Instituto Superior Nº 8 “Alte. G.

Brown”
Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés
Asignatura: Grammar II- 2º B

Is Grammar Really Important for a Second Language Learner?

1. Reflect about your own experience as a second language learner. Is grammar really
important in second language learning? Why (not)?
Write a short paragraph. Pay attention to spelling and use of language.

2. Read the following opinion and complete it with the words form the box. There’s ONE
extra word.

STRUCTURE ACROSS BACKBONE LANGUAGE CONVEY FLUX

Grammar is the _____________ of a language and without it any single thing you know may
be___________, in a sort of jelly without much consistency. In a nutshell, grammar provides you
with the ___________you need in order to organize and put your messages and ideas_______. It is
the railway through which your messages will be transported. Without it, in the same way as a train
cannot move without railways, you won’t be able to ___________your ideas to their full extension
without a good command of the underlying grammar patterns and structures of the language
(Foppoli 2014).

Which grammar?

3. What does the question above refer to? Are there “types” in grammar?

Debates around the teaching of grammar continue to erupt in the field of English language
teaching. Should grammar be taught at all? While it has been argued in the past that grammar
instruction is not necessary for language acquisition to take place (for example, Krashen 1982;
Prabhu 1987), more recently general support has emerged for some form-focused instruction
(Andrews 2007; Snyder 2008)
In educational contexts, the debate around the choice of grammar is often framed in terms of
‘traditional’ vs ‘functional’. Such a framing might be misleading and simplistic. Most descriptions of
language that are typically found in English-teaching contexts can be ranged along a cline between
‘form’ and ‘function’ (as in Figure 1). At the ‘form’ end of the continuum, we might find those
traditional school grammars which focus primarily on the ‘parts of speech’ and syntax. At the
‘function’ end of the continuum, we could place the notional-functional syllabus – which, even
though no longer in common use, has had a lasting impact on the field. And around the middle, we
Instituto Superior Nº 8 “Alte. G. Brown”
Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés
Asignatura: Grammar II- 2º B

might find a number of contemporary reference grammars – including Halliday’s systemic-

functional grammar (SFG) – which endeavour to describe the relationship between grammatical
forms and their functions.
All these language descriptions include reference to both form and function – it’s a matter of
orientation and emphasis. The orientation of traditional school grammar is towards the learning of
structures and rules. It draws on grammatical categories such as noun, verb, pronoun, adjective,
adverb, conjunction and preposition – with the occasional nod towards meaning (‘a noun is a person,
place or thing’) and grammatical function (‘the subject of the verb’). At the other extreme, the
notional- functional description – though not technically a theory of grammar – emphasizes the
intent of the language user: what people need to do with language and what meanings they want to
express. Although its orientation is communicative, it does attempt to demonstrate how the various
functions and notions can be expressed through certain grammatical forms. The notion of frequency,
for example, is linked to such exponents as ‘adverb’, ‘present (habitual) tense’, or ‘adverbials’.

‘form’ ‘relating form and function’ ‘function’

e.g. traditional grammar e.g. systemic-functional grammar e.g. notional-functional

Figure 1

Towards the middle of the continuum, Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar (Halliday and
Matthiessen 2004) provides a bridge between ‘form’ and ‘meaning’, mapping systematically and in
detail the relationship between grammatical classes and the functions they perform. While the
orientation is firmly functional, the emphasis is placed equally on grammatical forms and on the
meanings they make: how the grammar has evolved in particular ways to construe various kinds of
meanings. At the level of form, SFG uses standard terminology to describe the grammatical classes
(‘preposition’, ‘conjunction’, ‘noun’, ‘verb’ and so on). Unlike traditional grammar, however, it does
not stop there – it is double-layered, constantly shunting between form and function, between
grammar and semantics.
Of the other modern reference grammars around the mid-point of the continuum, some are more
structurally-oriented (e.g. Huddleston and Pullum 2005) and others more functionally -oriented (e.g.
Biber, Conrad and Leech 2002 and Willis 1995). They all, however, go beyond the more syntactic
orientation of traditional school grammar. To deal with the problems associated with adverbs in
traditional grammar, for example, most now use the term ‘adverbials’ in recognition of the fact that
different grammatical forms (such as adverbs and prepositional phrases) can have a similar function.
Similarly, certain modern grammars use terms such as adjunct, subjunct, disjunct and conjunct (e.g.
Crystal 2004) or circumstance, stance and linking (Biber, Conrad and Leech 2002: 361) to capture
Instituto Superior Nº 8 “Alte. G. Brown”
Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés
Asignatura: Grammar II- 2º B

differences in adverbial meaning. In relation to verbs, The Longman Student Grammar of Spoken
and Written English (Biber, Conrad and Leech 2002) discusses not only the form of the verb, but
also the various kinds of meanings that verbs express: activity, communication, mental processes,
causation, relations, and existence. The CoBuild Students’ Grammar (Willis 1995) similarly
describes verbs in terms of such functions as saying, thinking, liking and linking. At the level of the
clause, some (e.g. Huddleston and Pullum 2005: 69 and 73; Biber, Conrad and Leech 2002) venture
beyond the conventional grammatical functions of Subject and Object to discuss the clause as
representing a situation in which various participants are involved, depending on the type of activity
(e.g. the ‘actor’ in action clauses, the ‘experiencer’ in clauses about sensing; the ‘causer’ in clauses
dealing with causation). There is also attention paid to the way in which the clause functions to
package information – how the focus is changed through strategies such as pre- posing and post-
posing, the use of the passive, and so on.
Furthermore, most reference grammars now include a section that goes beyond the clause to
deal with issues at the level of the text, such as how certain resources function to make a text
cohesive.
While these grammars include reference to functions of various kinds, the overall grammatical
description is typically organized according to grammatical classes. Halliday’s grammar, on the
other hand, is organized around the question of how language functions to construe various kinds of
meaning.

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG)

It is evident that the choice of a model of grammar is not simply a matter of ‘traditional’ or
‘functional’. It is more a matter of what we want the model to do for us and our students. If, for
example, our students need simply to learn the structure of English sentences with a focus on
syntactic accuracy, drawing on familiar (though basic) terminology shared throughout the profession,
then a traditional grammar will probably suffice. These days, however, there is considerable pressure
on teachers of English as well as subject teachers with large numbers of EAL students in their classes
to go beyond ‘well-formed sentences’ and to help their students operate successfully in a range of
discourse contexts. This is where SFG has struck a chord among many practitioners, in that it
provides a more ‘comprehensive package’, informing all areas of the language curriculum rather than
being taught as a discrete ‘topic’.

4. Watch the video about AN INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL

GRAMMAR
https://vimeo.com/46732234

Texts in context
While most other grammars tend to restrict themselves to the level of the sentence (which is
technically the domain of grammar), SFG ranges beyond the sentence to observe patterns of
grammar within and across whole texts. Further, the model interprets texts in relation to their
contexts of use – both the broader cultural context and the more specific situation. It seeks to
Instituto Superior Nº 8 “Alte. G. Brown”
Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés
Asignatura: Grammar II- 2º B

describe how language choices are influenced by particular factors in the context: ‘what’s going on?’
(the field or subject-matter), ‘who’s involved?’ (the tenor), and ‘what channel of communication?’
(the mode). Together these form the register. To these, following Martin (see Christie and Martin
1997), we could add ‘what’s the social purpose?’ ( genre) – Which describes how a text unfolds in
stages depending on what the participants want to achieve.

5. Make a list of the most relevant characteristics of SFG

*
*
*
*
*
*

6. What is a clause? By looking at the highlighted clause on page 1 , try to guess and define
what a clause is.

A clause is ……………………………………………………………………………

..……………………………………………………………………..………………….

INDEPENDENT CLAUSES (IC)

An independent clause is a complete sentence; it contains a subject and verb and expresses a
complete thought in both context and meaning.

For example: The door opened.

Independent clauses can be joined by a coordinating conjunction to form complex or compound

sentences.

CO-ORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

but
And For

Or So
nor

Yet
Instituto Superior Nº 8 “Alte. G. Brown”
Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés
Asignatura: Grammar II- 2º B

For example: Take two independent clauses and join them together with the conjunction and:
“The door opened." "The man walked in." = The door opened and the man walked in.

DEPENDENT CLAUSES (DC)

A dependent (subordinate) clause is part of a sentence; it contains a subject and verb but does
not express a complete thought. They can make sense on their own, but, they are dependent on the
rest of the sentence for context and meaning. They are usually joined to an independent clause to
form a complex sentence. 
Dependent clauses often begin with a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun that makes the
clause unable to stand alone.

Subordinating Conjunctions
after although as because
before even if even though if
in order that once provided that rather than
since so that than that
though unless until when
whenever where whereas wherever
whether while why

Relative Pronouns
that which whichever
who whoever whom
whose whosever whomever

7. Read the following extract and find examples of ID and DC.

Digital Heaven

If you had the opportunity to live forever, would you take it? The obstacles to keeping your body
alive indefinitely still seem insurmountable, but some scientists think there is another possibility
opened up by digital technology: creating a digital copy of your "self" and keeping that "alive"
online long after your physical body has ceased to function.

In effect, the proposal is to clone a person electronically. Unlike the familiar physical clones -
offspring that have identical features as their parents, but that are completely separate organisms with
a separate conscious life - your electronic clone would believe itself to be you. How might this be
possible? The first step would be to map the brain.

How? One plan relies on the development of nanotechnology. Ray Kurzweil - one of the
prophets of artificial intelligence - predicts that within two or three decades we will have Nano
transmitters that can be injected into the bloodstream. In the capillaries of the brain they would line
up alongside the neurons and detect the details of the cerebral electronic activity. They would be able
Instituto Superior Nº 8 “Alte. G. Brown”
Carrera: Profesorado de Inglés
Asignatura: Grammar II- 2º B

to transmit that information to a receiver inside a special helmet or cap, so there would be no need
for any wires protruding from the scalp. (…)

REFERENCE

Derewianka, B. & Jones, P. (2010). From traditional grammar to functional grammar:

bridging the divide. NALDIC Quarterly, 8 (1), 6-17.  
Foppoli, J. (2014).Is Grammar Really Important for a Second Language Learner? Accessed
at http://www.eslbase.com/teaching/grammar-important-second-language-learner on 13th march,
2017.

Halliday, Michael A. K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edition). London:

Edward Arnold