written form, and established a tradition of scholarly grammars of
English by linguists such as Jespersen and Sweet that has lasted to the present time.
Approaches to teaching grammar for language learning based on formal perspec-
tives (which are still alive and well today in classrooms all over the world) are
therefore concerned with language as a system of rules, that can be separately
identified and taught in a predictable sequence. ‘Grammar translation’ and ‘struc-
tural’ approaches (Bloomfield 1933; Fries 1945) adopt a strong concern for accu-
racy, error correction and language analysis. While grammar translation focused
on written sentence-level grammar, structural grammar incorporated an interest
in promoting oral production. It focused on pattern practice, which was believed,
given enough reiteration, to lead eventually to fluent language production habits.

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 86  Anne Burns

A grammar translation approach is the way I remember learning French as a

foreign language at high school. The teacher would use a textbook in which each
lesson was presented in a fixed format that would consist of:

• Grammar: Presentation of new grammar structures and revision of those

introduced in a previous lesson.
• ‘Lecture’: A short reading passage in French containing many examples of the
new items and revised items.
• Exercises: A series of exercises including (a) comprehension questions
related to the ‘lecture’; (b) practice of the grammar by manipulating differ-
ent items: (c) translation of individual sentences from English to French or
vice versa.
• Vocabulary: Lists of vocabulary items presented for revision or preparation for
the next lesson.

There were also some signs of the influence of structural grammar in these les-
sons, however, as there was sometimes an attempt to encourage ‘free writing’ or to
engage students in thinking about how to construct a short and familiar interac-
tion, such as the following:

Compose a little shopping scene. A boy (or a girl) comes into a shop to
buy some article. The child and the shopkeeper have the usual sort of
conversation:
Jean: Bonjour, Monsieur. [Good morning, sir.]
Le Marchand: Bonjour, mon petit, qu’est-ce que vous desirez? [And so on . . .]
[Good morning, my dear, what would you like?]

These kinds of approaches were underpinned by a ‘building block’ view, which

saw language learning as a linear process of acquiring one structure after another,
based on repetition and habit formation. From the 1960s, Chomsky’s concept of
transformational-generative grammar confronted these assumptions:

It seems to me impossible to accept the view that language behavior is a

matter of habit, that it is slowly acquired by reinforcement, association and
generalization.
(Chomsky 1966: 43)

He proposed a distinction between competence (the innate ability of humans

to acquire the language they speak by drawing on universal language rules) and
performance (the language actually produced by a speaker). Chomsky’s inter-
est was in competence, the underlying mental systems used by an ‘idealized’
native speaker to generate language structures. Performance was viewed as
“somewhat degenerate and untidy when compared with the idealised

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  87

competence“ (Derewianka 2001: 251). His views represented a major chal-

lenge to structuralist theories that language consisted of observable surface
structures. Chomsky claimed that, rather than rehearsing language structures,
acquisition involved “language in use”, an active creative process of drawing
on innate rules to generate language production. Chomsky’s ideas, however,
did not translate easily into language teaching, and in fact he himself claimed
they did not have relevance to language programs. Their value lay in seeing
the language learner as an active generator of hypotheses about language use
rather than an absorber of grammatical structures, and they also promoted the
concept that errors were a positive indication that hypothesizing about how
language works was taking place.
In the middle of the twentieth century, however, further strands of thinking
emerged, based on the idea that language use was a form of social action. Hymes
argued that:

[t]here are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be
useless.
(Hymes 1971b: 278)

Hymes coupled the notion of ‘communicative’ with ‘competence’, arguing that

if speakers are to use language effectively, grammatical knowledge needed to be
complemented by other kinds of knowledge like the communicative setting, the
participants, purposes, channel of communication and topics. Canale (1981)
outlined Hymes’s notion of communicative competence as including sociolin-
guistic competence (knowing how to express meaning appropriate to purpose,
audience and context), discourse competence (selecting, sequencing and manag-
ing language to express meaning effectively), strategic competence (using strate-
gies to compensate for breakdown in communication), as well as linguistic
competence (using grammar correctly to express one’s message), A major shift
that emerged from these arguments was to change the emphasis in instructional
situations from teaching grammatical structure to teaching communicative skills,
a shift that also led to further developments in considering the backgrounds and
profiles of learners, their language learning needs, their purposes for learning and
the kinds of interactions they wished to engage in. A major outcome of this shift
in thinking was the emergence of communicative language teaching with its
interest in grammar as it relates to use through discourse and text, in other words
the functional uses of authentic language. This change in orientation placed
greater emphasis on descriptive grammars that could illuminate how language is
actually used in naturalistic written and spoken communication. As Celce-Murcia
(1990: 146) expressed it, what was required was “an interactive model of gram-
mar and discourse, one that demonstrates the necessity and importance of both
levels of language to the language learning process and to the attainment of
communicative competence”.

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 88  Anne Burns

Systemic Functional Linguistics: A Social Theory of Grammar

One such functional approach to grammar is systemic functional grammar (Hal-
liday 1978, 1994). Halliday conceives of language as a social semiotic (a
meaning-making system that is socially motivated). The model of grammar he
developed focuses on the relationships between the social purposes for which
people use language and the grammatical resources of their linguistic repertoire,
on which they draw to communicate. His description of language consists of three
meta functions through which different kinds of meanings are created:

• Ideational meta function: Language to create meaning about experiences of

the world (personal, workplace, imaginative and so on).
• Interpersonal meta function: Language to express relationships with others
(novice, expert, friend, spouse and so on).
• Textual meta function: Language that constructs cohesive and coherent
stretches of spoken and written text appropriate to the purpose and context.

The notion of text in a functional approach relates to “any stretch of language

which is held together cohesively through meaning” (Feez 1998: 4) and which has
a particular social purpose in a particular context. A complete text can consist of
single words, such as Hi! (spoken in passing to an acquaintance) or Exit in a shop-
ping centre or railway station, or it can consist of lengthy interactions, such as an
extensive casual conversation, or a political speech, or extended pieces of writing
such as a romantic novel or a workplace memo. A functional approach examines
how speakers convey meaning through extended discourse rather than through
single utterances or sentences, which have tended to be a common unit of analysis
in many grammar classes. In a functional approach, teachers and learners can ana-
lyze the structure, organization and development of texts more systematically using
different aspects of the grammar.
Systemic functional approaches explain language in terms of a system of choices,
rather than as a set of structures. In other words, SFL is interested in the potential of
the language system to create meaning in a particular social context. The choices
made will vary across different strata or levels of the language: semantic (meaning),
syntax (lexico-grammatical features—vocabulary, grammar and morphology) and
phonological (sounds and symbols that convey language). The way in which lan-
guage users make choices from their repertoire of potential language use depends
on a set of register variables—the dimensions of a context that combine to create
meaning for different purposes and audiences and through different modes of com-
munication. The register variables are described by Eggins (2004: 90) as:

• Field: What the language is being used to talk about (the topic/concepts).
• Tenor: The role the language is playing between the interactants (relationships/
status).
• Mode: The role the language is playing in the interaction (spoken/written).

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  89

TABLE 5.1  Grammatical Sources for Field

Verbs (processes) •  Action (pick up, walk)

•  Relating (be, have)
•  Thinking (reflect on, think about)
•  Communicating (whisper, disagree)
•  Feeling (calm down, buck up)
Nouns and nominal groups (participants) •  Noun (house)
•  Nominal group (the nice old house)
Prepositional and adverbial phrases •  Circumstance of time (on Monday)
(circumstances) •  Circumstance of place (at the movies)
•  Circumstance of manner (untidily)

TABLE 5.2  Grammatical Sources for Tenor

Type of clause •  Declarative (I’d like a cup of coffee.)

•  Interrogative (Can I have a cup of coffee?)
•  Imperative (Give me a cup of coffee.)
Modality (expressions of •  Verbs (I might go. I will go)
low to high probability or •  Adverbs ( I’ll possibly go. I’ll definitely go)
tentativeness) •  Nouns (There’s a chance I’ll go. There’s a certainty I’ll go.)
•  Adjectives (It’s unlikely I’ll go; It’s definite that I’ll go)

TABLE 5.3  Grammatical Sources for Mode

Thematic structure of the clause • Theme (the starting point of the message—
(the starting point of the message) new information (On Thursday . . .)
• Rheme (the rest of the message—given
information (We went to the movies.)
Links between parts of text •  Conjunctions (and, but, so)
•  Pronouns (I, we, them)

Grammatically, each of these three variables is reflected through different sources

in the language. Field is reflected in choices of content that reflects the topic.
Grammatical items include those shown in Table 5.1.
The grammar of tenor—how writers and speakers negotiate the interpersonal
aspects of a text— is created by the grammatical features shown in Table 5.2.
Finally, mode is reflected grammatically in the elements shown in Table 5.3.

Register and Grammar

In the following texts, the topic of communication is the same—an invitation to a
birthday party. But consider how the register varies according to the different
purposes and audiences the producers of the text have in mind, as well as the dis-
tance from the receivers of the text in time and space:

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 90  Anne Burns

Text 1
Hi gorgeous, Remember! my birthday’s on 12th. fancy coming over to my
place for a bite to eat? A x

Text 2
Hi Linda, I’m wondering if you received the invitation for my birthday party
on 12 June? If you would like to join us for lunch you’d be most welcome.
Hope to see you then. Anne

Text 3
Dear family and friends
You are cordially invited to attend a luncheon party in honour of Anne’s
birthday on 12th June, 2015. It will commence at 12:30 at 16 Frances St,
Bingham. Please RSVP by 5 May, 2015 for catering purposes. We very much
look forward to seeing you on the day.

We can see that across the texts, the relationships between the participants varies
from a very personal, close and possibly intimate contact in Text 1 to more distant,
formal and generic contacts in Texts 2 and 3. Text 1 suggests communication
between very close friends or perhaps romantic partners, while Text 2 implies a
relationship between less close acquaintances or perhaps work colleagues. Text 3
addresses a general audience that incorporates relationships that are possibly close
or more distant and therefore must send a general message that includes different
levels of social contact. These sets of relationships affect the way the writers of the
text make selections from the lexico-grammatical resources they have at their
disposal in order to create the meaning. Text 1 uses very informal lexis to construct
the message, addressing the receiver as gorgeous, issuing a direct command (Remem-
ber!), referring to a known location (my place), making assumptions about shared
knowledge (the 12th) and using an informal and formulaic expression to express
the activity they will share (a bite to eat).
The lexico-grammar of Text 2 reflects the more formal relationship between
Linda and Anne. Because the writer cannot assume the same level of familiarity
as in Text 1, the reminder of the event is hedged through the polite expression
of modality (I’m wondering if . . .), and the event is spelled out explicitly (my
birthday on 12 June). The writer uses the modal form would, conveying the mes-
sage that the receiver has a choice whether to act on the invitation. Text 3 opens
with a speech act of invitation (you are cordially invited), expressing a generalized
message to a group of people, with other ‘prestige’ choices of lexis such as attend,
luncheon party, in honour of, commence, for catering purposes being selected to suggest
a formal occasion. Drawing language learners’ attention to the notion of

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  91

register can help them to understand how register variation in their linguistic
choices is related to what is culturally and socially relevant in different textual
contexts.
Another notable aspect of these three texts is the mode of communication.
Although all three texts are written—we can imagine the first being a text message,
the second an email and the third a formal written invitation—the first is distinctly
‘spoken-like’ in style, while the second and third are more ‘written-like’. Taking
the idea of mode further, we can consider in more detail the differences between
spoken and written language that can be taken into account when teaching gram-
mar for speaking and listening or reading and writing.

Relationships Between Spoken and Written Language

Halliday (1985: 45) notes that although spoken and written language are related to
each other, “the kinds of meanings that are transmitted in writing tend to be
somewhat different from the kinds of meanings transmitted in speech”. Having a
sense of what these differences are, and therefore where it is important to assist
students with different kinds of grammar knowledge, is valuable information for
language teachers. Broadly speaking, speech and writing typically serve different
social purposes and are intended for different kinds of audiences. Speakers and
writers draw on a common repertoire of linguistic resources but use them in dif-
ferent ways. To illustrate some of the differences typical of speech and writing,
compare the following texts. Both texts deal with the same topic—the experience
of studying in a master’s course through distance learning. In Text 4, the speaker
is describing her experience to some of her colleagues.

Text 4
I was working in Turkey at the time. . . um I was lucky enough to have one
of my colleagues doing the same program . . . started at the same time as me
so we . . . er . . . used to get together regularly. . .um sometimes as often as
twice a week and would get together and compare our findings and . . . er
because our learning styles were different as well, we, well we compensated
for one another . . . .

Text 5 expresses the same information in a written version.

Text 5
I was then employed in Turkey where, fortunately I was able to collaborate
with a colleague who commenced the program simultaneously. We held reg-
ular weekly meetings to compare findings. Because our learning styles were
different, we complemented each other.

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 92  Anne Burns

TABLE 5.4  Spoken and Written Language: Typical Features

Spoken Language Written Language

Basic unit is the clause (utterance). Basic unit is the sentence.

Clauses are linked by conjunction (and, but, Clauses are linked by subordination
so etc.) to build the text. (who, which, when etc.) to build the text.
Frequent use of formulaic chunks (I was Little use of formulaic language
lucky enough)
Informal language preferred (we used to get Formal language preferred (commenced)
together)
Range of noticeable performance effects Few/no noticeable performance effects
(hesitations, pauses, repeats, false starts,
incompletion) (er . . . um . . . we, well we)
Frequent use of ellipsis (omission of Little use of ellipsis
grammatical elements, started at the same time)

Frequent use of personal pronouns (I, we) Little use of personal pronouns

There are some noticeable differences in the way that the lexis and grammar
‘package’ the meaning in these two texts. Speakers must generally construct speech
spontaneously in ‘real time’ and therefore their utterances show particular pattern-
ings of language use that are different from written texts. Table 5.4 summarizes
some of the key differences between spoken and written language and illustrates
them from Texts 4 and 5. It needs to be stressed, however, that these differences
typify the differences; speech and writing may be more or less spoken-like or
written-like depending on the sociocultural context, the topic, the relationships
between speaker/writer and listener/reader and the distance in time and space
from the phenomena, events or actions that are the focus of meaning.

The Mode Continuum

A useful way of thinking about the relationships and differences in the way gram-
mar and lexis vary across texts is the idea of a spoken and written continuum
(Figure 5.1).

Most spoken Most written

(Language accompanying action) (Language as reflection)

FIGURE 5.1  Spoken and Written Continuum (Hammond 1992: 5)

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  93

Language accompanying action occurs where interaction is immediate and

there is the least physical distance between the participants in the communication,
such as in watching sports, sharing games, constructing something. This kind of
language is highly context-dependent. Here is an example of this kind of interac-
tion, where the speakers are in the kitchen doing some cooking together (all texts
adapted from Hood et al. 1996; see also Feez 1998).

Text 6
S1: That’s OK.
S2: OK, how much?
S1: All of it, the lot . . . the whole lot
S2: Like err . . . this?
S1: Yeah, now just work it in . . . softly . . . softly . . . not too fast . . . or it
won’t work.

We can see that this spoken text is made up of rapid speaker turns, where there
are questions, responses and feedback. The speakers rely on the social and physical
context and their relationships within that context to make the language meaning-
ful. They do not need to explicitly refer to different things or items in the context
as it is obvious to them what they are. Therefore, there are inexplicit references,
such as that, it, and this, to the physical actions and items. The speakers use incom-
plete clauses, and there are repetitions, hesitations and everyday colloquial expres-
sions, like the lot. Moving along the continuum might mean encountering a text
more like this next one.

Text 7
Add seasoning and briskly beat the mixture. Beat the egg whites until they hold
firm peaks. Fold them into the mixture. Pour it into a buttered souffle dish.

Text 7 is clearly a recipe, a written text typically found in cookery instructions.

However, in this text, the objects in the process are explicitly referenced, seasoning,
mixture, peaks and so on. Because this is a procedure or instructional text, the verbs
clauses are imperative, for example, beat, fold, to indicate the processes that must be
carried out. The key messages are linked together by conjunctions, and, until. Mov-
ing even further towards the written end of the continuum, we might encounter
a text such as this:

Text 8
The addition of the beaten egg whites provides the necessary aeration to
enable the souffle to rise.

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 94  Anne Burns

Here, we see a much more formal and technical text whose purpose is an expla-
nation of the cooking process aimed at a specialist or professional audience. Rather
than being presented as verbs in imperative form, the actions are transposed into
nouns—or nominalized—which creates more prestige, technical and formal lan-
guage, addition, aeration. The messages expressed by the text are linked through
verbs rather than conjunctions, provides, to enable.
Of course, there is no clear dividing line between texts that are spoken and those
that are written, as the dashed lines in Figure 5.1 indicate. For example, a political
speech or a news item may be spoken but is very likely to have been prepared as a
written text rather than produced spontaneously. Alternatively, a text message
might be created through writing but could be more typical of something that is
spoken or created ‘on the run’ as in Text 4. However, the concept of the mode
continuum is useful in grammar instruction as teachers can use it to identify where
different forms of language production may be required from their students. For
example, teachers could begin with the concrete language used to undertake an
action or describe a situation. They can then help students to shift the grammar
along the continuum towards creating the more abstract texts that are important
in academic writing. Working on reference and nominalization are two areas, for
example, where a teacher could assist students in improving texts.

Reference
When students are practising texts about events or people that are distant in time
or space from the immediate context, it is important to ensure that they have the
vocabulary to label these items fully (e.g. egg whites, mixture). They also need to
then know how to refer back to these items by using pronouns (them, it). By prac-
tising the use of reference they can begin to learn to link parts of the text together
to create a cohesive whole.

Nominalization
Nominal groups—for example, the addition of the beaten egg whites, the necessary aera-
tion from Text 8—represent actions, not through verbs, but as things through noun
phrases. In spontaneous speech, it is more likely that these actions would have been
constructed as verbs, that is, act and aerate. Halliday (1994) refers to this process of
expressing actions as nouns as nominalization. Once actions have been expressed as
nouns, the speaker or writer can manipulate the meaning. First, the noun group can
be expanded to make the expression of meaning more intricate and complex: the
timely addition of the fluffy beaten egg whites; the timely and prompt addition of the fluffy
lightly beaten egg whites and so on. Second, the people doing the action can be
removed from it: the necessary aeration does not identify who is doing the aerating.

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  95

The Concept of Genre

Martin (2001: 155) defines genre as a “staged, goal-oriented social process”:

• Staged in that there are recognizable stages in the unfolding of texts.

• Goal-oriented in that texts have the goal of creating meaning.
• Social in that texts are created to achieve a social purpose.

In other words, genres are typical configurations or arrangements of text patterns

that emerge (and change) over time in a cultural/social context. They are socially
purposeful and created in order to achieve particular types of meaning (that is, they
are functional in that context). For language teachers, understanding the notion of
genre, particularly the genres that are commonly used in academic contexts, can
provide a basis for program planning. The following two written texts are about
New Year celebrations in Australia and in Vietnam. As you read the texts, think
about the ways that they differ and how the lexico-grammar is used to construct
the different stages of the text.

Text 6
On New Year’s Eve my flatmates and I decided to go to the city to watch the
fireworks. We caught the train at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon because we
wanted to get a good spot under the Harbour Bridge. We took our picnic
basket filled with enough food to get us through to twelve o’clock.
It was beautiful watching the night move in over the harbour and everyone
was feeling very festive. At midnight the fireworks started and they were fan-
tastic. Balls of light burst over the water and at the end a rain of white light
fell from the bridge.
It took us so long to get home that we thought we might stay in a hotel
next year and go home the following day.

Text 7
Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. It is an important festival in Vietnam. It is
celebrated during the full moon which can be any time from late January to
mid February.
The Vietnamese from all over the country return to their parents’ home
bringing food and gifts. During Tet the people are expected to repay debts,
correct mistakes and remember their ancestors. It is a mixed time of happiness
and noise and seriousness and quiet.

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 96  Anne Burns

People put peach blossom in their homes and decorate the rooms with
coloured paper. They cook sticky rice and make cakes. Fireworks light up the
sky every night between the old year and the New Year and people visit the
temples. Tet is a time for people to remember the past and enjoy the present.
(de Silva Joyce and Burns 1999: 83)

Text 6 is in the form of a recount of personal experience of the events and the
writer’s reaction to them. Its structure and grammar differ in various ways from
Text 7, which is a report of the generalized nature of people’s experience within a
particular culture (Table 5.5).
The notion of genre not only sheds light on typical grammatical patterns in
different types of texts. It also highlights how genres have recognizable ways of
unfolding—their generic structure—and that different stages in the text exhibit
different grammatical patterns. In Table 5.6, which shows the generic structure of
a recount and a report, the symbol ^ means ‘is followed by’, and an element
enclosed in parentheses () indicates that it is optional in the structure.

TABLE 5.5  Grammatical Features of Texts 6 and 7 (de Silva Joyce and Burns 1999: 84)

Recount Report

Text opens with an orientation to Text opens with a general classification

the event, including: statement, including:
• Prepositional phrase • Relational verb (relational process) Tet is the
(circumstance) of time Vietnamese New Year.
(On New Year’s Eve).
• Prepositional phrase
(circumstance) of place
(into the city).
Text uses past tense: Text uses present tense:
• To refer to previous personal • To refer to habitual social experience.
experience.
We caught the train at about 3 o’clock People put peach blossom in their homes and
in the afternoon because we wanted to decorate the rooms with coloured paper. They cook
get a good spot . . . sticky rice and make cakes.
Action verbs (material processes) Linking verbs (relational processes) dominate:
dominate:
Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. It is an important
Balls of light burst over the water and festival in Vietnam.
at the end a rain of white light fell
from the bridge.
Noun groups refer to specific Noun groups refer to general categories
people: of people:
my flatmates and I. During Tet the people are expected to repay debts,
correct mistakes and remember their ancestors.

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  97

TABLE 5.6  Generic Structure for Recount and Report (adapted from Macken-Horarik
2002: 21)

Genre Purpose Generic Structure Description of Stages

Recount Retells events in a Orientation^Record of Orientation: Information

temporal sequence to events^(Reorientation) about situation (who, what,
inform or entertain why, where, when)
Record of events: Events in
time sequence
Reorientation: Events
brought back to present
Report Describes recurrent General statement/ General statement:
natural, social, classification^Description Information about topic
environmental of aspects^Description of Description of aspect:
situations by activities Lists/elaborates qualities
classifying them or features
and describing their Description of activities:
characteristics Describes behaviours/
functions/uses

The Teaching-Learning Cycle

Cummins and Man (2006: 807) argue that:

[t]o develop proficiency in academic English, students need systematic scaf-

folding and instruction to deal with longer texts, structurally more complex
sentences, more subject specific new vocabulary, less visual material and
more creative and critical higher order thinking skills.

In order to provide such systematic scaffolding in the teaching of texts, a

teaching-learning cycle is often used in a genre-based and functional approach to
teaching grammar. The cycle aims to scaffold and support learning through vari-
ous stages as learners work towards understanding and producing a particular
spoken or written text. In this cycle, texts are explored in terms of their social and
cultural, as well as their functional and linguistic, purposes. The classroom talk that
occurs between teacher and learners is a crucial aspect of: (1) building knowledge,
skills and understanding; (2) learning the language needed to successfully control
the text; (3) learning about the language and how it works in the text.
The cycle outlined in Figure 5.2 (Hammond et al. 1992) is one that was adapted
from earlier work by Callaghan and Rothery (1988).
The cycle consists of four interrelated phases that progressively build towards a
knowledge base that allows learners to gain greater control of the target text type
or genre.
Building Knowledge of the Field involves exploring and developing cultural
knowledge in relation to the text. This could mean making cultural comparisons

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 98  Anne Burns

DENT
STU
CL
T AS
EN S
TUD
S Building Knowledge Modelling of Text
of the Field – Cultural context
ER – Social function T
– Cultural context
H

– Schematic structure

EA
AC

– Shared experience

CH
TE

– Control of relevant – Linguistic features

ER
vocabulary – Using spoken language
– Grammatical patterns to focus on written text
CLASS

Increasing
approximation to
control of written

DE N T
TEACH E

and spoken texts

ST U
R

Independent Joint Construction of Text

Construction of Text – Schematic structure
– Schematic structure – Linguistic features
ST

T
– Linguistic features – Knowledge of field

EN
UD

N – Knowledge of field

D
E

T U
ST
ST
UD S
EN AS
T CL

STUDENT R
TE A C H E

FIGURE 5.2  The Teaching-Learning Cycle

of texts; developing knowledge of key contexts where such texts are produced;
understanding their purposes within those contexts; considering the kinds of rela-
tionships that might be involved between those who use the texts; researching
information on the content; and developing key language skills (e.g. vocabulary)
required to produce and negotiate the target texts. The Modelling of Text stage
involves the teacher in providing sample texts of the target genre so that learners
can build up knowledge of their purpose in the cultural and social context, the
generic structure and text staging, the key vocabulary and the patterns of the
grammatical structures.
At the Joint Construction of Text stage, the teacher spends time working col-
laboratively in the classroom with the learners to co-construct a text related to
the  target genre. This stage typically involves drawing on the learners’ new
knowledge of text models to help them to construct a similar text. It is also a stage
where teachers might diagnose what further work needs to be done to consoli-
date the language skills learners need to have in order to manage the text. The
final stage, Independent Construction of Text, occurs when learners reach a point
where they have enough knowledge to work independently on construction of
the text. In a spoken text, it means being able to take up appropriate roles as a
speaker and/or listener, to handle the vocabulary and grammatical structures

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  99

required to produce the text and to facilitate the flow of the text by using effective
discourse strategies such as turn-taking, backchanneling, clarification requests and
other features that prevent breakdown of communication.
The model is cyclical in nature, which means that it is not meant to be used in
a lockstep sequence but as a conceptual framework for planning the processes of
genre-based pedagogy. Potentially, teachers could begin a unit of work on a par-
ticular genre at any point in the cycle. For example, asking intermediate learners
to first construct a text independently can be a form of needs analysis that allows
teachers to diagnose how well learners can already manage a text or what areas the
teacher needs to explicitly teach. The key to using the cycle is to see it not as a
prescriptive teaching approach but more as a means of scaffolded guidance and
support for learning that will lead to successful achievements for learners.

Putting the Teaching-Learning Cycle into Action:

A Practical Example
To provide an example of how a teacher could work with the idea of genre, text
and grammar and use the teaching-learning cycle, consider the following text
written by a low-intermediate-level adult ESL student (de Silva Joyce and Burns
1999: 118). The student’s aim was to write a letter of complaint to a real estate
agent asking for a problem to be fixed in their house. The teacher began the cycle
by asking the students in her class to compose the letter using their existing lan-
guage knowledge. In this way she could begin by diagnosing where they were in
their grammatical knowledge of the text and how able they were to create the text
by themselves.

Text 8: Independent Construction

Dear Mr ____________
I don’t know how many time I should inform ‘this’ to you. ‘This’ is ‘some-
thing wrong’ on the roof of my rent bathroom and rent flat it on _____Avenue.
Tilp 99999999.
Last night from 2 am until writing this letter (morning) again water still
drift flow through that roof.
Yours__________

We can see that the text produced by the student shows that he has not fully
achieved the goal of producing a letter of complaint. In some ways, he manages to
give a clear picture of the problem in his flat, and he expresses his frustration with
the situation by underlining parts of the letter. His spelling skills are also quite well
developed. However, he does not have the appropriate control of grammar and
vocabulary or adequate knowledge of interpersonal resources in the grammar to
be able to express his message clearly enough that it will be taken seriously. The

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 100  Anne Burns

letter revealed to the teacher that the student did not have good knowledge of the
generic structure of a letter of complaint, of how to format such a letter in English
and of the relevant grammar and vocabulary. The teacher decided to build knowl-
edge of the field in relation to the purpose, audience, language and structural features
by discussing the following questions with the students (adapted from Paltridge
2001):

• For what purpose is this kind of text written?

• Who would write this type of text
• What is the text meant to be about?
• What is the setting or context of the text?
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the relationship between the writer and the audience?
• Who is likely to read this text?
• What sort of information would the reader expect to find in the text in order
to deal with the problem?

Having raised the students’ awareness of the social purpose and context for writing
such a text, the teacher then decided to show the students a model text of a letter
of complaint, such as the following one (Hammond, Burns, Joyce, Brosnan, and
Gerot 1992):

Text 9
25 Brighton Boulevard
Leasington, NSW 2066

29th November

The Manager
Streetwood Homes
21 Scott Street
Leasington, NSW 2066

Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing about the stove in my flat. Two elements aren’t working and
it is very difficult for me to cook a meal.
I have twice reported this problem to you (10th November and 24th
November) and nothing has been done about it.
This problem is urgent and I would appreciate it if you could arrange to
have the stove fixed immediately.
Yours sincerely

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  101

TABLE 5.7  Generic Structure and Grammatical Patterns of a Letter of Complaint

Address/date 25 Brighton Boulevard Reference to specific

Leasington, NSW 20662 participants
9th November
The Manager
Streetwood Homes
21 Scott Street
Leasington, NSW 2066
Salutation Dear Sir/Madam Formulaic expression
for correspondence
Identification I am writing about the stove • Reference to
of complaint in my flat. Two elements aren’t specific participants,
working and it is very difficult items and actions
for me to cook a meal. • Use of present tense
Justification I have twice reported this • Reference to
of complaint problem to you (10th specific participants,
November and 24th items and actions
November) and nothing has • Use of present
been done about it. perfect tense
Demand for This problem is urgent and • Reference to
action I would appreciate it if you specific participants
could arrange to have the • Use of modality and
stove fixed immediately. politeness marker
Signature Yours sincerely Formulaic expression
for correspondence

The teacher then worked with the students to analyse the generic structure of
the text and the grammatical features and provided various activities for the stu-
dents to practise them.
In the next stage of the cycle, joint construction, the teacher asked the students to
form groups and to select their own problem to focus on in their joint letter of
complaint. She then asked the groups to share their letters with the class so that
they could receive feedback from her and the rest of the students. Here is part of
the discussion that emerged at this stage.

Text 10
Teacher: Now a lot of you have written your letter. So let’s just see what you
wrote. You started with . . .
Steven: Dear Sir
Chen: Or Madam
Teacher: Alright Dear Sir/Madam. Now Sara’s group wrote a good letter.
How did you start Sara?
Sara: I’m writing about a broken window in my flat.

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 102  Anne Burns

Teacher: All right, that’s enough to start with. (Writes Sara’s sentence on the
board.) All right, that’s the first part. Now what did you say next?
Sara: Could you please?
Teacher: Could you please?
Sara: Get someone to fix it
Teacher: To fix it?
Students: Immediately . . . as soon as possible . . .
Teacher: As soon as possible, or immediately. Did you say because . . . ?
Sara: Because I am afraid . . .
Tony: Because it is cold . . .
Teacher: All right, so there are lots of reasons. Because the flat is cold or
because I am worried about . . .
Sara: About someone coming in
Teacher: About burglars
Sara: Yeah, burglars

After the text was concluded through this kind of discussion and joint creation,
the students entered the independent construction stage of the cycle. The teacher
showed the students a picture of a leaking sink under which was the statement,
“The plumber came to fix the sink but it is still leaking”. She asked the students
to write their own letters setting out this problem and requesting it to be resolved.
Since the students had by now received quite extensive scaffolding through the
discussion of the context and purpose of the text, as well as the modelling and joint
construction conducted in class, they were in a much better position to achieve a
more successful outcome. Here is an example of a letter produced by the same
student who had written Text 8.

Text 11
The Manager  41 Tumbarumba Crescent
Interdel Realty  Heckenburg, 2168
21 Scott St
Liverpool  30–11

Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing about my sink. The plumber fixed it and now it is leaking
again.
The problem is urgent and I would appreciate it if you would arrange to
have the sink fixed immediately because the water is overflowing.
Yours sincerely

This cycle of work dealt with an issue that was of concern to these adult stu-
dents. As the teacher moved through the cycle, she drew on a range of activities

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 Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar  103

and tasks, all the time keeping the goal and outcome of the lesson in mind. Some
of the activities had a strong teacher focus where she led the lesson and the discus-
sion; at other points, she stepped back, and the lesson became more student-centered.
The tasks she selected aimed to build up the students knowledge of purpose, con-
text, genre and grammar and to provide support for the students as they increased
their knowledge. Her ultimate goal was to provide enough support for the students
to work independently. She used the teaching-learning cycle as a flexible frame-
work to organize the sequence of the activities so that she could reach this goal.

Conclusion
Adopting a functional approach to teaching grammar enables teachers to adopt a
whole text perspective and to view language as a communicative resource whose
goal is to create meaning. A functional perspective sees language as a set of inter-
related systems through which users of the language draw on different types of
grammatical resources to express ideas about a topic, to negotiate interpersonal
aspects of language use and to produce stretches of language (text) that are cohesive
and coherent within the context.

Discussion Questions
1. To what extent does a formal ‘grammar translation’ approach (as explained in
the example from the French textbook) form part of your language learning
experiences? What are the possible advantages of this approach? What are
the possible disadvantages? Think about these two questions from both the
teacher’s and the student’s points of view. Which approach do you prefer to
adopt in your teaching?
2. Identify a spoken or written text you would like your students to use more effectively.
a. What is the text about (the field)?
b. What are the relationships between the speaker/listener or writer/reader
(the tenor)?
c. What kind of text (face-to-face, email, short message service, telephone
call, academic essay) is being created (the mode)?
d. What features of the grammar and the generic structure lead you to your
conclusions?
3. Use the text from question 2 or select a different text you would like your
students to use.
a. What is the purpose of the text (e.g., inform, narrative, recount, give
instructions)?
b. How does the text begin in order to achieve this purpose?
c. How does the text proceed? What different stages can you identify?
d. How does the text end?
e. What grammatical features do you notice at each stage of the text?

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 104  Anne Burns

4. How could you use the teaching learning cycle with your students? Think
about different activities that you could introduce at each point in the cycle
to help them develop their skills in both spoken and written grammar.

Essential Reading
Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., & Spinks, S. (2012). Using functional grammar: An explorer’s guide
(3rd ed.). South Yarra, Victoria: Macmillan Education Australia.
Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language learning. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press.
Jones, R. H., & Lock, G. (2010). Functional grammar in the ESL classroom. Noticing, exploring
and practicing. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston: Thomson/
Heinle.
Schleppergrell, M. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Mahwah,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Thompson, G. (2004). Introducing functional grammar. London: Arnold.

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