Essay on Language Functions:

Function is the communicative act ; it is the use of language to achieve a purpose

A language function refers to what students do with language as they engage with
content and interact with others. Functions represent the active use of language for a
specific purpose. Students use language functions in order to express ideas,
communicate with others, and show understanding of content in an academic setting.
Five Functions of Language

According to Geoffery Leech (1974), there are five main functions of language

informational function,

aesthetic function,

expressive,

phatic,

and directive functions.

Five Functions

According to Geoffery Leech (1974), there are five main functions of language. We mentioned all these five functions at the
beginning. Now, let’s take a closer look at each one of them.

 The informational function can be considered most important, since it helps us deliver messages, describe things, and
give our listener new information. Actually, message is a word that describes this function best. The informational
function is also related to such terms as a truth and a value.

Asking for confirmation

–interrogative sentences–declarative sentences with high-rising intonation–statement and question tag

•for information–Wh questions:(time) when?(place) where?(manner) how?(degree) how far/much/long/hot etc.?(reason)

why?–Please (can you)

•seeking identification–(person) who?–(possession) whose + NP–(thing) what? Which + NP?–(event) what happened?

 The expressive function.

to express our feelings and attitudes. This function of language is used not to deliver a message, but to express
feelings and impressions. Due to the expressive function of language, we can understand the personality of a speaker,
and his or her emotions.

Obvious examples of such words are swear words, as well as various exclamations. “I love this movie so much”

 The directive function of language The directive function is a function of social control and interpersonal interaction.
Another feature of this function is that the reaction of a listener is even more important than a thought expressed by a
speaker, since this reaction determines whether such a phrase achieved the target or not.

Induce certain actions or reactions.

 a command a request.

Can you come (function) here (notion)

 the aesthetic function. According to Leech (1974), this function doesn’t have any particular purpose. Here words and
sentences are considered as linguistic artifacts. This function serves neither as a request nor as a message. The
aesthetic function helps us use words as a tool of a poetic art, and as certain signs. Here the beauty of chosen words
and phrases is more important than usefulness of this information.

For the sake of such a function, we use different adjectives, such as “gorgeous”, “elegant”, “stunning”, and so on.

 the phatic function. The only purpose of such a function is to maintain social relationships, and to begin, or continue
the conversation.

small talk about the weather.

Such a kind of talk doesn’t provide us with any necessary information. It even doesn’t express our feelings, but it helps
us to interact with people.

According to Roman Jakobson’s functions of language, there are six types of them:

1. Referential function – this function refers to context. It usually describes situation, object, or its state. E.g. “The
autumn leaves have all fallen now.”

2. Poetic function – is mainly used in poetry. It usually exists as is, and helps to distinguish poetry from other genres.

3. Emotive function – is not about the context of the statement, but about the emotions added to it. The good example
is interjections and exclamations in it. E.g “Oh, such a pity”.

4. Conative function – is a function that is directed to the receiver, and usually goes in imperative character. Exclamation
marks may be used. E.g. “Richard! Do open the window!”

5. Phatic function – the main aid is to “warm up” the conversation. It is usually about the small talks that precede the
main conversation. E.g. “Hi”, “How are you?”, “Good bye”.

6. Metalinguistic function – is the use of language to describe itself.

Source: Jakobson’s six functions of language

General Notions
A notion is a concept, or idea and it may be quite specific, such as a
vocabulary (dog, house, for example);
or it may be very general – size, emotion, movement, place
is a notional or conceptual view, which is involved with some concepts such as time,
space, movement, cause and effect;
It is important that functional language must also incorporate with specific
notions ;
vocabulary, nouns,verbs, adjectives, adverbs, structure
verbs, miscellaneous words.

The notional-functional syllabus concerns two important elements: one is a notional or

conceptual view, which is involved with some concepts such as time, space,
movement, cause and effect; another one is functional view which is used for
intentional or purposive description and classification.
It is a new type of syllabus because it could take notional-functional categories as an
organizing principle which would
not only be determined by grammatical considerations but also be concerned with
communicative categories into account as well (White, 1988).
the grammatical syllabus,
the situational syllabus,
and notional-functional syllabus

Neither grammatical nor situational syllabus would be denied that the purpose of
learning languages is to communicate both of them give learners few adequate
opportunities to promote the communicative capacity.
However, the notional-functional syllabus takes the desired communicative capacity as
the starting-point. From the notional-functional syllabus, it asks speakers to
communicate through language. So the designers are able to organize language
teaching in concerning of the content rather than the form of the language (Wilkins,
1976).

The notional-functional approach in ESL is a way of structuring a syllabus around

"notions," real-life situations in which people communicate, which are further broken
down into "functions," specific aims of communication.
When designing a lesson, teachers in TESOL often choose a real-world situation as their
"notion," and choose corresponding functions to teach to prepare students to
communicate in that situation in the lesson. For example, a lesson might be about how
to buy something at a shop, in which case its notion is shopping and one of its
functions might be asking prices.
Functions often lend themselves naturally to specific grammatical patterns or common
expressions. In the shopping example, one expression might be the question "how
much is this (singular noun)?"

notion function expression difficulty

a superior giving preparing to give

Do you have a moment? 2
advice advice

a superior giving
giving advice you should (verb) 2
advice

a superior giving
giving advice it would be a good idea to (verb) 3
advice

a superior giving you might want to think about

giving advice 3
advice (verb -ing)

a superior giving Thank you for your attention to

concluding advice 2
advice this.

customer to
getting attention Excuse me. 1
shopkeeper

customer to How much is this (singular

asking a price 1
shopkeeper noun)?

customer to How much are these (plural

asking a price 1
shopkeeper noun)?

customer to
buying I'll take this. 1
shopkeeper

customer to
buying I'll take these. 1
shopkeeper

customer to negotiating It seems a little expensive. 2

notion function expression difficulty

shopkeeper

customer to
negotiating That sounds a little high. 2
shopkeeper

customer to
negotiating Could you give me a discount? 2
shopkeeper

customer to
refusing to buy I'll think about it. 1
shopkeeper

suggesting an
considering options Maybe we should look at (verb). 2
option

considering options making a choice Let's go with (noun).

The strengths and weaknesses of the notional-functional syllabus

2.1 The strengths of the notional-functional syllabus

The advantages of the notional syllabus include that
it could consider the communicative facts of language from the beginning with
concerning of grammatical and situational factors. So it is superior to the grammatical
syllabus possibly (Wilkins, 1976).
In the grammatical syllabus language elements are demonstrated more in complete
possibilities of the language than the use of it needed in conversation. So learners
would complain that foreign language learning is not practical and they have few
opportunities to use out of it. However, a functional-notional syllabus would teach
language to use it rather than instructing the use of its exclusive forms. As teaching the
language through its uses, learners would consider the utility and the relevance of
their study (Wilkins, 1976).
Moreover, Harlow and Linda L. (1978) point that by perceiving language as a real
means of communication; learners would feel more motivated to learn as they would
feel what they were learning is useful.
Language functions in a real-life setting would generate a special kind of excitement
for learning and leads to productive learning.
Therefore, as comparing to the structural syllabus where elements of language are
learned in an isolated way from real life, students’ communicative competence and
confidence can be well developed,
and teachers can revitalize teaching materials to meet learning objectives in
functional-notional approach study.
Furthermore, the functional-notional syllabus is superior to the situational syllabus
because it can include both of the most important grammatical forms and all kinds of
language functions in it rather than concentrate those exist in specific situations
typically (Wilkins, 1976).
The first merit of the functional-notional syllabus is that it emphasizes the fact that
students and their communicative purposes are at the very core of the teaching
program.
While due attention is given to certain aspects of selection and grading of linguistic
cultural content, the primary consideration is those functions that persons of a
particular age level, in a particular situation, would wish or need to express. Thus, it
suits the need of learners’.
This syllabus is extremely useful for ESP clauses in which the learners can learn part
of the language which they are badly in need without wasting their time and energy
for detailed study of the whole language system.
The second merit of this syllabus is that the act of communication, even at the
elementary levels, will be intrinsically motivating. Unlike the grammatical syllabus
which separates the language into discrete items and from which the learners have
to communicative competence at the very beginning. The language forms, its
functions, and communicative skills they have learned can be used immediately in
the communicative activities and in role plays, or even in the real world. This direct
effect of language use motivates the learners. They feel quite satisfied and are eager
to learn as much as possible according to their needs because they are not passive
listeners but active participants.
The third merit is that language functions are quite generalizing. According to
Wilkins (1973,1976), eight types of communicative functions are recognized, that is,
eight kinds of things learners can do with language, such as:
Modality (to express degrees of certainty, necessity, conviction, obligation, and
tolerance)
Moral discipline and evaluation (judgment, approval, disapproval)
Suasion (persuasion, recommendation, predictions)
Argument (information asserted or sought, agreement, denial, concession)
Rational inquiry and exposition (author’s note: similar in sub-categories to argument
and evaluation)
Personal emotions (positive and negative)
Emotional relations (greeting, flattery, hostility…)
Interpersonal relations (politeness and status: degree of formality and informality)
In a word, the functions of language, the very cores of the functional-notional
syllabus, are fairly generalizing.
2.2 The weaknesses of the functional-notional syllabus
Nunan (1988) asserts that an alternative to the grammatically-oriented textbook
may not solve all of the problems in language teaching. These lists of functions and
notions do not reflect the way languages are learned. Dividing language into discrete
units of functions may misrepresent the nature of language as communication
(Widdowson, 1978; Nunan, 1988). Therefore, the structural syllabuses coverage with
notional-functional ones, they are both product-based, synthetic syllabuses. In short,
the semantic needs of learners decide the planning of the linguistic content.
Above all, it is ensure that this type of syllabus has some weaknesses as follows:
The first problem is that language functions alone are not a satisfactory organizing
principle. In the first place some realizations of functions are in fact little more than
fixed phrases (e.g. ‘You must be joking!’ ‘Come off it!’). It may be important to learn
them, but that is all we learn! In other words, some functional exponents are just
single items- we cannot use them to generate more language as we can with
grammatical structure.
The second problem lies in the selection of items for the syllabus and the grading and
sequencing of the items. Which should be selected and come first? As White (1988)
notes that there was “a dearth of evidence for the frequency of functions” and that
when selecting which forms should be used to realize functions, textbook writers had
to “depend on intuition”. What order should the grammar be taught in for students
to be able to apply it to functions? White also notes that the small amount of
empirical evidence regarding the natural order of acquisition of functions by children
was not directly applicable to adult language learning (White, 1988).
The best suitable teaching situations
In its transatlantic version, the functional-notional syllabus has been in Canada to all
levels in education. At the time of writing, there has been the appearance of the
functional-notional syllabus in the United States chiefly in courses for vocational or
occupational purposes; however it has been discussed among the professional fields
certainly (Yalden, 1983).
3.2 Best suitable teaching situations
3.2.1 Short-time courses
According to Harlow and Linda L (1980) identify that language is used to realize
communicative functions and convey meanings. Moreover, language teaching should
focus more on the purposes (functions) of using the language and the meanings
(notions) expressed through the language rather than grammatical forms. Therefore,
a situation of short-term courses teaching where the students have two or three
months to reach a given standard of English for a given purpose and are taught by
native English teachers would be one of most suitable teaching situations. In this
situation, students’ language level is intermediate. Learning content would be a
degree of structural competence which students are able to produce a number of
grammatical sentences by them, but may not be able to put them to appropriate use.
Students also can be given some of the basics necessary for communication such as
have the opportunity to talk with the native speakers who are their teachers. From
that student will easily learn to be appropriate as they operate in the native speaker
environment. After learning in this situation, students can get help for their vital
needs and reap benefit from leaning immediately. As lack of the grammatical
foundation to generalize and apply, the knowledge which is taught should be
restricted in its area of application to meet students’ immediate needs and interests.
In this period of restricted time available, teachers should spend time in teaching the
use of knowledge and provide students with a general ‘overview’ of how the
language operates by covering the main structures (Johnson, 1982).
The language level of students has implications for both the language and
methodology employed in the classroom (Harmer, 2001). In this kind of teaching
situation, students’ language level is intermediate that they have capacity to apply
grammatical structure in the areas of functional use.
Moreover, there are two major categories of motivation: instrumental and
integrative. The former refers to learners need a language as an instrument to
achieve other purposes such as doing a job effectively or studying successfully at an
English-speaking institution
and latter one implies that learners wish to integrate into the activities or culture of
another group of people (Hedge, 2000).
It seems that the notional-functional syllabus would supply the functional language
content to apply the presence of integrative or instrumental motivation. It would be
invaluable to such learners who have certain purpose in the short-term courses.
According to above, we can point that the functional-notional syllabus can promote
learners’ motivation through meeting their needs and adapt learners’ language level in
the short-term course. Therefore, the functional-notional syllabus can play the role
fully in this kind of teaching situation.
3.2.2 Private remedial teaching situation
The private remedial course is for students who have already followed one (structural)
course, and have failed to learn properly or achieve the communicative purpose. In
this kind of course, students either repeat the course or follow a similar one as
complementary study. The grammatical knowledge would be provided in a different
kind of framework in this kind of course. Comparing with the structural syllabus
teaching the rules of grammar, the functional-notional syllabus teaches the rules of
use as an additional dimension. Both of rules and rules of use are mastery of the
language. The functional-notional approach can word off the tedium which is the
potential danger inherent in remedial teaching (Johnson, 1982).
Considering the status as one element of teaching situation, private institution may
afford more freedom in which the syllabus is more commercially viable and attractive
to potential students. Moreover, Hedge (2000) asserts that the effective and practical
syllabus being used in this kind of teaching situation is extremely important. So in this
commercial teaching situation, the notional-functional syllabus’s theoretical
weaknesses, such as its product-based, synthetic nature (White, 1988), may be seemed
as its pragmatic strength. Consequently, the functional-notional syllabus would have a
dominant position in the private remedial teaching situation.
Conclusion
The notional-functional syllabus is brought and influenced by both theories of
language and language learning/acquisition. And there are clear benefits connected
with the notional-functional syllabus associated with a communicative teaching
approach and plenty of criticisms exist when put it into practice as well. As
considering theories which influence the functional-notional syllabus and
characteristics of this type of syllabus, there are two kinds of teaching situations to
be discussed are best suitable ones. However, there are also lots of questions haven’t
been solved such as: What kinds of particular circumstances are in when students are
instructed in the notional-functional approach? How much grammatical knowledge
can be assumed? How restricted is the need for English? How long will the students
study English? Will they have the time and the opportunity to learn how to apply any
grammatical foundation provided in a course? Above these questions it cannot be
automatically assumed that which kind of common teaching situation is the best
suitable one. However, as a communicative teaching approach, the utility of the
functional-notional syllabus will be in a wide range of teaching situations across the
world continually.
UKEssays. November 2018. Functional Syllabus / Notional Functional Syllabus. [online].
Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/a-notional-
functional-syllabus-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 3 June 2020].

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