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Functional Approaches

This document discusses Michael Halliday's theory of language acquisition, which identifies seven functions of language: instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, representational, heuristic, and imaginative. It provides examples of each function and discusses how they relate to classroom experiences. The document also examines some assumptions around how children learn language and the evidence that they abstract rules from the language they hear rather than merely repeating it.

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213 views13 pages

Functional Approaches

This document discusses Michael Halliday's theory of language acquisition, which identifies seven functions of language: instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, representational, heuristic, and imaginative. It provides examples of each function and discusses how they relate to classroom experiences. The document also examines some assumptions around how children learn language and the evidence that they abstract rules from the language they hear rather than merely repeating it.

Uploaded by

foreducationalpurposesonly9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Principles and Theories of Language

Acquisition and Learning:

FUNCTIONAL
APPROACHES
Prepared By : Charlene Calunsag and Joanna Cammayo
Learning Objectives
a. identify the different language approaches under functional approach;

b. understand the theory of Hallidays;

c. discuss the theory of Hallidays and its importance in

language acquisition and learning.


Who is Michael Halliday?
 was a language theorist who studied child
language acquisition
 he suggested that communication and language
acquisition begins before children can speak
 in Learning How To Mean (1975), Halliday
suggested as a child learns it's first language, it's
simultaneously learns about the world around
them.
 views language as a cultural code
MICHAEL HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGE
1. INSTRUMENTAL - Language used to fulfill a need on the part of the speaker.
Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink and comfort.
2. REGULATORY - Language used to influence the behaviour of others. Concerned
with persuading /commanding/requesting other people to do things you want.
3. INTERACTIONAL - Language used to develop social relationships and ease the
process of interaction. Concerned with the phatic dimension of talk.
4. PERSONAL - Language used to express the personal preferences and identity of
the speaker. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Here I am!’ function – announcing
oneself to the world.
MICHAEL HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGE
5. REPRESENTATIONAL - Language used to exchange information.
Concerned with relaying or requesting information.

6. HEURISTIC - Language used to learn and explore the environment. Child


uses language to learn; this may be questions and answers, or the kind of
running commentary that frequently accompanies children’s play.

7. IMAGINATIVE - Language used to explore the imagination. May also


accompany play as children create imaginary worlds, or may arise from
storytelling.
MICHAEL HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGE
FUNCTION EXAMPLES CLASSROOM EXPERIENCES

Instrumental - language is used to


Problem solving, gathering
communicate preferences, "I want to ..."
materials, role playing, persuading
choices, wants or needs

Personal - language is used to Making feelings public and


"Here I am ...."
express individuality interacting with others

Interactional - language is used to


interact and plan, develop, or "You and me ...." Structured play, dialogues and
maintain a play or group activity or "I'll be the cashier, ...." discussions, talking in groups
social relationship

Regulatory - language is used to "Do as I tell you ...." making rules in games, giving
control "You need ...." instructions, teaching
MICHAEL HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGE
FUNCTION EXAMPLES CLASSROOM EXPERIENCES

Representational - use language Conveying messages, telling about


"I'll tell you."
to the real world, expressing a
"I know."
explain proposition

Heuristic - language is used to


"Tell me why ...."
find Question and answer, routines
"Why did you do that?"
things out, wonder, or inquiry and research
"What for?"
hypothesize

Stories and dramatizations,


Imaginative - language is used to rhymes, poems, and riddles
"I went to my grandma's last night."
create, explore, and entertain nonsense and word play
 Since we always speak the language of our parents, they must have helped
us learn to speak our first language. Our parents didn't teach us how to walk
and they didn't teach us how to talk. Yet we learned from them. How can this
be? Certainly there must have been a subtle, perhaps intuitive teaching
process that neither our parents nor we were aware of.

 We begin by imitatng what we hear our parents say as best we can,


repeating random phrases. Our parents in subtle ways punish us for the
childish speech errors we make (by not responding, correcting the error, etc.)
and reward correct phrases (by responding positively). As our speech
improves, our parents respond more positively and lesa negatively.
First, let's examine the assumption that children begin speaking by trying to
repeat what they have heard their parents say. Have you ever heard a child
say things like this:

Mommy go

"Mommy go" is an attempt to express 'Mommy is going'. But if the child were
merely trying to repeat this common phrase choosing random two-word
combinations, he or she would also occasionally say "Mommy is" or simply "is
going"? Yet these two phrases do not occur as normal speech errors of
children while "Mommy go" is a common one.
Second, research shows that while mothers often respond to the semantic
content of what their children say ("No, that's not a doggie; it's a cow"), they very
rarely respond to the grammatical status of their children's phrases. Indeed,
when parents do respond to speech errors, they most often respond positively.
For example:
"It's raining, where is the underbrella?"

In fact, parents themselves make grammatical errors when they speak. Despite
the fact that children don't know when their parents are speaking grammatically
and when they are making errors, all children grow up knowing (if not always
speaking) the language perfectly.
The evidence then indicates that children do, in fact, absorb a
massive number of sentences and phrases but rather than parrot
them back, they abstract rules from them and create their own
grammar which they then apply to create new utterances they
have never heard before. Over the years from 2-6, when
language is mastered, children constantly adjust their grammar
until it matches that of the adult speaker population.
This critical period between the ages of 2-6 suggests that first language
learning, like walking, is an innate capacity of human beings triggered by a
level of development more than feedback from the environment. That is, so
long as a child hears a language–any language–when they reach this
critical period they will learn it perfectly. If this is true, any child not hearing
language during this period not only should not learn to speak but also
should not be able to learn to speak. The ethical implications of research on
this question are obvious. However, there have been a few tragic non-
scientific bits of evidence that supports the innateness + critical period
hypothesis.
THANK YOU!

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