A summary related to grammar, text and context

1. A GENRE-BASED
MODEL LANGUAGE
COLLEGE: ISFD N°41
SUBJECT: LANGUAGE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION IV
STUDENTS: DELGADO, GISELA – GIANELLA, JACQUELINE
TEACHER: SAUBIDET, STELLA
DATE: , JULY 2020

2. • Systemic Functional Linguistics is a linguistic theory that sees language as a social
process that contributes to the realization of different social contexts. It was
developed by Michael Halliday in the 1980.
• The Genre ,text and grammar is a model of language that improves students' literacy
outcomes, mainly writing.It is based on genre-based approaches to writing mostly
SFL developed by Michael Halliday,he posed social aspects in literacy in 1980.This
model aim at explaining how language works and why it is useful to have these
categories in the teaching of writing.
• Agenre-based model of language sees language as processed and understood in the
form of texts.A text can be any meaning-producing event, be it a book, a film, an
advertisement, a phone conversation and so on. A text can be seen from two key
perspectives: a thing in itself that can berecorded, analysed and discussed; and also
a process that is the out-come of a socially produced occasion.This model sees text
as a social process.

3. • How do we learn to use language? Language is both natural and
cultural,individual and social.Language learning entails learning to speak and to
write but they are different processes, learning to write implies a more difficult and
complex series of processes that require a range of explicit teaching
methodologies.Differences between speech and writing:
Speech Vs Writing
time based medium spatial medium
sound visual
temporal exist in time
immediate deferred
sequential hierarchical
little editing can be edited
recounts events enhances abstraction, represent
ideas

4. • What is a genre, text & grammar model of language? This model recognises that
while language is produced by individuals, the shape and structure of the
language is to a large degree socially determined. Children and language-users
should acknowledge about arrangements of language(texts) to serve specific
social needs and requirements.
• The genre, text and grammar approach provide students with the ability to use the
codes of writing (the genres and grammar)effectively and efficiently.

5. FOUR PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE:
• 1-CONTEXT: Texts are always produced in a context.
Malinowski(1967) coined the term 'context of situation' which refers to the immediate environment where
texts are produced and 'the context of culture' which refers to the system of beliefs, values and attitudes that
speakers bring with them into any social interaction.
Halliday posed three relationships between context and text. Ideational(the what),the content or stuff being
talked or written about. Interpersonal(the who),the social relations between the participants. And finally,
Mode(the how) which is the medium of the language event.Halliday described these types of meanings as
'metafunctions'.
• 2- GENRE: It refers to the language processes involved in doing things with language(describing, explaining,
instructing, arguing and narrating).Genres are classified into different text types and their relevant structures .
Another level above genre is ideology this refers to the level at which texts are contested socially, it is
generally out of reach to the powerless and marginalised in society.
The 'genre as social process' model: Kress(1989) posed that processes that form texts(focus on the dynamic
nature of social interactions) are far more useful than structures that classify text types. These processes are
based on the ability to apply the relevant structural and grammatical knowledge to produce appropriate texts.
However, an understanding of both formal and functional aspects of grammar are key competencies for school
learning.

6. • 3-TEXT:Language as a system of communication is organised as cohesive units called 'texts'.
A text is any complete act of communication such as greeting between friends in the street, a
television advertisement, a novel, or a film and so on. Texts can be classified and organised in
multiple ways: everyday, formal, entertaining and informational. Different types of text have
distinctive characteristics, depending on what they are made to do. Usually texts are
classified in:
~Literary texts: These might include texts that reflect and interpret individual and social
life,whether real or imaginary. Literary texts make use of figural language( metaphor, rhythm,
repetition) and poetics (language for the sake of language)than do everyday texts. E.x. novels,
epics, poems, dramas and sagas.
~Factual texts: These are those texts that have the primary aim of communicating knowledge
as it has been educationally defined, classified and constructed. E.x. technical descriptions,
explanations, procedures, essays, reviews and arguments.
~Media texts: These are any texts(whether literary or factual)that are used in channels of mass
communication. E.x. print, broad-casting, film and studio.

7. • 4-GRAMMAR:Genre,text and grammar approach emphasises that grammar is related
to genre. Without genre, grammar is too abstract to be effectively teachable.
What is grammar? Genre, texts and grammar model use grammar to describe how
particular texts are put together. Grammar is a name for the resources available to
users of a language system for producing texts. A genre-based grammar considers how
a text is structured and organised due to the characteristics of particular genres in
relation to purpose, audience, message and structure and grammatical features.
Grammar therefore needs to deal with language from three perspectives: the
generic(considers how genres themselves make particular demands on the
grammatical choices we have when producing a text),the textual (purpose and functions
of texts)and the syntactical(how words are correctly ordered within a sentence).

8. -FORMAL ASPECTS OF GRAMMAR: They have to do with the formal characteristics o the English language. The
formal categories of grammar are made of the eight parts o speech identified by Thrax in 100 BC. There are noun,
pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction and interjection (later in English grammar the article
became a part of speech).
-FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF GRAMMAR: They are concerned with what the language is doing, or being made to
do. The functional terminology about the system tells us what we can and can not do with an English sentence.
English language is organised in terms of SVO ( subject, verb, obeject ) but different classes of words can
function differently according to how we use them;for example, nouns can be the subject and object of a sentence.
• Figural aspects of grammar: They look at how language communicates beyond the concrete representational
level. Language can represent things/actions/events in concrete terms but the figural is a way of talking about
language when it moves beyond the concrete. It looks at how language can be used to create images to carry
aditional meanings, figures of speech such as metaphor which is constant factor in all language we use. e.x
'The library opens at 9 a.m.' ,we treat ‘library’ as though it could act of its own volition. Therefore, the figural is
very important in literary and media texts.
• Connecting genre, text & grammar: This model is useful because it is able to make explicit connections
between:
- genre, the social context and relations in which texts are produced
- text, the language processes we use to construct products
- grammar, the choices and limitations language-users have when putting words together in texts.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
• Kapp,P. & Watkins, M. (2005): Genre, gramar, text. Tech Teaching and Assessing
Writing.Australia:UNSW Pr
• Stellams.(n.d.)Isfd 41 18-lee4-genre,text,grammar. Website:
http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/stellams/isfd-41-18lee4genre-text-grammar-
149496163